The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Gen. McChrystal Relieved of Command

Posted on | June 23, 2010 | 56 Comments

This was predictable:

President Obama has relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan, administration officials said.

Obama will make the official announcement in a few minutes.

UPDATE: Gen. Petraeus has been asked to take over in Afghanistan.

UPDATE II: Sissy Willis on Twitter:

The slur “General Betray Us” was coined by Keith Olbermann. And the New York Times gave MoveOn.org a discount on that infamous ad.

UPDATE III: Quick summary of Obama announcement:

Blahblahblah “Pock-ee-stahn” blahblahblah “grateful for sacrifice” blahblahblah . . .

UPDATE IV: Welcome Instapundit readers! My goodness, at this very moment, McChrystal is being defended on Fox News by . . . Geraldo Rivera?

UPDATE V: Lachlan Markay: “During Bush’s tenure, active duty generals that spoke out against administration policy were portrayed as courageous whistleblowers.”

UPDATE VI: Ed Driscoll has a round-up of reactions, and here’s a brilliant suggestion from Jules Crittenden: “A Rolling Stone gotcha on Osama bin Laden and the one-eyed Mullah Omar, and everyone gets to go home.”

Ed Morrisey has already gone through 10 updates at Hot Air.

UPDATE VII: Thanks to the commenter who reminded us of how the junior senator from Illinois shamelessly grandstanded during the 2007 Petraeus hearings:

UPDATE VIII: Philip Klein notes that Petraeus has again drawn the short straw, being ordered to “return to combat duty and take over yet another war that has been written off as unwinnable. ”

In the comments, my libertarian friend Tom Knapp calls Afghanistan “a complete clusterf**k from which prompt withdrawal is the only viable military option.” 

That may even be a tad optimistic, considering recent history: The educated upper-crust of Afghan society fled when the Soviets invaded and has never returned. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, they left in place a puppet government that was overthrown in 1992 by something called “The Islamic Jihad Council,” while the countryside was ruled by tribal warlords. By 1996, the Taliban had captured Kabul. For more than 30 years, then, any reasonably ambitious person in Afghanistan has followed one of two career paths:

  1. Join a tribal militia and start killing people; or
  2. Get the hell out of Afghanistan.

As a result, Afghanistan lacks sufficient human resources to support civil society and generate economic prosperity.

In other words: It’s Detroit.

If Petraeus can win this one, he’ll go from hero to legend.

UPDATE IX: Weasel Zippers discovers that MoveOn.org scrubbed the “General Betray Us” ad off its site today.

The American Left: Shamelessly Following Orders Ever Since Stalin Told Us to Endorse Hitler’s Invasion of Poland.

UPDATE X: Attila-lanche!

Category: Aghanistan, Barack Obama, Military

Comments

56 Responses to “Gen. McChrystal Relieved of Command”

  1. Thomas L. Knapp
    June 24th, 2010 @ 4:01 am

    “For those who say Afganistan can’t be won, I would remind you that you probably said in 2006 that Iraq could not be won either, but Petreaus managed to do it in my imagination.”

    There, fixed that for ya.

  2. Thomas L. Knapp
    June 24th, 2010 @ 12:01 am

    “For those who say Afganistan can’t be won, I would remind you that you probably said in 2006 that Iraq could not be won either, but Petreaus managed to do it in my imagination.”

    There, fixed that for ya.

  3. Thomas L. Knapp
    June 24th, 2010 @ 4:05 am

    Joe

    Unfortunately, I never got to drink Scotch while listening to the call to prayer. It was possible to get booze in Saudi Arabia if you knew who to talk to in 1990-91, but I didn’t know who to talk to.

    A number of my comrades had yeast sent to them, mixed it with MRE Kool Aid, buried it in the sand in a 2-liter bottle for a week, and went temporarily blind on it. The smell of the stuff from across the tent was enough to keep me off it.

    I drank a LOT of beer my first day back in CONUS. Or at least it felt like a lot.

  4. Thomas L. Knapp
    June 24th, 2010 @ 12:05 am

    Joe

    Unfortunately, I never got to drink Scotch while listening to the call to prayer. It was possible to get booze in Saudi Arabia if you knew who to talk to in 1990-91, but I didn’t know who to talk to.

    A number of my comrades had yeast sent to them, mixed it with MRE Kool Aid, buried it in the sand in a 2-liter bottle for a week, and went temporarily blind on it. The smell of the stuff from across the tent was enough to keep me off it.

    I drank a LOT of beer my first day back in CONUS. Or at least it felt like a lot.

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