Making the headlines recently has been Obama's decision to oust General, a decision which 53% of Americans support. I do not. A change of command in the middle of a war is never a good idea. Look at it this way: he was the mastermind who convinced the ultra-liberal President Obama to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan when Obama wanted both wars over and done asap. He's a counterinsurgency genius. Everything happening in Afghanistan right now was all his idea. Luckily he's being replaced by the guy who wrote the counterinsurgency manual in the first place. And I am a big Petraeus fan, so I'm not totally upset. I met General Petraeus in person once at the National Defense University in D.C. His surprisingly small stature doesn't do justice to his huge reputation. But hey, Napoleon was small, too and he conquered Europe...for a little while, anyway. So here's hoping that General Petraeus has more success than General McChrystal and longer lasting success than Napoleon. I'm thinking President Petraeus in the near future. It has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say?However, after I read the Rolling Stone article that got General McChrystal fired by President Obama, the first thing that came to my mind was a desire to make a movie about this guy's life! McChrystal sounds like he's super bad-ass. A true B.A.M.F. The movie would be part A Few Good Men, part Black Hawk Down and part 24... and it would be seriously awesome. Imagine Jack Bauer taking command of the entire war, but still going on an occasional nighttime terrorist hunt. Bruce Willis would star and Steven Spielberg would direct. I just made myself a hundred million dollars.
Everyone's Got Issues! Do you?
JJ-
ReplyDeleteI too like Petraeus. However, you are leaving out two very crucial facts in your blog. One, this is the second time that McChrystal had publicly disrespected the Commander in Chief. Two, McChrystal was one of the key players in the Pat Tillman coverup.
-Casey
The Rolling Stone article mentions that. And I plan on having Bruce Willis say "you want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" in my movie
ReplyDeletethanks for reading, keep the comments coming!
I have pretty mixed feelings about the firing. But I think your blanket statement that "a change of command in the middle of a war is never a good idea" is very wrong. Nearly every war in which America has enjoyed success has come with at change in command. I, for one, am glad that Lincoln dumped some deadbeat generals and eventually brought in Grant. I'm glad Eisenhower eventually took control of the European chapter in WWII. A change in generals is a great way to change strategy -- often the only way to significantly change it. I think that using this as an excuse to fire McChrystal signals a level of dissatisfaction with our current strategy and we should expect to see some changes in our Afghanistan strategy.
ReplyDeleteyou're probably right if it's a change in strategy they're after. But if that is the case, using an article in The Rolling Stone, of all places, was a pretty sorry excuse.
ReplyDeleteAlso "never" was probably a poor choice of words...I should've said a change in command with a really lame reason isn't a good idea. But again, you're probaby right about the change in strategy