Jules Crittenden calls it “Chaos-istan.” He’s talking about the Obama v. McChrystal fight being waged on the airwaves and on the Potomac:
Theoretically Obama must be PO’d at Petraeus, too, because he essentially, if more diplomatically, said the same thing a couple of weeks earlier.
The big question now is whether this is going to be about Obama’s ego, or about winning in Afghanistan. If any general is ill-advised to shoot his mouth off, this business may also teach the administration something about blowing off generals at (unnecessarily extended) criticial moments and insisting that political parameters trump military ones in wartime.
And Ed Morrissey backs the General:
McChrystal didn’t act insubordinately by speaking his mind. This is not even close to the situation which forced Harry Truman to cashier Douglas MacArthur in the Korean War, when MacArthur dared to publicly challenge Truman’s authority and judgment. McChrystal may have acted in an impolitic manner, but at this point, I doubt McChrystal cares much for political niceties. He has waited weeks for an answer to his analysis and request for more troops and resources, and he’s apparently not worried about being honest about his assessment in public.
If Obama wants a counterinsurgency campaign, that’s his decision. But he’d best listen to the generals, when they advise him about how to wage the war of his choice.
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