Posted by
Bert Chapman on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 6:09:20 PM
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of American military forces in Afghanistan, has got himself into quite a pickle to use a southern folk expression. Doing an interview for Rolling Stone magazine, he and some of his advisors managed to harshly criticize Vice-President Biden, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and, horror or horrors, the Commander in Chief, a couple of Senators, and the direction of U.S. war strategy. Why McChrystal was doing an interview with Rolling Stone is incomprehensible. Are there Rolling Stone subscribers in Afghanistan or Waziristan? After a hard day's jihad do Al Qaeda and Taliban personnel, rock out to Lady Gaga on their Ipods? This is a good periodical if you want to know about the rock music industry, but it's not the place to go to promote U.S. military strategy given the leftist anti-military bias this periodical has had since the Vietnam War.
McChrystal has apologized for his criticisms even though they are substantively correct. The Obama Administration appears to be getting ready to cut and run from Afghanistan as evidenced by its announced July 2011 troop withdrawal date. The situation in Afghanistan is tough but some progress is being made and we must recognize that this is a situation that will take years or even decades to stabilize. We need a Commander in Chief who's willing to decisively and effectively communicate this unpleasant reality to the American people and international community and won't dither and equivocate like Obama and his team of geostrategic amateurs. Organizing the residents of Chicago Hyde Park and surrounding environs is insufficient qualification for winning a war against Islamist terrorism and understanding the cultural and historical complexities of the Afghan-Pakistan region.
Given Obama's lofty but fragile ego, and the need to maintain civilian control of the military, Obama will likely fire McChrystal. The question then will be whom will he appoint as McChrystal's replacement and will that individual and the Obama Administration be committed to long-term engagement in Afghanistan and to nothing less than victory over Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Obama needs to decide now if he wants to win in Afghanistan or go down in history as the President who cut and ran from Afghanistan and be remember as a disgraceful and vacillating coward when dealing with the national security threats facing our country.