General Stanley McChrystal’s critical comments about Pres. Obama and his administration concerning the war in Afghanistan, as reported in the Rolling Stone magazine article. “The Runaway General,” were likely not careless slips of the tongue. The same can be said for the words of his staff.
General McChrystal is by all accounts not a careless man. Rather, he is an accomplished tactician. Agreeing to a magazine interview and delivering the words as he did was certainly a tactic with grave personal consequence. It is absurd to think that McChrystal did not know that he’d most likely get sacked.
McChrystal’s message is that the Afghanistan mission is in jeopardy due to American civilian political ineptitude. And, that falls squarely on the shoulders of Obama.
When McChrystal was given the job of commanding the Afghanistan operation, he learned by meeting with Obama that the president lacked depth.
“Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."”
Generals are interested in expeditiously winning the conflicts that are imposed upon them by politicians. Politicians are interested in maintaining power for themselves and their party. The disparate goals are often in conflict.
“Last fall, with his top general calling for more troops, Obama launched a three-month review to re-evaluate the strategy in Afghanistan. "I found that time painful," McChrystal tells me in one of several lengthy interviews. "I was selling an unsellable position." For the general, it was a crash course in Beltway politics – a battle that pitted him against experienced Washington insiders like Vice President Biden, who argued that a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan would plunge America into a military quagmire without weakening international terrorist networks. "”
Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings wrote,
“McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. "All these men," he tells me. "I'd die for them. And they'd die for me."”
If you are not a warrior, perhaps you don’t understand how serious McChrystal was when he stated, "I'd die for them. And they'd die for me."
Some writers are depicting McChrystal as reckless, shooting himself in the foot. Others characterize Obama’s firing of McChrystal as heroic. Both characterizations are incorrect. Obama fired McChrystal because McChrystal was insubordinate. McChrystal was insubordinate because he chose the route of the whistleblower.
It didn’t take any guts to fire McChrystal, but it sure did to sacrifice your career by standing up and declaring in effect that Obama and his administration are incompetent to lead this country in a time of war.
As a top general, McChrystal was no longer in the position to literally die for his comrade warriors. But, what he was able to do was to deliberately fall on his sword to help expose the feckless politicians who send his warrior comrades to die.
Uu-ah General McChrystal. Warriors everywhere need leaders like you!
Link in this Blog:
The Runaway General
The Supreme Court affirmed that all Americans have the fundamental right under the Second Amendment to bear arms. But since it was a 5-4 decision, it is clear that the four are determined to deny Americans of one of their rights. Any one need to guess as to the political persuasion of the four?
Courtesy of Real Clear Politics, there is a video of Pres. Obama expressing himself in classic Chicago thug rhetoric.
"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."
I suspect Obama is quite comfortable with this type of language and sentiment.
If it were not for the Internet and talk radio, we’d never know about this statement because the main stream media won’t tell you. In this case, thanks Real Clear Politics and Drudge.
Truth be told, many of us might make such a statement. Then again, none of us is president, and the world is watching and listening.
Impressive president. No? Could the president possibly wait to use such language publicly until he is just citizen Obama again?
Link in this Blog:
Real Clear Politics Video-Obama “ass to kick”
National radio talk show host, lecturer & educator Dennis Prager recently spoke at the University of Denver along with Sarah Palin and Hugh Hewitt. At this link is Dennis’ question and answer segment of the program.
In a few short minutes, Dennis defines and clarifies the root of the problems facing the United States of America. If you guessed it is Obama, you’d be wrong. It is, however, why we now have this president.
Clear thinkers are in short supply. Check-out Dennis, and share his wisdom with others. This nation needs clarity.
Hugh Hewitt is also a squared away national radio talk show host, lecturer and Constitutional attorney.
Link in this Blog:
Dennis Prager Q&A University of Denver 5/23/10
On D-Day sixty-six years ago, the Allies bled and died on beaches dubbed Omaha, Juno, Sword, Utah and Gold.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s message to the troops just prior to the invasion stated in part,
“In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”
WWII veteran Arthur Seltzer knows what happened on Omaha Beach, he was there and waded ashore.
"It was a mess, a bloody, gory mess."
"You saw sights you never want to see again."
Subsequently, famed WWII war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote these words,
“I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France.”
“It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know that they were in the water for they were dead.”
The Germans were not just bent on the subjugation of Europe. They and their cohorts proactively attempted to exterminate with the “Final Solution” a segment of the population deemed unfit to reside on earth.
Seltzer knows about the extermination because on April 29, 1945 he was at Dachau when the chains were cut off the gate.
“…Seltzer and other liberators were among the first Americans to witness unimaginable abominations: walking skeletons, piles of emaciated bodies,and crematoriums filled with the ashes of human remains.”
A significant consequence at the end of WWII was the establishment of a contemporaneous Jewish homeland in a land inhabited by their ancestors for thousands of years. In truth, the majority of the post WWII world did not support the establishment of the State of Israel. Rather, Israel was the evolution of a British protectorate, an outcome of a convenient way to handle resettlement of a people not wanted elsewhere.
Charles Krauthammer wrote in Those Troublesome Jews,
“The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.”
After accurately reviewing historic Israeli options concerning people determined to destroy the Jewish state, Krauthammer describes a world morality turned topsy-turvy. He concludes with,
“The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.”
As Krauthammer states, the Obama administration is dithering. But not just dithering. Pres. Obama is making nice with the likes of Helen Thomas, a liberal White House journalist of Lebanese extraction. Thomas is not just some curmudgeon past her prime. She is a hater advocating sending Jews back to Germany and Poland. Of course, she now disavows her statement, but there is no doubt that she spoke her true heart’s desire in an unguarded moment. After Thomas’ hate rant, Drudge ran an undated photo of Pres. Obama with his arm around Thomas.
So, on the sixty-sixth anniversary of D-Day, I not only think of those who perished, were wounded or survived the invasion. I think about all those people who voted for the presidential candidate of “change.” I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t think that he is trustworthy. Even so, I had no idea that he’d dare change long standing U.S. foreign policy and support those clamoring for Israel’s destruction and the extinction of Jewry.
Character counts and since most Americans genuinely want what is best for the country and world, it seems that the majority voters misjudged their choice for president. For those for whom it is applicable, join me and stand up for traditional American values at the next opportunity to vote on our national representatives. The alternative is to allow our president to cozy with those who would send “Jews back to Germany and Poland” or worse.
If Thomas were to receive her wish, perhaps when the Jews get back to Europe they will visit the beaches of France and thank the departed and the few remaining survivors for their efforts now squandered. I wonder what choice words Seltzer might have for Thomas.
Ernie Pyle was sickened by what he saw on the beaches of Normandy. I am sickened by the un-American values that I see in the White House and the White House Press Corps. The horror that is likely to flow as a result of the Obama way of doing business will make D-Day look tame.
Links in this Blog:
General Eisenhower’s Message Sent Just Prior to the Invasion
Seltzer-Veteran to retrace path that led to D-Day horrors
Pyle-The horrible waste of war
Krauthammer-Those troublesome Jews
Helen Thomas Tells Jews ‘Get the Hell Out of Palestine’ and Go Back to Germany & Poland
Drudge Photo of Helen Thomas and Pres Obama
