Sounds like President Obama to me. :rolleyes:
Well, what do you know… More oil leaking from BP well.
Yes, unless he suddenly developed a burning desire to be the next tea-party governor of Alaska. That doesn’t seem likely. I expect he just let his necessary arrogance get a little out of hand, and got burned by it.
It would, unless he’s expected to maintain his current job as well. But I don’t see how that’s possible. It’s definitely a strange situation. It’ll be interesting how they work this out.
Isn’t this analogous to sending MacArthur to fight Korea? I’m trying to remember if he was supreme Allied Commander at the time he was asked to take over the Korean theater of operations.
Um… Wesley Clark, anyone? There seems to be a pretty strong analogy here. He was essentially removed from command because of his ‘cowboy’ attitude and refusal to listen to the joint chiefs and for making unauthorized public statements on policy. He then went on to write a book critical of the Bush Administration, he did high-paying speaking tours, he was a staple on all the talk shows for several years, he ran for President, and now he runs his own political action committee.
It’s not unusual for high-profile commanders, particularly generals who oversaw major conflicts, to write books (such as Tommy Franks’ American Soldier or Anthony Zinni’s Battle Ready), become media figures (such as Norman Schwarzkopf’s military analyst position for NBC), and contemplate - if not attempt - a political career (such as Alexander Haig).
I agree. I was just pointing out an example of a general who was removed from his command, and then left the military and tried to cash in. But of course, all of them do it to some degree. Why wouldn’t they? Most generals retire as fairly young men (in their 50’s and 60’s), so they still want to do things, and they get offered thousands of dollars for speaking engagements and six-figure book advances. Of course they’re going to take advantage of it.
My point was that McChrystal’s notoriety after this probably gives him extra value on the speaking/book writing circuit, so no matter what happened he was probably going to come out okay.
That’s incorrect. The current U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry, who was mentioned as McChrystal feeling “betrayed” by for a pessimistic assessment of the war, is a retired Lieutenant General who served two tours in Afghanistan. Another person called a “clown” who was “stuck in 1985” by McChrystal’s staff was Marine General James Jones, who served in Vietnam and the first Gulf War, and is the current National Security Advisor.
All the more reason to fire his sorry ass, if true.
Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Rahm Emanuel are the people Magiver was referring to in your quote. See post 79.
I categorically reject the idea that you have to have been in a position in order to be able to criticize the people in it. We hear it from Artists (I have at least), we hear it from idiotic sports professionals too stupid to accept that every 5 year old kid has an opinion about the, to senior members of the Military. It is a false dichotomy. It’s bullshit. It is a vain attempt to discredit those whose opinions we don’t like or share.
I don’t give a flying fuck if the top Administration people have not been in the Military. They are still entitled to their opinion and their judgment of those in Military Leadership. Even more so because the statements and actions of the top Military people intrude into the land of Politics, which is their domain, where they are expert and in control. There is a very good reason that our Military is subordinate to our Civilian Leadership, and if they can’t grasp that, accept that and live within it, then they have no business occupying high positions in the AMERICAN Military.
I’ve heard tell that Bush had some military experience. Was that a significant help in his screwing the pooch in two separate conflicts? If not, what good is military experience as an indicator of proper high level judgement?
Clearly McChrystal showed poor judgement here too. How many counterexamples does it take to dent the belief that only the military can judge the military?
Or is the complaining just more conservative whining about how Obama is teh suxxor who will destroy America?
Absolutely, because what you really want is someone writing a book on what a clown he thinks you are. Obama just fired himself as McChrystal’s boss.
There’s a reason that Hilary is Secretary of State.
Yeah, the general who can’t be bothered to keep discipline among his staff is going to tell us what a clown Obama is.
Sadly, it’ll get eaten up.
Interesting interview with the Rolling Stones Staff by Charlie Rose.
Thanks. Only saw it quoted a few times without actually seeing the original post. Post retracted.
I clicked your link, expecting to be shown to a post, but you’ve linked to a thread. And so far as I can tell, as far as posters showing seemingly biased behaviour of the type you’ve suggested, only gonzomax fits the bill as having expressed such sentiments in this thread and that. Was it him you were thinking of?
They grasp it, they just don’t agree with it.
The USA is the worse for the quality of its civilian leadership, the military absolutely know that and the sooner someone like McCrystal stands for election the better.
Yes, what the world really needs is a gung ho “The military WAS MY LIFE!”, been-out-of-touch-with-the-real-world-wanker-with-an-oversized-ego, in a position of highest authority.