McChrystal's Rolling Stone piece.Loose lips sunk his career

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ph ... 4/119706/0
The above link contains 8 pictures from Rolling Stone of fired General
Stanley McChrystal. Photo 3 is of his custom made gold nunchucks,
complete with his 4 stars and his name. He carries these in his convoy
vehicle.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236
This link will allow you to read the entire Rolling Stone article which
resulted in President Obama firing McChrystal. It is 6 pages long.

Everyone complains about people at work, but when you are a 4 star
general who complains to a reporter, you have decided to play chicken
with the CIC (Commander in Chief). In a battle of alpha males, the CIC
has the final say.

McChrystal is a warrior, not a politician. He overplayed his hand in this
situation.

His personal story is a compelling read. General George Patton was a
warrior, who also didn't do politics well, since Eisenhower had to rein
him in on occasion.

I posted this here so that everyone can read the original source document
responsible for McChrystal's sacking, as opposed to being spoonfed SOME
of it by the press.

SIA

[The Annoyed Man]

Bruce Lee quotes? Really?

It reminds me of The Sphinx from the movie Mystery Men...

"If you do not master your ignorance, your ignorance will master you."

"We are number one. All others are number two, or lower."

"He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions."

"When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack."

[surprise_i'm_armed]

McChrystal's missteps which resulted in his firing
cause me to remember this old chestnut:

Even a fish woudn't get in trouble if he kept his mouth shut.

SIA

[Kythas]

I'm not so sure this wasn't a plan with him opting to fall on his own sword to get word out to the American people about what's going on with the CiC. Gen McChrystal didn't get 4 stars from being a stupid man, nor did he get them for not thinking ahead regarding consequences of his actions.

That said, I think he was the wrong man to win the Afghan war. His ROE were far too restrictive and placed our men in too much danger. For example, one of his ROE states "Patrol only in areas where you are reasonably certain you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force." Ordering a soldier to patrol only in areas where he's reasonably certain there will be no contact with the enemy is like ordering a cop to patrol only in areas where he's reasonably certain he will make no arrests. It cedes territory and initiative to the enemy.

Now that Petraeus is in charge I think we have a chance at winning this thing. Petraeus is the right man to get it done, in my opinion. I was happy to see that item #1 on his agenda is revising the ROE to make them less restrictive.

[baldeagle]

I don't think Afghanistan is winnable. It's not a country. It's a land with arbitrary borders populated by tribes who only understand power in terms of firearms. They have no sense of a national identity and no allegiance to anyone but their tribe and survival. I think it will take at least a hundred years, if not longer, to change the culture there to the point that people will feel enough loyalty to the federal government to maintain a stable civil society. And I doubt that enough people in the West have the patience for that for it to survive politically. Far too many people could care less what happens halfway around the world.

[Nicolai]

Good article by Oliver North on situation here: http://townhall.com/columnists/OliverNo ... al_madness" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bnc]

No country has successfully brought Afghanistan into some form of control and organization, and many have tried. Our leaders are not willing to do the things necessary to eliminate the terrorists that hide in Afghanistan, so instead they have concocted some scheme of nation building as the goal in place of terrorist hunting. So our troops are put in an impossible position of having to fight an enemy that knows no bounds while playing nice and not offending the locals. The results are not surprising - 9 years worth of dead and wounded American soldiers, wasted American money, and not much to show for it. In my opinion we are not willing to wage a total war then we should not be waging a war at all. And we sure as hell should not be sending our troops into battle with a lawyer on one shoulder and a "journalist" (and boy do I use that term loosely) on the other and orders to be nice. The military is designed to kill people and destroy things, so if you want something killed or destroyed call the military. If you want to win hearts and minds and spread the general feel-goods, call someone else, and under no circumstances make our soldiers sitting ducks.

[The Annoyed Man]

The reason Petraeus took a step down along his career path to accept command in Afghanistan is because he is a bigger and better patriot than his commander in chief. If Obama had the necessary qualifications for an American president ("qualifications" meaning more than just the requisite number of votes, which factor also calls into question the qualifications of the voters who voted for him), McCrystal would never have had to be relieved of command, and Petraeus would never have had to make another self-sacrificial move on behalf of an ungrateful president and his administration of ego-maniacs.

Personally, I think it would have been funny as heck in a darkly humorous way if Petraeus had responded by tendering his own letter of resignation, leaving Obama high and dry. That he didn't is testimony to the fact that he is a better man than his president.

[LarryH]

I'm not so sure this wasn't a plan with him opting to fall on his own sword to get word out to the American people about what's going on with the CiC. Gen McChrystal didn't get 4 stars from being a stupid man, nor did he get them for not thinking ahead regarding consequences of his actions.

Exactly. Stupid men don't, in general, get to bird colonel, much less four stars.

[Oldgringo]

The reason Petraeus took a step down along his career path to accept command in Afghanistan is because he is a bigger and better patriot than his commander in chief. If Obama had the necessary qualifications for an American president ("qualifications" meaning more than just the requisite number of votes, which factor also calls into question the qualifications of the voters who voted for him), McCrystal would never have had to be relieved of command, and Petraeus would never have had to make another self-sacrificial move on behalf of an ungrateful president and his administration of ego-maniacs.

Personally, I think it would have been funny as heck in a darkly humorous way if Petraeus had responded by tendering his own letter of resignation, leaving Obama high and dry. That he didn't is testimony to the fact that he is a better man than his president.

; furthermore, look back into recent history and describe what action/s bankrupted the Soviet Union and who promoted that bankruptcy with arms and money to the USSR's adversary in Afghanistan? This question will be on an upcoming quiz and you should study hard.

[bnc]

Good point, TAM. Any real man salty enough to be president wouldn't pay the slightest bit of attention to anything in a worthless magazine like Rolling Stone. Just another example of Obama being a small, pathetic, worthless man - no class, no guts, no brains, no character, no integrity, no experience, no judgement. And all the talk about insubordination shows how little the media understands about the word and how loyal they are to him.



The reason for Gen. McChrystal's comments is still hard to figure out. He could have been fed up and shot his mouth off, he could have wanted it to play out this way so that he could get out and do a little finger pointing. Then again, we can put our crazy conspiracy hats on and say this might be freeing himself up for leadership of an upcoming war against Iran (which there have been rumblings of due to some Israeli troop movements). But who knows, I don't think the general in Afghanistan is going to make much of a difference since it is going to remain a mess no matter what.










And still - no birth certificate.

[Significant Otter]

Exactly. Stupid men don't, in general, get to bird colonel, much less four stars.

They don't but, on the other hand, promotion past a certain point is based more on how well one managed your career, rather than how well one does his job, but neither requires a genius IQ.

It also looks like he voted for Obama if that means anything.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Afghanistan - Where empires go to die.
Unknown.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.
Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936, referring to England's problems there.

IMHO, there doesn't seem to be any kind of win/win for the US in this troubled country.

SIA

[bdickens]

Mc Chrystal had to have known what he was saying and who he was saying it in front of.

For all the hand-wringing I've seen about how he was wrong ant that soldier's should respect the CINC, Barry is deserving of no respect whatsoever, nor are any of the clowns around him. Sometimes one has to do the wrong thing in order to do the right thing. McChrystal shined a spotlight on Barry's ineptitude and weakness and dumped the mess in his lap, right where it belongs.

[Bill]

I just hope this is not a left wing set up for Petraeus, I do not see how this is winnable, he could go down as a failure, wouldn't the media love it