PLEASE READ THIS: Because of the length of this weekly diary, sometimes Daily Kos reacts negatively -- isn't it always MB's fault? :-) -- and makes the Rec Button (and other stuff that you usually find in the upper right corner) disappear. Don't worry if that happens. Just scroll to the bottom of the diary past the last diary comment and you'll see the Rec Button there.
Note: As usual, I'll post this diary section-by-section and will update as I go along within the next few minutes. Be patient, there's lots more coming.
Please leave your comments and I'll respond when I have finished posting the complete diary. Thanks
FINAL UPDATE: The complete diary is now posted. I have another 5-6 cartoons left which I'll post in the comments section. Thanks.
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past 14 months since I started posting editorial cartoons on Daily Kos and writing my weekly diary -- The Week in Editorial Cartoons -- and after monitoring dozens of policy and political issues over this period, it is rare than one event results in over 100 editorial cartoons in only a couple of days. You will even notice a few cartoons from conservative editorial cartoonists in this diary, whose work I rarely post on this blog as they parrot rightwing talking points and are irrationally critical of the Obama Administration -- no matter what it does.
Not in this instance. There was widespread support of the president's decision to relieve General McChrystal of his command duties in Afghanistan -- even as there was a fair bit of skepticism expressed about the long-term viability of the American mission in that country. A recent NEWSWEEK Poll found that while Americans support the McChrystal decision 50%-35%, a majority (53%) disapprove of the Obama Administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan with only 37% of respondents approving it.
Not unlike in the Rolling Stone article by Michael Hastings -- whose revelations helped to speed up his exit from Afghanistan -- General McChrystal was portrayed by most of the editorial cartoonists as an arrogant, can-do person whose impatience with his civilian superiors was exceeded only by an abundance of confidence in his own abilities.

Early on in his army career at West Point, McChrystal was always living on the edge, pushing the envelope when it came to obeying the military academy's rules and regulations, and barely escaping getting kicked out even as he retained a strong disdain for authority.
Described by many of his contemporaries as a brilliant army officer throughout his career, this attitude of having barely-disguised contempt for his superiors and operating under his own set of rules would indeed catch up with him in Afghanistan. Although there have not been too many instances of insubordination in the Republic's history since the late 18th century, ones that involved very high-ranking military officers have indeed resulted in that officer's dismissal or reassignment by the commander-in-chief.
Ben Sargent, Universal Press Syndicate
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
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As this article pointed out

President Barack Obama announced the dismissal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal on Wednesday after revealing some overly-candid thoughts in a controversial Rolling Stone interview. Though McChrystal may be feeling like the loneliest person in the world these days, he's not the first high-ranking military official to land in hot water -- and eventually be ousted -- for bad behavior.
David Horsey, see reader comments
in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Gen. George McClellan was appointed general-in-chief of the Union forces in November 1861. By December, McClellan’s competence as a military leader was called into question at the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War. His slowness to act against Confederate forces, coupled with his defeat in a minor battle, began raising calls for his dismissal. McClellan further tarnished his reputation by calling Lincoln a "baboon" and a "gorilla" that is "unworthy of...his high position." Three months and two catastrophes later, Lincoln removed McClellan from general-in-chief and demoted him to a lesser command. (photograph: Huffington Post)
In 1950 Gen. Douglas MacArthur was assigned to lead the United Nations command in the Korean War. He was greatly respected for his daring and successful defense of South Korea that helped shape the outcome of the war. Shortly afterward, MacArthur openly criticized the Truman Administration’s war strategy and suggested attacking areas of China, a viewpoint not endorsed by the president. Although he was hailed as a skilled commander and a hero, the President could not tolerate his inflammatory remarks and removed him from command in 1951, saying that "military commanders must be governed by the policies and directives issued to them in the manner provided by our laws and Constitution." (photograph: Huffington Post)
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I've devoted the entire diary this week to this one issue as it dominated the news cycle last week and captured the attention of most of the editorial cartoonist around the country and several in other countries. The regular edition of this weekly diary covering multiple issues will return next week on Tuesday, July 6th. Happy July 4th, everyone. Thanks.
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2. What Did General McChrystal Do?
From the start, McChrystal was determined to place his personal stamp on Afghanistan, to use it as a laboratory for a controversial military strategy known as counterinsurgency. COIN, as the theory is known, is the new gospel of the Pentagon brass, a doctrine that attempts to square the military's preference for high-tech violence with the demands of fighting protracted wars in failed states.
-- Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone magazine
Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)
"Actually, McChrystal now saying it was all a misunderstanding. He said he did make the comments in Rolling Stone but they forgot to add the 'LOL.'"
–- Jay Leno, 'The Tonight Show', June 23, 2010
Bill Schorr, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon
Gary Markstein, Comics.com (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Henry Payne, Comics.com (Detroit News)
Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Vic Harville, Stephens Media Group (Little Rock, AR), Buy this cartoon
Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)
Jeff Danziger, New York Times Syndicate
Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, Buy this cartoon
Jeff Danziger, New York Times Syndicate
Steve Breen, Comics.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Team America In Afghanistan, by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon
McChrystal Shows His Teeth by Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News, Buy this cartoon
General McChrystal vs President Obama by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon
Gary Varvel, Comics.com (Indianapolis Star-News)
John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Buy this cartoon
Steve Breen, Comics.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
General McChrystal Resigns by Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com, Buy this cartoon
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3. What Were President Barack Obama's Choices?
McChrystal's Offence
"Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."
-- Taegan Goddard in Political Wire posting an excerpt from the Uniform Code of Military Justice (888. ART. 88. CONTEMPT TOWARD OFFICIALS), sent in by a reader (also see this)
Clay Jones, Freelance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), Buy this cartoon
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Earlier in the week, as everyone was speculating about General McChrystal's future, Jones wrote that his behavior was unacceptable and presented the president with an Hobson's Choice
I can see good reasons for keeping McChrystal. His strategy was working and he had momentum, he built relationships over there and replacing him would be like starting over. But I can see more clearly the reasons to get rid of him. He was insubordinate. The military is not supposed to criticize the president and that goes for his administration. If Obama didn’t get rid of the guy it would have opened all sorts of avenues for tearing into the guy. Nobody would fear consequences.
Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
General McChrystal by Paresh Nath, Khaleej Times (UAE), Buy this cartoon
Charlie Daniel, Knoxville News Sentinel
Jeff Stahler, Comics.com (Columbus Dispatch)
Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)
Sacking Generals in USA by Paresh Nath, Khaleej Times (UAE), Buy this cartoon
Channeling Truman by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon
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4. The McChrystal-Obama Meeting
Marshall Ramsey, Comics.com (Clairon Ledger, Jackson, MS)
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By the time General McChrystal met with President Obama on Wednesday, June 23rd, most of official Washington had been aware of what had been written in the Rolling Stone article. There was little, if any, doubt left as to what awaited McChrystal that morning. As Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post the surprise was not what was going to happen to McChrystal but that anything would change even after his departure
The good news? Nobody has to pretend anymore that Gen. Stanley McChrystal knew how to fix Afghanistan within a year. The bad news? Now we're supposed to pretend that Gen. David Petraeus does.
President Obama was absolutely right to sack the preening McChrystal, whose inner circle, as portrayed in Rolling Stone magazine, had all the seriousness and decorum of a frat house keg party.
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An article in Foreign Policy magazine pinpointed the real issue that no one was talking about: was our strategy bearing any fruit in Afghanistan?
Great, General, that was really helpful! The austere, Bud Light Lime-only, non-plus-ultra 'Jedi' commander has spoken to Rolling Stone, him and his population-centric "handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs" (and gay-haters, as the author of the famous Rolling Stone story cautiously implies), badmouthing people with whom they should be working. The Boss is "angry," says the BBC. Result: Everyone within the Beltway, i.e. the whole world, is speculating whether The General will be MacArthured. Think tankers are already demanding his head. That seems to be what really what matters. Not Afghanistan...
From Dr. Hook’s lyrics:
We take all kind of pills to give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll get you when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone.
Gary Varvel, Comics.com (Indianapolis Star-News)
Matt Wuerker, Politico
(click link to enlarge cartoon in Wuerker's archive)
Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon
Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon
McChrystal Clear by Dan Wasserman, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Boston Globe)
General McChrystal Wants Medal For Exercising Restraint by RJ Matson, Roll Call, Buy this cartoon
McChrystal Out by Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey Record, Buy this cartoon
David Cohen, Asheville Citizen-Times
Graeme MacKay, Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada), Buy this cartoon
McChrystal Clear by Tom Toles, see reader comments in the Washington Post
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon
Bill Day, Comics.com (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)
The Insurgent by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Houston Chronicle
Robert Araial, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC)
Lisa Benson, Comics.com (Victor Valley Daily Press)
Walt Handelsman, Comics.com (Newsday)
Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon
Sacked by Olle Johansson, Freelance Cartoonist (Sweden ), Buy this cartoon
General McChrystal Exit by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon
McChrystal is a Rolling Stone by Chris Britt, Comics.com, see reader comments in the State Journal Register (Springfield, IL)
"President Obama is in a tough spot because he fired Gen. McChrystal and right away, the Republicans blamed him for increasing unemployment."
–- David Letterman on 'The Late Show', June 24, 2010
Ron Rogers, South Bend Tribune, read Rogers' explanation
on his blog as to why he liked this controversy
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
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5. General Petraeus In, General McChrystal Out
McChrystal, Crazy Like a Fox? by Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun Sentinel
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Did General McChrystal engineer his own departure from Afghanistan? Lowe posits a theory that conditions were deteriorating to a point where no one -- not even McChrystal -- could do anything to reverse the tide of bad news and it may have been time to leave this mess now for someone else to fix or, more likely, take the blame for
Everyone is wondering why on Earth a smart guy like McChrystal would allow such intimate access to a reporter from Rolling Stone, of all places. Was he crazy? Maybe like a fox. Here’s a theory, admittedly far-fetched but plausible:
If you’re going to torpedo your own career, it’s best to do it now just as the situation in Afghanistan is really beginning to go south. That way, you may be written off as a frat-boy who couldn’t control his mouth, but your war-fighting prowess will never be called into question. Walking away in the middle of battle marks you as a quitter. You must be forced to leave.
To put a modern twist on Douglas MacArthur’s famous aphorism, "Old soldiers never die; they just end up on TV news as in-house military analysts."
Cal Grondahl, Utah Standard Examiner, Buy this cartoon
McChrystal's Medal by Bruce Plante, see reader comments in Tulsa World
Jeff Stahler, Comics.com (Columbus Dispatch)
Gary Varvel, Indianapolis Star-News, Buy this cartoon
Chip Bok, Comics.com (Bokbluster.com)
RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon
Missing McChrystal by Dan Wasserman, Comics.com (Boston Globe)
Pat Oliphant, Universal Press Syndicate
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Bob Gorrell, National/Syndicated Cartoonist, Buy this cartoon
Tony Auth, Philadelphia Inquirer
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
McChrystal Fired by Patrick Chappatte, International Herald Tribune, Buy this cartoon
David Cohen, Asheville Citizen-Times
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)
David Horsey, see reader comments in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Steve Kelley, Comics.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
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6. General McChrystal's Future
Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun Sentinel
General McChrystal by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press
Jack Ohman, Comics.com (Portland Oregonian)
General Contempt by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon
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7. What's Next in Afghanistan?
Ed Stein, Comics.com (formerly of the Rocky Mountain News)
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Stein tries to look at the positive side of the McChrystal story in what has become the longest war in American history
With all the bad news coming out of Afghanistan, I thought I’d look for the silver lining in the latest storm cloud, the firing of General Stanley McChrystal for his and his staff’s contemptuous comments about their civilian bosses. At least one group of soldiers is leaving America’s longest war ahead of schedule.
Jerry Holbert, Comics.com (Boston Herald)
Rolling Stone by Tom Toles, see reader comments in the Washington Post
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Steve Sack, Comics.com (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
Rolling Stone by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon
Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Bruce Beattie, Comics.com (Daytona Beach News-Journal)
Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com (Philadelphia Daily News)
Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Steve Sack, Comics.com (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
Steve Breen, Comics.Com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Matt Davies, Comics.com (New York Journal News)
Scott Stantis, Comics.com (Chicago Tribune)
Take Cover Behind The Rolling Stone by Jeff Parker, Florida Today, Buy this cartoon
Gary Varvel, Comics.com (Indianapolis Star-News)
Tony Auth, Universal Press Syndicate
(click link to enlarge cartoon)
Obama Misses His Exit by Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon
American Greatness by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon
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8. Closing Thoughts
Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)
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Writing in the New Yorker magazine, Hendrik Hertzberg offers a note of caution to senior military officers about how journalism has changed since President Harry Truman sacked General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 and how to conduct themselves in this era of social networking
All that changed with Vietnam. But even then, when a cohort of legendary journalists were reporting the hell out of it, generals refrained from asking them to hang out with them for on-the-record fly-on-the wall stories in the hope of being portrayed as really cool macho dudes.
Just as important, frontline troops nowadays are also online troops. They are plugged in to the Internet, to Facebook, to blogs, to e-mail and Skype. They talk to each other in chat rooms with little or no supervision from the brass. It’s all instant and it’s all in their face. And that, I hasten to add, is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. But it makes the morale of the troops that much more fragile, that much more apt to be affected by relative trivialities. The fact that General McChrystal, along with his "Team America" posse of adjutants, understood none of this was reason enough to send him packing. His "conduct" wasn’t just a disservice to his President; it was a disservice to the men and women under his command.
Foreign policy is often a choice between the least worst of bad choices. Yet, this McChrystal Story underscores an important major issue: why are we fighting this war in Afghanistan? Is it in our self-defense or, furthering our ever-changing "vital national interests" or, some other underlying reasons cloaked under the guise of promoting democracy and advancing freedom? Of the numerous books I read in almost a decade spent through undergrad and grad school (and since that time) on topics like war and strategy, military history, conflict resolution, and the real reasons countries go to war, one stands out tonight in my mind. The answer lies perhaps in Joseph Schumpeter's (the Austrian economist of "creative destruction" fame) classic book on 'Imperialism and Social Classes'
For it is always a question, when one speaks of imperialism, of the assertion of an aggressiveness whose real basis does not lie in the aims followed at the moment but an aggressiveness in itself. And actually history shows us people and classes who desire expansion for the sake of expanding, war for the sake of fighting, domination for the sake of dominating. It values conquest not so much because of the advantages it brings, which are often more than doubtful, as because it is conquest, success, activity. Although expansion as self-purpose always needs concrete objects to activate it and support it, its meaning is not included therein.
link
If I remember my reading of Schumpeter's book, the argument goes something like this: prior to the concept of 'total war' -- in which all segments of society were invested in fighting and winning a war -- only the military classes actually participated in war. As nationalism grew and the nation-state emerged as an effective unit of political governance, societies progressively became more democratic. When embarking upon a war, democratic leaders had to seek consent from the governed in some form. This, in turn, marginalized the military classes and they, in order to remain relevant, became more outrageous in their demand and call for wars - necessary or not.
The Rolling Stone article summarizes the dilemma faced by American forces in Afghanistan
After nine years of war, the Taliban simply remains too strongly entrenched for the U.S. military to openly attack. The very people that COIN (Counter Insurency) seeks to win over – the Afghan people – do not want us there. Our supposed ally, President Karzai, used his influence to delay the offensive, and the massive influx of aid championed by McChrystal is likely only to make things worse. "Throwing money at the problem exacerbates the problem," says Andrew Wilder, an expert at Tufts University who has studied the effect of aid in southern Afghanistan. "A tsunami of cash fuels corruption, de-legitimizes the government and creates an environment where we're picking winners and losers" – a process that fuels resentment and hostility among the civilian population. So far, counterinsurgency has succeeded only in creating a never-ending demand for the primary product supplied by the military: perpetual war. There is a reason that President Obama studiously avoids using the word "victory" when he talks about Afghanistan. Winning, it would seem, is not really possible.
Sounds familiar? Almost a hundred years later, Schumpeter's explanation could very well be true for a small group of neoconservatives who hijacked our foreign policy during the Bush Years -- and as was mentioned yesterday by Laurence Lewis in a front page post -- continue to make the same arguments today after hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent so far for an unwinnable war and one that has sent over a thousand young men and women to their early deaths -- many barely out of their teens.
It is time to end this war and occupation as soon as possible.
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Crossposted at Docudharma