We owe General McCrystal an apology!
General Stanley McCrystal is an accomplished warrior, a great pick for the job he was charged with. And, as a former Marine, I gotta believe that his allowing the most radical of media access to his inner thoughts and his staff’s was deliberate and not simply careless or stupid. He was just too good an officer for that!
That scenario never would have happened, had either of the Commanders-in-Chief following the attack on the WTC on 9/11 shown the wisdom and courage that a former Missouri clothing salesman once had when in their shoes. President Bush should have made it clear to those hostile tribes that our enemy is anyone who so easily sacrifices innocent lives—including their own. Especially when they use themselves, their women, and their children as weapons of mass destruction. And he should have given his theater commander the go-ahead to act accordingly.
President Obama should have done the same. Certainly he shouldn’t have shackled that professional soldier—or any, for that matter—with responsibility for the safety of those “weapons” that are constantly being used against the truly innocent, to say nothing of our sons and daughters in his charge.
As distressing as it was, I prefer to contemplate the millions of innocent lives saved, and the preservation of our civilization—results of President Truman’s decision to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He had exactly the same issues to grapple with, but made a wise and courageous, and even more heart-rending decision.
For McCrystal to have tried any harder to talk some sense into his superiors would have been plainly insubordinate—and unsuccessful. But to give a publication like Rolling Stone, known for its bias, the chance to rat on him and his staff, was a stroke of genius! What more spectacular way to register his frustration and discontent with the public! And without really “breaking the code.”
These are trying times for our professional soldiers. The academic elite who believe their educations and backgrounds qualify them to make better decisions for the country are, at best, decent folks who lack the street smarts necessary to recognize their enemies, much less know how to beat them. And those we’ve trained and ask our warriors to protect us from are only too happy to exploit that fact and laugh at our leaders’ intellectual delusions.
I, for one, thank you, General McCrystal! Thanks for falling on your sword and making such a sacrifice in hopes someone would get the message and give us a chance to get it right! I only wish you had more of a reward coming than simply being content with what you see in the mirror every morning! You deserve much, much more for your service!
