General McChrystal Steps Aside; General Petraeus Steps Back In Command

by Colby Hall | 1:35 pm, June 23rd, 2010

» 17 comments

Well we now know General McChrystal‘s fate. Reports have now surfaced claiming that President Obama has asked McChrystal to step down as commander of military efforts in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus , who helmed the very successful counter-insurgency efforts in the Iraq War, will now oversee a similar campaign in the Afghanistan theater of war.

Writing for the Associated Press, Jennifer Loven and Anne Gearen report:

A senior administration official tells The Associated Press that President Barack Obama has accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s resignation as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and is replacing him with Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command.

McChrystal was pushed out over his blistering remarks about administration officials quoted in a magazine interview.

After an Oval Office meeting with McChrystal in the morning, Obama huddled with his war advisers and planned to announce his decision on the general’s fate to the nation at 1:30 p.m. EDT in the Rose Garden.

The official spoke only on condition of anonymity, because the president’s announcement was not yet public. Petraeus now oversees the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

David Petraeus, General David Petreaus, General McChrystal, General Petraeus, General Stanley McChrystal

notsofast

So Barry went with the libs favorite General Betray s, eh?
libra blue

So cry baby Obama got rid of McChrystal for making fun of him, that was a mature move. Funny that BO picked Petraeus as the replacement. I wonder what MoveOn.org thinks about that?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kam-Fet/572005492 Kam Fet

Moveon might use this ad ‘ President Betray us on his puck of Petraeus.’ Now that’s a catchy sound, don ya think so?
Zakk

Heads that just exploded:
George Soros
Joan Blades
Wes Boyd
Carrie Olson
Eli Pariser
Justin Ruben
Powerslave

I can’t believe George Soros chose General “Betray us” to replace McChrystal. Didn’t he get the memo?
writer

move on won’t be happy until we surrender. And then they’ll start bitching about something else.
http://politicsofdestruction.com/ Bobomatic

Barry was gonna lose on this one no matter who he chose. The simple fact remains, we have a man child in the oval office who is frittering away this countries future with a glaring lack of experience to guide this country in trying times. Patraeus is probably rolling his eyes at the fact he has to save BO’s ass once again.
jk

Obama foolishly put his personal vanity ahead of the national interest and by doing so demonstrated that he is an egotist and a sissy.
libra blue

Now Petraeus has to oversee both wars. This added stress can’t be good for someone who just fainted while being grilled by Congress on June 16.
MichelleF

Actually Kam, I don’t think it makes ANY sense at all, but maybe you are using some secret language you learned over at Move-on.
MichelleF

MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website…Update: Flashback to 2007, Obama Skipped Senate Vote to Condemn MoveOn for “Betray Us” Ad…..

http://weaselzippers.us/2010/06/23/moveon-scrubs-general-betray-us-page-from-website/

Kam or Tommy, you two seem to have intimate access to Move-on, will you check this out and get back to us? Thanks!
libra blue

@MichelleF, “MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website…”

It was there this morning, then mysteriously disappeared. Luckily you can still see it here:

cdn.moveon.org/pac/content/pac/pdfs/PetraeusNYTad.pdf
http://www.facebook.com/people/Montana-Miles/100001262671418 Montana Miles

Can you imagine if the people of the USA had the same power over the President as the President does with respect to these Generals.

How long do you think the Executive Leader would be in office?
TfT

So, lets recap:

1. Obama makes a critical decision about the war in Afghan; fires the existing commander and replaces him with his own hand-picked General (Stanley).
2. Stanley and his staff mock teh One (which I don’t approve of)
3. Obama fires his hand-picked General, the first major critical war-time decision the new President made, reversing himself.
4. Obama hires President Bush’s key General

PS: Obama voted present on the General Betrayus ad, didn’t even bother to condemn moveon for it. And now, General Petreaus, a real man’s (Bush) man, comes in to rescue the man-child?
disgusted

GAIUS PETRONIUS ARBITER,

first century:
We trained hard–but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.
MichelleF

Oh and let us not forget that Obama skipped the vote to condemn Move-on’s general betray us ad. Maybe he was golfing.
MichelleF

Comforting yet not surprising:

Michael Hastings, author of the now-famous Rolling Stone magazine article “Runaway General” that captured several gotcha moments resulting in Obama relieving General Stanley McChrystal of his command, appeared on Al Jazeera English on June 23. He offered some startling insight into Obama’s failure to grasp what he was actually getting into with this Afghanistan strategy known as the counterinsurgency strategy.

Hastings was asked if McChrystal had perhaps gotten the whole strategy wrong, but Hastings explained it was the President that didn’t know what he was really getting into.

“I think that ship had sailed last year,” Hastings said. “I think once the decision was made to do a counterinsurgency strategy, they had a pretty clear idea in mind what they wanted to do and I think this is quite interesting. I think this is one of the issues Obama didn’t really understand what counter-insurgency meant and when the military said they wanted to do a counterinsurgency strategy that that actually meant 150,000 troops. Obama thought he could get away with just sending 21,000 over and getting a new general.”