Do you guys think it was a good idea for General McChrystal to speak out against the Obama Administration in the fashion he did? Clearly he’s a four-star general and is an intelligent man, but I was just wondering how people feel about him speaking to Rolling Stone instead of resigning and then talking out against the policies and actions President Obama has been taking.
I personally think that his interview with Rolling Stone, while it might not have been very ‘polite’ (for lack of a better word), this will definitely attract more of the public’s attention.
Obama seems to me to always back down in face of powerful interests - the banks, the health care industry, the Pentagon, the Israel lobby - I can’t think of a single example of him standing up to any entrenched interest.
I guess that’s why McCrystal feels safe doing this - he doesn’t think Obama has the guts to fire him.
edit: I read the thing and honestly I think it is too late to start a successful counter-insurgency operation. Had we went in there and started with counter insurgency we might be well on our way to a stable Afghanistan. But we’ve already done too much damage to successfully convince them.
I also think they underestimate just how much the war in Iraq has undermined the Counter-insurgency strategy.
I just don’t think it’s possible to undo the psychological damage we’ve already caused, much less convince them to trust us.