I haven't been following this topic very closely for one simple reason. When you wear the uniform, you are never, at any time, allowed to make political statements in the public, or openly critcise the commander in chief, ragardless of rank. Pretty sure there's an article in the UCMJ on this. They beat you upside the head with this in basic training, a General should know better.

Not to mention another little tidbid.... you don't have to respect the man, but you do have to respect his rank. The president, any president, outranks everyone in every branch of the armed forces. As a General, he should have known to watch his P's and Q's because everything he says is repeated over a wide audience due to his rank.

So.. whatever... the General should have known better than to make a stupid E-1/ E-2 mistake of not knowing when to keep your mouth shut.

why? because it's not okay to disrespect you superiors because he's a democrat? we've been saying this since page one: Obama is the tippy top of the chain of command, and you DO NOT publicly speak ill of of you superiors and get away with it. Especially When it's the president, and you're a prominent general. This would have happened with any president and with any general. Heck it even happened with MacArthur in korea.

read Ducimis and August's posts. they've said basically everything i've just said and more.

I figure its as simple as that he (McChrystal) had turned in his resignation and really had nothing to loose and found the petulant Commander in Chief an amusing amateur in way over
his head.

Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Some people quit jobs by giving notice and resigning, other people quit jobs by making the boss fire them.

Personally I think McChrystal knew exactly what he was doing when he talked to that Rolling Stone reporter and he knew exactly what the outcome would be. You have to admit, it drew attention to the underlying problem far more effectively than just resigning.

Thats a good point, the new offensive was going tits up before it even started and McCrystals whole strategy was reliant on one thing he knows is not present in Afghanistan.
Which does raise the question of why Petreaus took the job as he must know it ain't there too, he won't even manage to get the short term boost to allow a drawdown before it goes backwards again like he did in Iraq.

And, of course, not McChristal is absolved from any accountability for his COIN plan. He retires, gets a "consulting" job with fox news, writes a book, Profit.

3 star retirement pay (I don't think he can retire as a 4 star due to TIG), book deal, "consulting fees". He will have it made.

And best of all he can sit back and say "hey, it ain't my fault!".

I would not feel too bad about him. I think he knew exactly what he was doing.

I forsee that within the next 4 years all foreign troops are out. And afhanistan will end back in civil war.

Then the soldiers that have been rotating there will ask why was we there, why did we loose our friends? and the politicians will say....

Social wealthfare is important and tax deductions.....

What have we got so far...


Drug production increase

Taliban getting stronger

More and more IED attacks

Commanders crying for more soldiers, politicians that are working harder on getting soldiers home..

Soldiers caught in a war where its more about survival than getting the goals done..

This will end as any millitay action have gone the last 3000 years in afghanistan. No one have ever succeded breaking the afghans, Taliban is afghan, Many of there leaders are veterans from the time where the worlds greatest army tryed to fight them.....

When enough politicians whine, we will withdraw and with that asking our self...what the hell did we do there anyways....atleast it will have saved a few jobs in the weapon industry around the world.....

Taliban had to be removed, but you dont replace anything broken before you have something that works to take its place......They found goooold and ooooooil....who will get that when we westerners are out...the afghan people or the afghan politicians.....

sometimes you wonder why politicians dont get strategic traning them self, a requirement to be electet to any millitary office should be read Carl von Clauswitz atleast they have damn idea about how a war should be fought.....

You cant fight a war if the war have to run by a specific amount of money, cant affort it, dont go to war.....war is dynamic and a dynamic situation cant be run by a static plan....geez....freaking noob strategy knoledge....

We could end this war immediately if we can only figure out who to bribe to provide protection to the TAP NG pipeline. :yep:

Well after 5 years where afghan goverment have exploitet the country its easy, we pay Taliban...