As if President Obama did not have enough to deal with on a daily basis, now General Stanley McChrystal, in charge of the war in Afghanistan, has created new problems for him! 🙁
McChrystal, long rumored to lack basic diplomatic skills, was stupid enough to vent his frustrations with officials in the government in an interview about to be published in Rolling Stone Magazine!
Just the fact that McChrystal would lack the intelligence and common sense to avoid making public criticisms of the President, the Vice President, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, the National Security Adviser, and the Special Representative to Afghanistan, is enough reason to fire him immediately as the military leader in the Afghan War! 🙁
No general is indispensable, and in the past, when generals have defied the President in wartime or peacetime with their lack of respect for the Commander in Chief, they have been summarily dismissed!
The most famous case is General Douglas MacArthur and President Harry Truman during the Korean War. But also, General George McClellan was dismissed by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Also, generals were dismissed for lack of respect and decorum by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and even President George W. Bush dismissed generals who were not “part of the team” in their privately expressed thoughts on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!
No President can tolerate disloyalty in the military, which if they engage in “politics”, giving ammunition to the critics of the President and his administration, make the burden of the Presidency all the greater!
No matter what McChrystal says in his upcoming Oval Office meeting before Obama and his top military and civilian advisers, he has lost the confidence of the top leadership, simply by his poor judgment!
If he has any decency left, he should resign and retire immediately, but if he lacks the courage and guts to do what is appropriate, then Obama MUST fire him with a severe reprimand statement! 🙁
And the fact that conservatives and Republicans will back McChrystal, and be emboldened by his defiance and arrogance, is no reason for the President to back down! This is a moment to show the critics that he will not tolerate disloyalty, as indeed no President should have to face!
Obama is the Commander in Chief whether Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and other right wingers wants to acknowledge it! Whether Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, John McCain and others support McChrystal is of no importance, as it would only reflect badly on them! 🙁
President Obama, show everyone, including the critics, who is in charge, and to hell with any criticism! You are in the right historically, in good company with Truman, Lincoln and others! Our Constitution provides for civilian control of the military, and god forbid anything else were to be reality! 🙁