Why McChrystal was Really Replaced (and Why I’m Glad)

So I’m sure that we are all thinking the same thing: What exactly was General McChrystal thinking when he starting saying how he truly felt about the Obama administration? He had to have known that in the end things weren’t going to turn out well for him. But apparently he felt that letting the public know how uncomfortable the president seemed to be in a room of military officials was more important to him than keeping the top spot in Afghanistan. Now, we’re officially being told that McChrystal resigned (as is what usually happens when it’s time to give top ranking officials the boot), but I’m pretty sure that he was nudged quite a bit in that direction by the president himself. But if it actually came down to Obama directly firing McChrystal, what would be Obama’s official reason? It appears that we have our answer now: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that the comments “were “unacceptable” and “inconsistent” with the “high standards” expected of military officials,” according to a new CNN article, and I believe that this alone is more than enough to require him to step down.
Top members of the military have some of the most important jobs in the country (certainly right up there with the presidency in importance) and in order to hold these positions, they have to be able to play the part correctly. McChrystal may be excellent at planning and carrying out a war, but all the good things he had done were suddenly wiped out by the foolish statements he made to the Rolling Stone reporter, in my opinion. Just like a general would never share their military secrets with the public, they should also never speak poorly about their civilian leadership. Now, that may seem like it goes against free speech and all that, but in a time of war, the last thing we need is for someone to be saying that our president and the rest of the top government officials aren’t really prepared to be working with the military while involved in a war. This is the type of thing our country doesn’t need, and it’s certainly the type of thing that Obama doesn’t want to have to deal with, especially with the Gulf leak right now. Afghanistan is a pretty big deal to the Obama administration- if we can successfully start pulling out troops during summer of 2011 as initially promised, then Obama would certainly want to use that when running for reelection. Even a six month delay would look bad for him. So it’s clear that he wants only the right people in charge there, and a man that’s willing to take the time to make fun of him clearly isn’t the right man for the job.
Despite what we may all think, McChrystal isn’t a fool- you have to be pretty intelligent to get a job like the one he recently held. Clearly someone in his position must know all about the “high standards” of the military that Gibbs spoke of. I think that McChrystal must have really believed for one reason or another that he would be able to get away with what he did, because if he ever really felt bad about it, he would have resigned immediately after the interview. So if he thought he could get away with it, there must have been some reason why: perhaps McChrystal thought that he was irreplaceable and I wouldn’t blame him for thinking so. If Obama wants to start getting out of there in a year, he certainly wouldn’t be able to afford a change in command. Well, apparently McChrystal forgot about General David Petraeus, who has done quite of good job of wrapping up Iraq. I think putting him in charge was quite a good decision on Obama’s part, especially if he wants to get out of there as soon as possible (also, Petraeus is all for that summer 2011 pull out date). I think things may turn out better in Afghanistan thanks to this, so I’m actually a bit glad that this whole thing happened, despite the fact that it’s a giant embarrassment for Obama. But if there is anyone that should really be embarrassed, it’s McChrystal. We always hear how one silly mistake may change our lives forever, and it’s clear that at the time he didn’t realize exactly what would end up happening because of his comments. Whether they were correct or not, and whether he had the right to share his opinion or not are all insignificant in this case, as any top military official should know not to act out and speak poorly of the leadership during a war. Comments like his not only affect the civilian leadership, but all of the military personnel involved in the war effort as well, and the last thing that all those soldiers need to hear is that their President isn’t comfortable with the military. What may have been even worse for them to hear, however, is that their military commander was nothing but a fool. All of the men and women fighting over there deserve better than this, and hopefully Petraeus can finish things up without any further embarrassing issues.
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