Doubling Down

I'd like to extend a hearty accolade to Team Obama. This is the first move that they have made that strikes me as truly inspired — politically, and practically. From the beginning, it seemed to me that McChrystal was setting a trap for Obama and, for a while, it looked like Obama was about to walk right into it.

McChrystal's actions appeared too sloppy for a man of his level of professionalism. So was he just sticking it to Obama? Trying to shift the blame for failure? Or maybe even falling on his sword for somebody else? I think it was all of the above.

Nobody knows better than McChrystal that the Afghan war is a loser. He just wants to point the finger firmly at Obama and blame the timetable for his failure. He may be thinking, "go ahead and fire me, and find another patsy to go down with this dog of a war." It is a perfect trap for Obama and his ego — if he fires McChrystal, he takes complete ownership for the inevitable failure of the war, if he keeps McChrystal, he is a crippled, diminished, punching-bag for the Republicans and the military establishment. As an added bonus, it looks like Obama is also showing himself to be thin-skinned and egotistical.

If one wants to look for cloak-and dagger political intrigue, I’d look to the Republican hawks. McChrystal’s back-channel to power has traditionally been Dick Cheney, and his immediate boss is David Petraeus. Despite Obama’s manifest failures, the Republicans have nobody viable to run against him. But, in between fainting spells, General Petraeus has been preening about as a possible presidential contender. All he needs is an issue, and “I told you so” not only fits, it has the added advantage of distancing him from the Afghan debacle.

So here’s how I read the goat entrails. McChrystal was “taking one for the team” and setting Petreus up for a White House run while throwing the burning bag of poo that is Afghanistan on Obama’s doorstep. Obama’s recent public petulance made me think that he was about to angrily stamping all over the burning bag of poo in an effort to show “leadership” by firing McChrystal and putting in his own brand of boot-licker. That would have given him complete ownership of the Afghan mess while demonstrating his thin-skin and short temper for all to see. It is a perfect cocktail to fire-up the Republican base while sticking Obama with the Afghan failure — both with cries of a "stab in the back". It appears that the Obama people sniffed the poo in the burning bag and threw it right back where it belongs — in Petraeus’ lap. The only sensible thing to do was:

1. Regretfully accept McChrystal’s resignation
2. Appoint the only true expert in counterinsurgency we have, a true hero and patriot, David Petraeus, to salvage the Afghan operation for the national good
3. Put a less insubordinate general over Petreus

Now the Afghan war can claim two more casualties — the careers of Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus (the military’s boot-licking enablers-in-chief of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, respectively) while it slogs on to the pull-out date. It remains to be seen whether Obama will have the stones to stick with the withdrawal date, or if his only trick is playing clever politics with the generals, but I’m glad to be able to feel good about something he’s done and plan to savor the moment.

The Rolling Stone article said that McChrystal voted for Obama (a rare act I'm sure for a General) and it was President Obama who gave Stan his "own war" to run. So, why would he now be part of a secret Republican conspiracy to put Petraeus in the White House while destroying his career? No, I think McChrystal, who has been a kind of jerk since high school and West Point, simply overplayed his hand and neither he nor anyone on his staff ever bothered to rent a copy of "Almost Famous."

Looks like Chris is still drinking the Kool Aid.

In thinking more about this, because of the political sophistication of Stanley the Manly (a greater sophistication than that of The Hustler), this was a trap — after all von McChrystal & his frat boys vetted the RS article — and Uncle O. fell right into it.

McHimmler's media & congressionally-adored Kandahar mass-murder plan — once scheduled to begin right about now — has been postponed until autumn in the face of almost total collapse of the US military's position in Afghanistan. While politically his "Commander-in-Chief" is not only on the ropes, but just about out of the ring. When this all does fall apart — as a lovely prelude to November '10 — what will be the "meme" of that time? I think it was once called "a stab on the back" by one of McChrystal's mentors. And if extended into 2011 & 2012, is this culture bright enough to embrace what a "community organizer" says about a losing war, or 5-star generals outside the tent? The timing of this could also be connected to the imminent release of 250,000 Afghan docs by WikiLeaks.

This was Step One. Step Two is the 2006-Iraqization of Af/Pak, coming to a TV near you. (Which of course will be politically far worse because Obama has no war cred.) Step Three is Petraeus's resignation. And then. . .

Now that The Hustler's ego feels better, he can proceed apace to murder more wedding parties.

[On the other hand, if the Icelandic volcano hadn't erupted, and the Rolling Stone reporter hadn't then gotten stuck with the McChrystal crew, the story would've been reported differently — probably more benignly — and earlier. Hard to see the conspiracy element there. To my mind the simpler explanation is that McChrystal lost it, in the face of an impossible situation, and subconsciously sought an exit. Which doesn't mean that Mr. Obama won't be on the hook for a military failure come November. g.]

What? McChrystal lost it??

He and his death-squad frat-boys had a full week to vet this article. And these guys are nothing if not PR conscious.

What's sad about the other two comments is the MSNBC-type rush to condemn Stanley & David to the political ash-heap. Let's see how they both stand compared to Mr. Three-Dimensional Chess in a year's time, when the US is forced to either bug-out or send in another couple hundred-thousand "war-fighters".

[Even guys McChrystal's age, Eddie, can make serious mistakes. And I think it's very much an open question how General Petraeus emerges from all this. Smelling like a rose probably ain't in it. g.]