Not to rehash old news, this General McChrystal fiasco was a disaster waiting to happen. His removal was utterly important for our future.
In my post (http://yomamaforobama.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/seeing-is-believing/) of June 23, 2010, I commented on McChrystal’s role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire. In today’s New York Times, Frank Rich wrote about the whole McChrystal resignation, devoting a paragraph to the unfortunate demise of Tillman and the even more unfortunate subsequent cover-up:
The Interior Department follies will end promptly only if Obama has learned the lessons of the attenuated McChrystal debacle. Lesson No. 1 should be to revisit some of his initial hiring decisions. The general’s significant role in the Pentagon’s politically motivated cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death in 2004 should have been disqualifying from the start. The official investigation into that scandal — finding that McChrystal peddled "inaccurate and misleading assertions" — was unambiguous and damning.
Like Mr. Rich, I too caught Rachel Maddow’s program on McChrystal and his use of counter-insurgency strategy. Again, here is what Maddow said about McChrystal:
"the guy who was promoting and leading the counterinsurgency strategy has shown by his actions that even he doesn’t believe in it."
This is a very telling comment, as it is another incident, like the Tillman cover-up, that shows McChrystal’s cowboy mentality in making his own positions as crystal clear as a June day, without respect or regard for his superiors or accepted military protocol.
As people age, their short-term memory suffers, yet their long-term memory flourishes. That might be the case with me and Frank Rich, in our stubbornness to let go of that Tillman affair. Of course, there is also the possibility that our take on this matter was the truthful path and that truth hit home with us. Nevertheless, it was a bad omen right from the get-go, shedding light on McChrystal’s deceitful, ambitious and rogue personality.
My nephew had a wonderful incite about the antics of General McChrystal:
So General McChrystal did an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine... I hear Lady Gaga is doing a spread in Military Digest next month.
Nuff said.