I expect this to not be a positive diary
Seriously, all progressives need to watch what this video on Gen. McChrystal answering questions from journalists.
McChrystal answers skeptics
Yes, the NYTimes highlighted a brief snippet where the General did not agree with part of Biden's strategy, but they didn't finish the rest of the answer.
Here's the rest of the response:
I think any decision to go forward will not just be based on resources, it will be based on what are our goals. And I know people are re-looking what our goals and objectives are and redefining and clarifying those, and I think that’s helpful. Once they do that, I think the resources, of course, are linked to that, because obviously you have to have a ways and means match. So, I don’t think that if we align our goals and our resources, we will have a significant problem. Our problem would be as — if we didn’t.
There seems to be a concerted effort on both the right, to paint him as some sort of Gen. McArthur and on the left, there's an attempt to show as some sort of Super Neocon. He's not either.
This guy appears to be absolutely smart, and the key thing that was addressed in his line of questioning was absolutely how IMPORTANT he felt that Obama's review was. He was defending him, REPEATEDLY, when he didn't have to. Watch him dismiss Fox News and a student from University of London. Both of them decrying on the "political" environment, and he dismissed them stating that was who he was working for.
Spencer Ackerman has been following this, and in a title noted that the GOP was extremely lucky that he didn't show up to testify. He wouldn't side with the GOP in opposition to the Commander in Chief. He would be suicidal to do that. He also wouldn't "resign" and whoever is sending those rumors out should be laughed at.
McChrystal testimony and GOP
I'm not entirely pleased with his performance, there was one question that deeply unsettled me with the answer in that he wanted Afghanistan to be a good state and how that would be beneficial to the United States, but yet, did not go into a cost-benefit analysis of that potential benefit.