Gen. McChrystal's Canned.

[BrianFromWA]

Gen Petraeus hits his 40yr point in 2014. I'd imagine that if he does have political hopes, he's think about doing a Joint Chiefs tour and then look to 2016.

 

[Denny Crane]

It's a strategic, rather than tactical post. They don't actually have units at the ready to command, but they generally come up with the plans and facilitate and direct the component commanders (Army, Navy, AF, Marines) having a joint strategy. CENTCOM developed OEF/OIF, for instance. They are the last level of operational chain of command before SecDef and President. So, while it's a good bet that the PResident is conferring a ton with the commander of forces Afghanistan, technically his orders come from CENTCOM.

Basically, MacChrystal was #4 in the chain of command and Patraeus #3.

 

[barfo]

It's a strategic, rather than tactical post. They don't actually have units at the ready to command, but they generally come up with the plans and facilitate and direct the component commanders (Army, Navy, AF, Marines) having a joint strategy. CENTCOM developed OEF/OIF, for instance. They are the last level of operational chain of command before SecDef and President. So, while it's a good bet that the PResident is conferring a ton with the commander of forces Afghanistan, technically his orders come from CENTCOM.

Well, I can see why Petraeus wouldn't have been incredibly enthused about it. "Gosh, you want to demote me and send me to Afghanistan? Thanks boss!"
Then again, I guess that means that McFlappyTongue was Petraeus' subordinate, so he gets hit with the fallout.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

Patraeus apparently pushed/hyped up MacChrystal for the job.

 

[barfo]

Patraeus apparently pushed/hyped up MacChrystal for the job.

So even more natural that Petraeus gets stuck with the job now.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

So even more natural that Petraeus gets stuck with the job now.

barfo

Demotion is a reason to quit that everyone can understand.

 

[barfo]

Demotion is a reason to quit that everyone can understand.

Not when you are a soldier in wartime, I don't think.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

Not when you are a soldier in wartime, I don't think.

barfo

Your kind seemed to complain a lot about the troops not having the right equipment. If Obama doesn't give Patraeus what he asks for, it's not the "right equipment" eh?

 

[MARIS61]

McChrystal = Tom Penn

Petraeus = KP

Obama = Paul Allen

 

[MARIS61]

Demotion is a reason to quit that everyone can understand.

Understand, yes.

Inspire confidence in the demotee's capabilities? Not so much.

 

[Denny Crane]

Understand, yes.

Inspire confidence in the demotee's capabilities? Not so much.

Obama was wrong about the surge, Patraeus' plan. I think Obama would look wrong again.

 

[barfo]

Your kind seemed to complain a lot about the troops not having the right equipment. If Obama doesn't give Patraeus what he asks for, it's not the "right equipment" eh?

I'm pretty sure Brian will agree with me that lack of equipment doesn't justify walking off the battlefield.

I don't think it is "my kind" that would hang him out to dry if he quits now. I don't think he'd get through the R primary, because it would tarnish the only known positive he currently has (his military cred).

barfo

 

[MARIS61]

Obama was wrong about the surge, Patraeus' plan. I think Obama would look wrong again.

How was he wrong?

Last time I looked we were still in Iraq, still getting killed, still afraid to leave lest the country fall back into the arms of it's citizenry to decide it's fate.

Surge smurge.

 

[MikeDC]

War is the continuation of politics by other means.
You've heard that phrase before? This is a political issue. Or maybe, more properly stated, a diplomatic issue.

In a nutshell, the way to win a war is to get the other guys to stop fighting. This is especially true when it's much easier for you to go home and stop than it is for them. Because we're far from home and they either live there or are a bunch of homeless nutcases (the various foreign fighters).

So to win, we kill who we need to, but really we need to convince the local population to not put up with a bunch of extremist nutcases in their midst and leave them strong enough to fight back. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

Anyway, a basic way to look at things is that our diplomatic efforts are failing terribly.

Gen. McChrystal perhaps ran afoul of this because he and his staff came across as very undiplomatic (in the literal sense), but that really just emphasized the point that in the strategic sense we weren't doing a good job of selling the politics and diplomacy of our strategy. Yes, part of that falls on Gen. McChrystal, but a big part of it falls on the diplomats (Eikenberry, et al) he apparently couldn't work with.

So I do see room for optimism in that Gen. Petraeus seems to have very good grasp of the political and diplomatic requirements of a strategic command. My big question is whether the guys who are actually supposed to be doing that job are willing and capable enough to productively work with him. If not, can he push for guys who are?