Juan Cole: Obama’s MacArthur Moment

[seafan]

This is the ultimate test of Obama's leadership.


Juan Cole writes:


June 22, 2010

Gen. Stanley McChrystal is apologizing for remarks he made in a Rolling Stone interview denigrating Vice President Joe Biden and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry.

McChrystal is said to have asked “Who’s that?” at the mention of Joe Biden’s name, and to have suggested that Amb. Eikenberry leaked memos critical of McChrystal’s planned counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan because he wanted to cover himself against harsh criticism if the war went badly wrong. His staffers, interviewed for the piece, were even more derisive of Obama insiders.

President Obama absolutely must fire McChrystal for subordination. You can’t have the office of the vice presidency disrespected in public by a general in uniform that way. Nor is it plausible that the Obama team has a prayer of getting Afghanistan right, assuming such a thing is possible, if the commanding military officer and the ambassador are feuding like the Baizai and the Ranizai.

Obama has largely misunderstood the historical moment in the US. He appears to have thought that we wanted a broker, someone who could get everyone together and pull off a compromise that led to a deal among the parties. We don’t want that. We want Harry Truman. We want someone who will give them hell. We don’t want him to say one day that Wall Street is making obscene profits when the rest of the country suffers, then the next day say that the brokers deserve their bonuses. We don’t want him to mollify Big Oil one day then bash it the next. More consistent giving of hell, please.

If Obama doesn’t fire McChrystal, he will never be respected by anybody in the chain of command that leads to his desk. Moreover, moving McChrystal out now would be a perfect opportunity to pull the plug on the impractical counter-insurgency campaign that the latter has been pursuing, which probably has only a 10% chance of success. (A RAND study found that where a government that claimed to be a democracy actually was not, and where it faced an insurgency, it prevailed only 10% of the time. Sounds like President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan to me.)

President Truman got to the point in the Korean War where he was willing to dicker with the Chinese and to recognize the 38th parallel as an armistice line between South Korea and the north. MacArthur kept rejecting such talks and baited the Chinese. Truman fired him. Obama has to be made of that Trumanian stuff if he wants to turn the country around. We aren’t out of the woods. There could be a double dip in the economy, or a long-term Japan-style post-bubble stagnation. Wall Street is still taking us to the cleaners and getting their capital gains taxed at 15% when it is being alleged there isn’t enough tax money to cover the needs of the rest of us. The Supreme Court is undermining the Bill of Rights, criminalizing speech and association, and gutting campaign finance reform by favoring corporations as persons. Big Oil is openly fouling our environment and Big Gas is doing the same thing more quietly. And the military industrial complex has us mired in forever wars that we can’t win and can’t afford.

.....

This may represent the president's final of many opportunities to correct our course.





(bold type added)

[TwilightGardener]

1. Obama really has no alternative--McC needs to go, either by resignation

or being relieved of command. Insubordination is NOT to be tolerated in the military, and Obama would be doing a disservice to the nation to allow this guy to retain command and go on as if nothing happened. Poor Obama, like he really needed this horseshit right now.

[gateley]

3. He's been "called to Washington" I heard on the radio. This isn't the first time,

is it?

[TwilightGardener]

5. No, they have had a "chat" in the past (I think on AF1) about his past conduct--

it should be totally over for this guy.

[gateley]

10. That was my initial response but I've since read good arguments for both sides.

So as usual, I'm :shrug:

And now I remember the 'chat' they had previously - thanks!

[gateley]

2. Is McChystal dissing Biden because Biden advised Obama against ramping up

in Afghanistan?

And McChrystal should have been fired the first time he publicly disagreed with Obama.

I heard a snip on the radio this morning that he's been "called to Washington".

[bushmeister0]

7. I wonder what would have happened if he had asked who Cheney was?

[TwilightGardener]

8. Excellent point.

[joeybee12]

4. KNR for a great article! nt

[RainDog]

6. He needs to go

to do otherwise will send the wrong message to the military.

He needed to go long before - to den hague, along with Cheney and Bush. Since that won't be happening b/c of any actions of the Obama administration, this is now a slippery slope.

I do hold out hope, tho, that like other criminal regimes, the war criminals in this country will eventually be held accountable for their actions, even if it's not by the U.S. - tho it should be by the U.S. However, institutions have broken down so badly here (separation of powers, for instance) that I don't expect to see it here.

[ecstatic]

9. The writer is all over the place

I don't agree with the conclusions he forms. He tries to tie a lot of stuff together and claims to be speaking for all of us. Obama should fire McCrystal if there is a suitable replacement who can do the job just as good or better. People insult him all the time, right here on the boards and during the SOTU speech. I think we've seen that he responds to those situations in a mature fashion based on the best options and not based on emotions.

[jaxx]

11. I look forward to Obama's Obama moment.

The constant comparisons by the media get old after awhile. I know they won't stop, it brings readers, but it's just hype.

[FrenchieCat]

12. Everything is a "test" for Obama, if most haven't noticed......

[seafan]

13. They aren't making them like this any more.

Admiral William "Fox" Fallon: The Man Between War and Peace, March 11, 2008



McChrystal is a disgrace to the armed services and to our country. He should be removed and punished severely, NOW.