McChrystal’s “MacArthur Moment”
It’s hard to see how the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan can keep his job, given his admitted “poor judgment” in publicly airing his misgivings about his dealings with President Obama and members of his administration, while fostering a command climate in which his “profane, irreverent aides” as the Washington Post described them, mocked Vice President Joe Biden.
This is a “MacArthur moment” for the President, except that Gen. Douglas MacArthur was both more popular and successful when he was fired by President Truman in 1951.
McChrystal has some serious ’splaining to do after all too-revealing profile of him in the upcoming edition of Rolling Stone entitled “The Runaway General.”
Despite the contemptuous tone of the some of the observations aimed the Commander-in-Chief and his war cabinet, it might all be forgiven, or glossed over, as it was last summer when McCrystal went off the reservation by appearing to criticize the veeps argument in favor of fewer troops, before the President had made any decisions.
Except for one important factor. The U.S. is not making any real progress in Afghanistan under the Petraeus-McChrystal plan. The U.S. has deployed one of the most effective fighting forces ever to hunt the Taliban in Afghanistan. It’s winning battle after battle, but not turning the tide of the war.
There are about 100 reasons for that, the main one being that Afghanistan is a true insurgency, dare I say, like Vietnam, and it will take more troops and much more time to win, perhaps a decade or two. That’s not entirely McChrystal’s fault. He’s not the first field commander to be dealt a losing hand by his civilian overseers. (Anyone remember the previous commander, Gen. David McKiernan who begged for more troop to implement a strategy not unlike what McChrystal was called in to do?)
But the fact that the strategy is not working, that the U.S. is paying a significant price, without significant progress, will likely doom McChrystal to an ignominious end to his Army career.
We’ll see. To err is human, and to forgive divine, but neither is the policy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. McChrystal has been summoned to the White House. It’s not going to be a pleasant discussion.
Tags: Afghanistan, McChrystal, Obama
