McClellan, MacArthur, McChrystal

You may be sure that it wasn't Casual Friday when President Obama fired General McChrystal today. (The photo, from the Rolling Stone article that ended the general's career as CINC Afghanistan, was taken during their earlier, ten-minute meeting, ages ago in Washington time.)

Abraham Lincoln fired George McClellan for good cause--he wouldn't attack.

Harry Truman fired Douglas MacArthur for good cause--he marched to the Yalu and then wanted to nuke China for attacking the UN forces in Korea.

Barack Obama fired Stanley McChrystal for--for what, exactly? Being incautious when a reporter was around? Oh dear!

I read the Rolling Stone article yesterday (didn't everyone?).  I thought it was a pretty good piece of journalism, except where Michael Hastings noted that the problem with counter-insurgency was that it required "huge numbers" of troops. Mr. Obama's mini-surge involved 30,000 men. I suppose Mr. Hastings (nor Mr. Obama, for that matter) wasn't yet born in June 1944, when we put 30,000 Americans on a single beach in a single day, and 1,465 of them died, from a nation only half the size of today's United States.

The other amazing thing about this kerfluffle is that everyone is shocked--shocked!--at the impolitic language used by Gen. McChrystal and his aides. (It was mostly his aides, you'll notice, if you actually take the time to read the article.) That's how soldiers talk, for crying out loud.

Today, the president of the United States had a chance to show that he was a bigger man than the general he put in charge of his "necessary war." Instead, he proved that he was a whole lot smaller. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford