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On McChrystal and Petraeus

I can’t pass on the chance to say a few things about the firing of General McChrystal. I don’t think President Obama could have not fired him, leaving him in charge of our war effort in state where he clearly lacks the confidence of the President, his cabinet, the people, and quite probably his own soldiers. I knew few soldiers who had strong partisan views, but fewer who held much respect for conduct like this. More than a few must have mentally run through their checklist of the Army Values and realized that the first three are “loyalty,” “duty,” and “respect.” As many others have already said, the military leadership must respect and subordinate itself to the elected political branches. It is of no consequence that you might just agree with the substance of McChrystal’s views about, say, Joe Biden (if I’m guessing right, so does President Obama in his tiny sphere of privacy). The decision to fire McChrystal was an obvious one, and President Obama seems to have done it with about the right combination of force and tact.

The harder question was replacing McChrystal without confusing the command structure or the flow of operations, or suggesting a lack of commitment to the greater effort. Here, the choice of General Petraeus clearly satisfies the latter criterion, and probably both of the former ones.

Here, I marvel at how much this President’s views about Iraq have shifted since he, his Vice President, and his Secretary of State were senators using Petraeus as a campaign foil to please their anti-war base. To President Obama’s eternal credit as a patriot, he abandoned that base in their alternative reality, one in which their desperate quest for defeat does not have consequences for the rest of us. I can’t think of a more cogent statement about the state of matters in Iraq today than the choice of Petraeus as the man who might turn things around in Afghanistan, too. I hope he can do it. This time, we are unburdened of the silly post-hoc arguments that hobbled us in Iraq. This time, there’s no argument that Afghanistan has nothing to do with the security of the United States, no hyperventilation that some long-gone president and his oily cabal fed us all a lie to corner the global rug market. People plotted the murder of 3,000 of us from Afghanistan. They’ll do far worse if we choose to let them.

Still, we should remember that Petraeus’s success in Iraq is also a function of luck. He showed up at the right time. Most societies grow tired of wars after a few years, especially wars fought where they live. War fatigue almost defeated us, but it was probably a very big part of what made conditions right for the Awakening. Still, let’s not take away from Petraeus that he had the the savvy to sense opportunity and exploit it.

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11 Responses

  1. Here is good some thing I posted on Michael Yon’s page.

    “what will happen if Afghanistan is left to the Taliban.” To me, there is a fairly straight forward result. First, the Taliban will once again gain control. Karzai is alredy, from some things I’ve read, trying to release some and make them part of Afghanistan again. So, he’s already making nice with them. I suspect he’s trying to solidify his position for when the pull out is expected to happen. So, the Taliban, and Jihadists in general, win a political victory. They also gain clout/leverage because their, “way,” worked, seeing them return to political power. Next, because their, “determination and will to fight the Great Satan,” will be seen and popularized by the majority of Islamists. It will be shown that, “staying the course, creating hope and change through Jihad,” is working. Then they’ll thump their chests and claim it was Arab power, people of the great umma, that defeated the Western devils. They will then call for more fighters, getting them since it’s obvious that the US and it’s evil ilk can be defeated by, “resistance.” It will be trumpted all over the Sunni realms, plus probably other smaller ummas, and give organizations leverage to help run other geopolitical areas as they see fit. The US and allies will lose clout, look even more like the, “weak horse,” and start an even greater slide into stupidity. I’m sure several people will come forward and say that we just weren’t nice enough and that’s why it failed. After all, Appeasement to dictatorships has always worked. It worked for Hitler. Just don’t tell any one it took a war to stop him though. You might upset their sensetivities.

    Any way you slice it, it’s win/win for Islam and their brand of terrorism.

    I’d also like to note that it’s probably a win/win for any despot considering the perceived loss of US prestige and power. With current foreign policies, we are already looking like a weak, sick horse.

  2. The current United States Administration came into being in Jan’ 2009; inheriting 2 land wars in Asia-Minor. Whats makes anyone think that a land war in Asia-Minor will last less than 20 years to me is baffling.

  4. From what I’ve been reading lately, they’re one in the same. Now, you can break down the Arab populations into the Sunni, Shia, Salafis, Fufi, etc. depending on what tribe in particular we want to deal with. The thing is though, the, “Arab,” umma is Muslim, and the recipients of the Word of God, Islam, through the Koran. So, when one is speaking about Muslims, you are speaking about the Arab umma, which seems to currently be the Sunnis as the umma in power. The claim is if you’re Arab, you’re Muslim. There are many tribes, many of which are part of the dhimmi, but there is the Arab majority which is Muslim. This is the way I understand it currently.

  5. Mr. Stanton:
    As one of your regular readers (and recommenders to others), I hope you will receive a counterpoint on this editorial.

    1. I noticed the conspicuous absence of the name Karl Eikenberry. This is most unfortunate as he is the real culprit behind the disunity between ISAF and the civilian leadership.

    2.

    To President Obama’s eternal credit as a patriot, he abandoned that base in their alternative reality, one in which their desperate quest for defeat does not have consequences for the rest of us.

    Chimerical, contrived, overreaching and unfounded. Obama is many things; patriot is not one of them.

    3.

    Still, we should remember that Petraeus’s success in Iraq is also a function of luck.

    This is bizarre. I worked for General Petraeus at Fort Leavenworth and also at MNF-I. He had luck alright – bad luck from every direction, including the political Left in the US undermining the war every step of the way. The Anbar Awakening was the result of Army and Marine units implementing the same strategy, tactics and techniques that Major General Petraeus implemented with the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul in 2003. The Surge was a return to that successful deployment posture which featured security for the population and deliberate non-lethal engagement of social leaders.

    General Petraeus stepping down from CENTCOM to direct the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan is a desperate act by the Obama administration to cover for Eikenberry’s irresponsible meddling in the prosecution of the war. General McCrystal is responsible for a few forgiveable candid statements issued to bring attention to that, but more importantly, for voting for a presidential candidate who has no experience running anything.

  7. McChrystal’s comments were highly inappropriate. He is a military commander, and with that position comes DISCRETION. Obama made a good decision.

  9. Miscellaneous, if you meant “Arab power,” then you need to clarify some things for yourself.

    Most — though not all — Arabs are Muslims, but most Muslims by far are not Arabs. The “ummah” — or worldwide Muslim community — is multiethnic.

    The various peoples of Afghanistan are almost entirely Muslim, but only a few Arab jihadists are present in the area.

    The Qur’an is in Arabic, but that doesn’t make all Muslims Arabs — no more than the Greek New Testament makes all Christians Greeks.

    Jeffery Hodges

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  11. Thank you for your article. President Obama got rid of his top Afghanistan war commander, . I have been getting ready for a trip that will require even less blogging next week, Hope you will continuo your informative post.