![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
McChrystal
Jun. 23rd, 2010 01:29 pmMany have written about Mr. McChrystal over the past few days. I'll point to Tom Barnett, mostly because he puts things clearly in his usual way.
Still, I think Mr. Obama had to do this, for a few reasons:
* First and foremost, to assert civilian control of the military. That control has been tenuous since at least the Iraq invasion of 2003, where one of the options for the still mystifying battle plan is that while Mr. Bush believed there were WMD, Gen. Franks did not.
* Secondly, to demonstrate to the troops that discipline will be maintained at all ranks. I've heard some rumbling that if an enlisted trooper had made the same remarks, they'd be out by now, and that McChrystal might have skated by because of his rank. This action puts such thoughts to rest.
* And, third... Because despite his reputation, McChrystal has not shown initiative in the field. Why hasn't the Kandahar operation started yet? Why has McChrystal done his level best to do an impersonation of George McClellan? (Another general who didn't have much respect for chain of command and his commander-in-chief, if it comes to that.) I've been watching Ken Burns' The Civil War, and I'm reminded of the quote (I forget by whom), "If McClellan was furnished with an army of a million men, he would claim to be facing a force of two million, and refuse to act until he commanded three million." That about sums up McChrystal's refusal to fight.
UPDATED TO ADD: The quote about McClellan was the result of a Google search, and unsourced.
Here's the actual thing from The Civil War, and searching on it turns up citations in the 1890s:
"If he (McClellan) had a million men he would swear the enemy had two millions, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three."
-- Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of War
Still, I think Mr. Obama had to do this, for a few reasons:
* First and foremost, to assert civilian control of the military. That control has been tenuous since at least the Iraq invasion of 2003, where one of the options for the still mystifying battle plan is that while Mr. Bush believed there were WMD, Gen. Franks did not.
* Secondly, to demonstrate to the troops that discipline will be maintained at all ranks. I've heard some rumbling that if an enlisted trooper had made the same remarks, they'd be out by now, and that McChrystal might have skated by because of his rank. This action puts such thoughts to rest.
* And, third... Because despite his reputation, McChrystal has not shown initiative in the field. Why hasn't the Kandahar operation started yet? Why has McChrystal done his level best to do an impersonation of George McClellan? (Another general who didn't have much respect for chain of command and his commander-in-chief, if it comes to that.) I've been watching Ken Burns' The Civil War, and I'm reminded of the quote (I forget by whom), "If McClellan was furnished with an army of a million men, he would claim to be facing a force of two million, and refuse to act until he commanded three million." That about sums up McChrystal's refusal to fight.
UPDATED TO ADD: The quote about McClellan was the result of a Google search, and unsourced.
Here's the actual thing from The Civil War, and searching on it turns up citations in the 1890s:
"If he (McClellan) had a million men he would swear the enemy had two millions, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three."
-- Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of War
