Jun 22

Quote of the Day

Military, Press Add comments

If an officer cannot figure out Rolling Stone, how can he understand the Taliban?

Victor Davis Hanson
in this post at the Corner

I’d add that if a President is not competent enough to appoint competent officers to execute our wars, how can we win them?

McChrystal screwed up, but I’m sure having to deal with ninnies like Obama and his crew would drive any patriot insane. Why he had to blow hard to the Rolling Stone is what mystifies me.

Update: Don’t blame the general…

3 Responses to “Quote of the Day”

  1. Paula Nelson Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 11:22 am

    If McChrystal can get himself fired by Obama, he becomes the newest flavor for the right. I smell presidential aspirations!

  2. Ken Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 11:24 am

    Well… usually the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but here, while he may be “right” about these people, how he went about handling it isn’t right.

    Resign and blast them.

    Or do the mission, retire, then blast them.

    Not blab to some liberal rag. Also – he claims to have voted for Obama, so he is by definition a moron.

  3. Carl Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 11:55 am

    Note that this comment comes from Carl on TR’s computer but sadly not from TR himself.

    It is possible to be loyal, a good general, and frustrated that your grand strategy has little hope of working for the impossible mission that you have accepted. Several top US generals since World War II have discovered the problem and I expected that this one had studied their experiences. The height of wisdom is to learn from other people’s mistakes.

    Future generals take note that the world’s strongest military power cannot win every “war” it enters. And if the people’s representatives in the Congress had more sense and spine, we would not be so deep in such impossible wars.

    As to relations with the POTUS, like him/her or not, the POTUS has been elected by the people of the USA as their commander-in-chief in the Constitutional role assigned the POTUS. The founders wanted civilian control although they may not have looked closely at what would happen after George Washington. Disrespecting the CINC is NOT ALLOWED by an officer in uniform. In the extreme, we could adopt the George Marshall idea that military stay out of politics, including not even voting.