This website was one of the first to report the pending Rolling Stone article and to predict that it was big news. Even now in the rapidly vanishing Media aftermath it is difficult to explain this astonishing event. Why General McChrystal allowed a reporter from this Leftist anti-war pop paper to spend time with him and his staff in Afghanistan is almost beyond belief, but that his staff should then be so unguarded in their comments takes us into Alice’s Wonderland. When I read that McChrystall admitted to voting for Obama in 2008 I was astonished and as I wrote in the previous article this alone showed that the man had no political sense. How could any military man vote for Obama over McCain? Obama had an anti-military record, no military experience and surely anyone who was paying attention to his pre-election utterances on Afghanistan could see that he was a shameless imposter as a future Commander-in-Chief.
With hindsight it is clear that McChrystal is a very odd man. Nevertheless his reputation as a soldier is beyond dispute. Brave, daring, a genuine leader of fighting men, a smart military tactician and with a contemporary record of success in Iraq he seemed unassailable as a general. It suited the image of the newly elected pretender in the White House to bolster the priority of the Afghan theater for he was anxious to kill two birds with one stone. The first was to bury the emerging Bush success in Iraq and the second was to turn Afghanistan into the Obama war for he fancied preening himself as a brilliant military strategist as well as a great World Leader, and a Renaissance man. His immediate emphasis on Afghanistan demanded a newsworthy initiative and so he sacked the Army commander there and appointed McChrystal. With this we were meant to understand that Obama was really taking command and initiating the strategy with his own chosen soldier on the ground. McChrsystal fitted the bill perfectly and so far so good for he was an effective general and had a plan.
Unfortunately for those who are involved in the fighting in Afghanistan, Obama is not only not a brilliant military strategist but has no interest in military strategy or things military. He is what he has always been, a shallow Leftist opportunist with a history of community organizing and unprincipled Chicago politics. McChrystal was serious about the war but Obama was not and it is impossible to be both a serious Commander-in-Chief and to pander to a political base that pants for America’s military humiliation. In the year since Obama’s entry into the White House it has become apparent that Afghanistan (and Iraq and Iran) hardly appears on his radar. Domestic politics, attending international conferences, achieving the headlines in every news bulletin, White House dinners with celebrities, regular golf practice and pushing forward the ‘gay’ agenda – these things not only interest him but bring him into contact with the people he considers important. As I wrote in the previous article, his treatment of McChrystal prior to the latest incident, made it plain not only that Obama was disinterested in Afghanistan but enjoyed humiliating his chosen General. If McChrystal had been smarter he would have realized that he had been handed a poisoned chalice and resigned back when he failed to get the troop surge he had asked and patiently waited for. But Stanley is clearly not a smart man and instead festered in his resentment, along with his staff. This alone explains his and their reckless talk in front of a Media gopher.
For any past President (except Clinton and Kennedy who both enjoyed Media Class protection) confrontation with a general of recent choice and one tied to the Presidential strategy would have been a public relations nightmare. In this instance, the actual negative comments by McChrystal about Obama and his comrades were trivial and vague and even the staff comments were little more than off-the-record gossip. However, Obama is like no previous President in that anything but slavish adulation is unacceptable both to Obama himself and to his Media Class masters. The comments in the Rolling Stone article revealed that the military men in Afghanistan no longer looked on Obama as a Great Leader but rather as a disappointment. For this great sin an effective General has been sent to Siberia and is about to be erased from history by the Media. But first he must be tarred and feathered and convicted of a great crime that actually has to be left vague since no great crime was committed. The Media, exercising its extraordinary powers of unity and puff, have turned this embarrassing (for Obama) little tale of pique into a tale of how the President has shown his mettle, his decisiveness and his judgment. Petraeus, if he had any political savvy would have sidestepped this Afghanistan appointment.
Some on the Right have suggested that he is in a powerful position vis-a-vis Obama and will now be able to demand increased troops and full Presidential backing. They are delusional and such delusions bode poorly for the political future of this country. Obama will continue as before and he will get away with it for he has the support of the Media Class. Generals will come and go but this President is in the White House to push through a social, legal and economic revolution. The ease with which the Media Class has seemingly turned the McChrystal episode from an Obama embarrassment into an Obama triumph suggests that it will be successful in November in enabling the Democrats to hang on to power. Another two years in control of Congress and the White House will be enough to complete their revolutionary agenda. We can only hope that continual incidents of Obama and Democrat blundering will build up such an experience for the majority of voters that not even the Media Class power over news and opinion will deprive conservatives of a majority in the House and Senate. I am not optimistic!