Patterico's Pontifications

6/27/2010

McChrystal’s Big Mistake

Filed under: Obama,War — DRJ @ 4:41 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Via Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion, The Independent reports President Obama didn’t sack General Stanley McChrystal solely because of the Rolling Stone article. McChrystal was replaced because things are going badly in Afghanistan and may damage Obama’s re-election chances.

If it’s “off-message” to lose a war, then everything really is political to this Administration.

It’s also interesting how the negative Obama news is coming from foreign news organizations, including left-leaning organizations like The Independent. Maybe the American reporters are too busy reorganizing Journolist.

— DRJ

14 Responses to “McChrystal’s Big Mistake”

  1. DRJ – Obama is entirely political, and all his politics are about him. More and more I think this guy is mentally ill. Narcissist sure, but something else too. Sheesh – Off message for telling the truth?

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  2. I know, Vivian Louise, but sometimes Presidents rise above politics after taking office.

    What I’m really curious about is whether Rolling Stone timed the publication of its article at the request of the White House. After all, Rolling Stone was one of the first magazines to endorse Obama.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  3. Of course Obama is running the campaign by political rules.

    There is a school of thought that the fall of Atlanta saved Lincoln’s second term and the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima may have saved the last war bond drive as the US was running out of money. Instead, the war-weary country rallied and that bond drive was the biggest yet.

    The only difference is that Lincoln and Roosevelt wanted to win.

    Mike K (82f374)

  4. Afghanistan going badly? It hasn’t been going that badly for quite some time which you would know if you bothered to pay attention.
    Sorry, this bothers me grievously, and from what I’ve seen here you should know better.
    Also, based upon my time in Illinois, Barack Obama was a mediocre politician there at best, so none of his nonsense should be surprising, as it is part of the public record, which happened right in front of everyone’s eyes.

    Bad Science (3bf674)

  5. DRJ – is the author of the piece a member of JournoList? I don’t even know what to think about the collusion or appearance of collusion with this administration and the media. After the endless abuse of the Bush years this is NOT refreshing. I expected puff pieces, I really didn’t think the collusion would be quite this bad, deep or egregious.

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  6. I don’t think the supposedly defunct Journolist publicly identified its members, although we know about Ezra Klein, Dave Weigel, and others who have acknowledged their memberships.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  7. I’m sure we won’t ever get a list. Also, I doubt it’s actually defunct, just reformed and smaller to protect the not so innocent.

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  8. “It hasn’t been going that badly for quite some time which you would know if you bothered to pay attention.”

    Bad Science – Nobody here pays attention to anything. Thanks for stopping by.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  9. kaus wrote about kids
    juiceboxmafia children
    Cartman with degrees

    ColonelHaiku (181d1a)

  10. Speaking of corruption within the Afghan administration, the Wall Street Journal is running a story tomorrow titled

    “Corruption Suspected in Airlift of Billions in Cash From Kabul”

    The first paragraph reads,

    “More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad.”

    Here’s the link, although of course the WSJ content is available only to paid subscribers.

    WSJ article

    JoeH (eeb280)

  11. JoeH – Maybe Obama was angry with Karzai because he was shorting the DNC.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  12. I wouldn’t leak that secret… but an overseas back channel might be safer.
    I blame Israel.
    Or the Aussies.
    Maybe Bob Bradley…
    Or did those idiot aides to McChrystal let Rolling Stone sit in with fingers crossed and hope to die on that one too? Someone tell them the embed is over already

    SteveG (11baba)

  13. “…It’s interesting how the negative Obama news is coming from foreign news organizations…”

    Not interesting at all; US SCM would never dare tell the truth about The Lightworker!

    AD - RtR/OS! (7166b6)

  14. Our soldiers are the only ones unhappy with the ROE

    Many Afghans are not happy with this policy, with foreign troops increasingly encountering angry Afghan civilians, who demand that NATO act more decisively in pursuing and killing Taliban gunman. Even if it puts Afghan civilians at risk.

    LarryD (f22286)


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