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October 1, 2009
Max Boot: McChrystal Speaking Truth to Power
Topics:Max Boot writes on McChrystal standing up against power, with truth:
Gen. Stan McChrystal finds himself in the hot seat. Like Petraeus and Odierno in Iraq, he is speaking truth to power--the truth being that we need more troops to prevail in Afghanistan. He was in London today and according to the New York Times account, was asked whether the approach advocated by Joe Biden--to downsize our troop commitment and focus on killing selected terrorist leaders--could work. His answer was blunt and honest:As for Biden's approach, which is reducing troop levels in favor of surgical attacks--mostly launched from offshore--and missile strikes against al Qaeda, especially in Pakistan, let's not forget that, as Karl Rove has noted - he has a record rare in its consistency and duration of being wrong about big national security questions. If Barack Obama listens to Joe Biden instead of the general in command of Afghanistan, he's a bigger fool than I've thought up to now.
"The short answer is: no," he said. "You have to navigate from where you are, not where you wish to be. A strategy that does not leave Afghanistan in a stable position is probably a short-sighted strategy."This is a courageous statement for him to make, because Gen. McChrystal knows he is speaking against the views of the vice president and most likely those of the national security adviser as well--not to mention the views of most Congressional Democrats. t least when Gen. Petraeus told the truth regarding the Iraq War, he knew he had the solid support of the president. McChrystal cannot be confident of any such support because all indications suggest that the man in the Oval Office hasn't made up his mind on what to do.If Obama rejects McChrystal's advice and chooses the narrow counter-terror option, McChrystal will be placed in an uncomfortable, possibly untenable, place. That might have caused a lesser officer to trim his sails, but not McChrystal. He is carrying out the responsibilities of his command assignment in the finest tradition of the American armed forces--a tradition of truth-telling that has been honored, sadly, more in theory than in practice.
Posted by Abdul at October 1, 2009 3:34 PM
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