So, has everybody actually read Rolling Stone's McChrystal piece?

[SteppingRazor]

If you haven't, you should. Despite ostensibly being about the general, it really says more about the war in Afghanistan and the futility of the current counterinsurgency strategy than it does about any one person. Very much worth reading:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

[tsuki]

1. K&R

[pnwmom]

2. The problem to me is, it's so filtered through the general's self-important point of view,

it's hard to know what to believe.

[tekisui]

4. Not really. A lot of the Afghanistan/COIN parts were from other sources.

[tekisui]

3. I grabbed some of what I found the most telling:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8617955

The war is lost, COIN failed, yet we are going to keep at it.

[zipplewrath]

5. The wrong focus

Everyone got so excited about some lockroom chatter. What isn't being discussed is the evidence within the article that the war isn't going well.

[SteppingRazor]

8. I definitely agree. The big picture of the artcle is that we're funneling soldiers and cash...

into a giant, bottomless suckhole. But that part has been totally overlooked because, natch, the big take away for our national news media is "OMG, Did you hear what Stan said about Joe?!" :eyes:

[zipplewrath]

10. People Magazine Journalism

It's all about the soap opera.

And in a politico article about the whole mess, there is a comment that one of the reasons they gave for not keeping him was that he wasn't exactly "walking on water". They said he wasn't "rolling through Kandahar".

Damn straight, and that's the larger point. He wasn't being successful. The strategy wasn't being successful. They all feel real good about themselves because they are bringing in David to keep running the strategy that is failing. If it wasn't failing, they probably wouldn't have replace Stan.

It makes the head spin

[Ron Green]

14. Idiot America strikes again.

http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-America-Stupidity-Became-Virtue/dp/0767926153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277395233&sr=1-1

[SteppingRazor]

15. Great book. I recommend it even more than I do the McChrystal article.

:thumbsup:

[femmocrat]

6. Yes, I did!

It is worth reading for some insight into McChrystal's character. Good riddance, IMO!

[BeFree]

7. well

If the Taliban read it they will be very encouraged.

[SteppingRazor]

9. Truth's a bitch.

That is to say, I don't think it should be a journalist's job to report out a story (or not report it) based on the reactions of any group.

[BeFree]

11. Not the writers fault

It is Obama's for letting the peckerhead stay in charge.

[SteppingRazor]

13. Hell, I'd say it's Obama's for not doing with Afghanistan what he's doing in Iraq.

We need to draw down there and get out. I think you could replace McChrystal with any brilliant military mind through all of history, and you'd still get more or less the same result.

[kenny blankenship]

16. Obama PUT him in charge

Somehow people have the idea that McChrystal was appointed to run the Afghan occupation by Bush. Not so. Here is a brief article on Stanley McChrystal, prior to his confirmation as Obama's chosen commander in Afghanistan, concerning some troubling accounts among the very little known (to civilians) about McChrystal's activities in Iraq:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/who-is-stanley-mcchrystal.html

"...why would Barack Obama appoint someone whose line of command made him directly responsible for a place that made Abu Ghraib look like the Brookings Institution?"

[grahamhgreen]

18. They were encouraged when we set up an Islamic republic in Afghanstan - we lost then.

[KurtNYC]

12. But aren't we supposed to just obsess about the "Bite Me" quote???

(kidding)

I suppose they can't very well just come out and say 'we are in Afghanistan because we want some cut of the resources there and war is an industry so there has to be a war SOMEWHERE all the time.'

[grahamhgreen]

17. In sum: "Winning, it would seem, is not really possible. Not even with Stanley McChrystal in charge"