As it turns out, President Obama's dismissal of General McChrystal over his trash-talking the administration to Rolling Stone didn't require much hand-wringing. According to Politico's behind-the-scenes story, Obama and top officials were all for cutting McChrystal loose as soon as they saw the first paragraph of the article, which begins, "'How'd I get screwed into going to this dinner?' demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal."
As one Obama aide put it, "A kid who is some PFC [private first class], knows darn well that if he said these things about his commanding officer, he could potentially get thrown in jail." Also, "we aren’t exactly rolling through Kandahar, so [McChrystal] wasn’t walking on water in the field." Now surely General Petraeus can bring Afghanistan the miracles it needs, and without all the drama! In fact, Senator John McCain told ABC News that he supports Petraeus, plus "we also need a new team over there as well—perhaps at the embassy and other areas."
Senate leaders claim they will confirm Petraeus quickly. The NY Times looks at what lies ahead for the general: "Where Iraq is an urban, oil-rich country with an educated middle class, Afghanistan is a shattered state whose social fabric and physical infrastructure has been ruined by three decades of war. In Iraq, the insurgency was in the cities; here, it is spread across the mountains and deserts of the country’s forbidding countryside."
