After thinking about why McChrystal would allow Michael Hastings to tag along with his group and record all those disrespectful remarks I concluded as did Michael Perelman that it was deliberate. The mainstream media does not seem to be dealing with this. Anyway this article follows the same track as Michael's earlier post.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6145845-why-did-mcchrystal-want-to-be-fired Consider this. McChrystal allowed Michael Hastings a reporter for the leftish and antiwar Rolling Stone magazine to tag along with him and his staff for about a month. He was able to tape all sorts of intimate details about their escapades and some offensive remarks about prominent U.S. officials. He then wrote a long article in the Rolling Stone containing all of this material that showed clear disrespect for the chain of command and also retired generals, the U.S. ambassador and on and on. His staff called ISAf the International Security Assistance Force, I Suck At Fighting. There has been no attempt by McChrystal to deny anything said in the article or even to suggest that remarks were taken out of context. I assume McChrystal knew what the result of such an article would be. He would be forced to resign or be fired. I assume also that he must have wanted this result. If you think that this is not so then please explain to me why he would allow the statements the reporter recorded be made both by him and his staff, a reporter opposed to his policy and the war and who would like nothing better than to discredit the whole war effort? That question being answered then we must ask why he wanted to be fired. I am not sure but here I give one possibility. Perhaps commentators can add others. The COIN strategy was not working and McChrystal wants to get out before everything begins to fall apart. That may be quite soon. Pakistan and Aghanistan are not even waiting. They are already negotiating as to how they can make peace with insurgents both in Pakistan and Afghanistan even with the dreaded Haggani network. Even McChrystal calls Marjah a bleeding ulcer. The COIN strategy is meant to take years if not decades but Obama wants to start withdrawal by next year. McChrystal's policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties is not well accepted among many troops. He has found it a very difficult sell. Finally he is not winning hearts and minds of Afghans. Solution. Get out and take a few swipes at those you dislike while going out the door. He will remain a hero and if things turn out badly there will always be some who will say that if only McChrystal had stayed in charge the U.S. would have won. Obama is left with same failing policy and with the former Bush General, Petraeus in charge. Obama and McChrystal did not really disagree about the COIN policy so it will probably continue with more casualties on all sides and for years if not decades unless the political situation makes it unsustainable. Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
