McChrystal Is Out; Now Rethink the WarPresident Obama was within reason to fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal for disrespectful remarks made by McChrystal and members of his staff and quoted in Rolling Stone magazine. The general was commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. This flap is the latest clash between military and civilian leaders in Afghanistan as outlined by Eliot Cohen, author of "Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime," who currently teaches at Johns Hopkins. "For Mr. Obama," Mr. Cohen writes, "it is the imperative of taking charge of this war and owning it — reshaping the team waging it, and communicating a resolve that, alas, one doubts he actually feels. Failing that, he owes it to the soldiers and civilians we have sent there to liquidate the war and accept the consequences for our country and the region." We are reminded of what President Truman wrote in his memoirs after he fired an insubordinate Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War: "If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military.
McChrystal's firing is an opportunity for Obama, Congress and the American people to reassess what now is our longest war. The president already has promised to start bringing American troops home from Afghanistan by July 2011. The problem is the whole "nation building" enterprise to turn Afghanistan into a model democracy. Afghanistan is made up of dozens of tribes speaking different languages and commonly fighting one another — except when they unite to fight invading foreigners. They expelled Alexander the Great, the British Empire and, just two decades ago, the Soviet Union. President Hamid Karzai is supported only weakly. Terrorists within Afghanistan can be dealt with through other means, such as working with whatever Afghan government arises from the chaos or by sending in elite U.S. troops on special missions. But the expansive war currently being conducted should end. REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
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