by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Many have commented on the unfairness of it all, and made good points:<\/p>\n a) Obama, having demagogued the Iraq war, and campaigned on a \u201clet me at \u2019em\u201d in the \u201cgood\u201d war in Afghanistan, has done his best to renege on his 2008 chest-thumping (e.g., not meeting with McChrystal for months; setting arbitrary withdrawal dates that turn the war into a \u201cwait them out\u201d process; publicly rebuking in embarrassing fashion the Karzai government; insulting the British enough so that they and other European countries will soon be leaving \u2014 not wishing to stay on when they also know we’re going to pack it up soon, and so on).<\/p>\n b) McChrystal has not said anything more defamatory than what Obama himself, as a U.S. senator, said about the surge or Predators, and nothing that approaches the slanders of a Sen. Durban, Kerry, or Reid.<\/p>\n c) We don’t always fire generals who mouth off \u2014 especially those so closely identified with the current efforts at the front. Patton was given several chances; Arleigh Burke was saved by Truman despite his campaign against the Pentagon\u2019s civilian head.<\/p>\n d) Obama is in a terrible dilemma. If he doesn’t fire McChrystal after a second indiscretion, he perhaps looks weak. If he does, it endangers the current effort in Afghanistan and looks like he’s silencing an officer for having legitimate worries.<\/p>\n e) The howling media is hypocritical. Yesterday’s officers who took on Bush in the \u201crevolt of the generals\u201d were deemed courageous. Today’s critics are slandered as near-treasonous when they dare reproach Him.<\/p>\n f) It would be very frustrating for a gifted and devoted general like McChrystal to work for Obama, given the latter’s indifference, contradictions, and clear anti-war stance as a senator.<\/p>\n No matter, nonetheless. The issue is not whether McChrystal is a great officer (he is), but one of judgment. One does not openly criticize civilian overseers to the press, however justified (and there are plenty of justifications). Nor does one allow a climate in which subordinate officers feel emboldened enough that they loosely trash an administration to the press. If one really wishes to warn the public about a growing crisis in Afghanistan brought on by ignorance, egos, and duplicity in the administration, one surely does not talk to the likes ofRolling Stone<\/em>. The proper way is to send warnings in private channels up the chain of command to the Pentagon and then to the White House. And when one feels the level of ignorance is overwhelming the chances of success, then one resigns and goes public to warn the nation. One cannot otherwise have it both ways.<\/p>\n No one wants to see McChrystal go, but senior officers and their staffers simply cannot ridicule civilian overseers, even if casually and in jest. We don’t know all the details or the veracity of the journalists involved, so it would be foolish to rush to judgment, but something will have to be resolved within the next 48 hours or so.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Many have commented on the unfairness of it all, and made good points:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[587],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-oM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1538,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-mcchrystal-endnote\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":0},"title":"A McChrystal Endnote","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Obama had no choice but to do what he did, and the wise Petraeus move was obviously a mitigating factor. Obama\u2019s speech, despite the customarily excessive use of \u201cI,\u201d \u201cme,\u201d and \u201cmy,\u201d was workmanlike and wise in its emphasis on continuity of strategy. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1529,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mcchrystals-tragedy-an-update-on-the-entire-mess\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":1},"title":"McChrystal’s Tragedy: An Update on the Entire Mess","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media He Had to Go 1) McChrystal, in fact, is a brave and heroic figure deserving our respect. But among friends and with a mole in his midst, he still himself deprecated the commander in chief. His staff took care of the VP, the national\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2083,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/are-we-to-be-led-in-war-by-a-tiger-or-a-kitten\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":2},"title":"Are We to Be Led in War by a “Tiger” or a Kitten?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner I\u00a0agree with many here that the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan\u00a0is positive news. And, yes, we should be thankful to President Obama that (for now) Generals Petraeus and McChrystal have at least 18 months and greater resources to secure the country before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1228,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/president-4060\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":3},"title":"President 40\/60","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0think Barack Obama will soon dip below a 40% approval rating. He\u2019s nearing there now. Why? A mixture of both the personal and political. Here are five good reasons: 1)\u00a0A bad agenda. Nearly every issue the president embraces polls against him, often at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2010"","block_context":{"text":"October 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/october-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2197,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/narcissus-in-chief\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":4},"title":"Narcissus-in-Chief","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner While our Narcissus-in-Chief is frozen gazing at his perfect image in his private pool, choices have to be made in Afghanistan. Consider the following: (a) We have a Democratically controlled Congress that by and large has supported, since 2004, the Kerry-Obama-Hillary Clinton narrative of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-flip-flopping-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":5},"title":"Our Flip-Flopping Wars","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We don't hear all that much about Iraq these days, do we? The war at one point almost tore apart this country. Public anger sent George W. Bush's approval ratings plummeting. And the outrage over our losses helped elect vocal anti-Iraq-war candidate Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1537,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536\/revisions\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}