From a strictly political standpoint, the McChrystal situation is a golden opportunity for Obama

[WeDidIt]

Everything bad about Afghanistan can now be placed on McChrystal's head. Any decision made can be declared necessary because McChrystal gave bad information.

There's an opportunity here to end a bad situation.

[malaise]

1. I agree

Fire him and end the fugging war.

[zipplewrath]

2. Absolutely

I've had a feeling for a while that the WH was regretting ever doing this "surge" in the first place and was looking for ways to get out earlier. They could fire McChrystal, get a replacement in that basically says "we'd do better pulling back to the Af/Pak border", turn over most of the country to Karzai, and deal with Pakistan seperately. Save money, save lives, and when Karzai and his government go bad, or flat out fall, we can have relatively "clean" hands to try to influence what comes next.

[Robb]

3. You're right, but I wouldn't look for a sweep here

...More like a line item kind of thing.

[gimama]

4. "a golden opportunity"..for PEACE!

I HOPE(!) the Pres. sees
..& seizes!..this Opportunity.

[dgibby]

5. Your right.

There's more to consider.

McChrystal was hand picked by Gates and the gang at the Pentagon as being the "only one" who could get the job done in Afghanistan because he was the "only one" who understood counterinsurgency. In fact, his predecessor was fired to make room for McChrystal.

Everyone in the military community knows (or should know) that there is never.ever only one person qualified for any position in the uniformed services. The premise of the military is that no one is indispensable, that the next person in the chain of command should be able to step up at a moment's notice.

My goal in training junior officers was always that they should be able to step into my position as their division officer without so much as a ripple. To do otherwise would have been a disservice to both them and the Command in general.

It will, indeed, be interesting to see just how many heads will roll over this.

[MadHound]

6. Perhaps a good PR move, but the fact of the matter is that it is our policy in Afghanistan that suck

And no amount of PR will change that.

Rather than finding excuses for staying in these wars, and finding ways to blame the bad shit on others, perhaps we should simply be getting the hell out of there:shrug:

[noamnety]

7. Are you saying the WH policies on Afghanistan have been wrong? (nt)