Washington Masters of the Universe take down a battle-hardened general and his posse for wounding their elitist egos

From:
From MacArthur to McChrystal
(The American Conservative Blog) -- by Patrick J. Buchanan --

In confiding to Rolling Stone their unflattering opinions of the military acumen of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, Dick Holbrooke and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff were guilty of colossal stupidity.

And President Obama had cause to cashier them. Yet his decision to fire McChrystal may prove both unwise and costly.

For McChrystal, unlike Gen. MacArthur, never challenged the war policy — he is carrying it out — and Barack Obama is no Harry Truman.

Moreover, the war strategy Obama is pursuing is the McChrystal Plan, devised by the general and being implemented by the general in Marja and Kandahar, perhaps the decisive campaign of the war.

Should that plan now fail, full responsibility falls on Obama.

He has made the Afghan war his war in a way it never was before.

If the McChrystal strategy fails, critics will charge Obama with causing the defeat by firing the best fighting general in the Army out of pique over some officers-club remarks that bruised the egos of West Wing warriors.

And though those remarks never should have appeared in print, they may well reflect the sentiments of not a few soldiers and Marine officers on third and fourth tours of duty in the Afghan theater.

Had Obama, instead of firing McChrystal, told him to shut up, can the interviews and go back to fighting the war until the December review of strategy, he could have shown those soldiers he is a bigger man than they or McChrystal’s team give him credit for.

And if success in Afghanistan is the highest goal, how does it help to fire the best fighting general? Do you relieve Gen. Patton during combat because he vents his prejudices or opinions?...MORE...LINK
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Buchanan: “If the McChrystal strategy fails, critics will charge Obama with causing the defeat by firing the best fighting general in the Army out of pique over some officers-club remarks that bruised the egos of West Wing warriors. And though those remarks never should have appeared in print, they may well reflect the sentiments of not a few soldiers and Marine officers on third and fourth tours of duty in the Afghan theater.”

Chris Moore comments:

One can certainly understand the resentments building up in the military against the limousine liberals and the chickenhawk neocon/Bushcon elite who seem to enjoy playing toy soldier between visits to the golf course and the Wednesday night White House parties. Compound that with utterly inept and arrogant U.S. diplomacy with the Arab and Islamic world that makes their fighting job nearly impossible, a Congress that dances to the tune of the Israel lobby, and a Pentagon working hand in glove with the military-industrial complex, and one can easily see why those actually fighting the battles might resent the armchair warriors who like to talk tough for the cameras with all the certitude of Hollywood actors playing action hero as they deploy others off to the war zone, but who in real life hardly ever leave the comforts of their plush offices, country clubs and estates.

One would think “the suits” would cut them a little slack, but the suits have confused themselves with Masters of the Universe who think the U.S. Military is their play thing, and exists to validate and enforce their half-baked, Ivy League, globalization ideologies.