Shorter Jackson Diehl: I find the whole concept of civilian control of the military to be baffling. Also, has Truman apologized to McArthur yet?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
The words do not have to be perfect.
Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.
Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
It’s the corruption, stupid.
The GOP is a fucking disgrace.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP
Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?
Republicans do not pay their debts.
They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
Good lord, these people are nuts.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.
Infrastructure week. at last.
They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
And we’re all out of bubblegum.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.
You are here: Home / And Then You Have This
Tom Hilton
You jest, but I’m pretty sure there were a lot of Republicans who thought Truman did owe MacArthur an apology.
Hunter Gathers
Diehl must have Eric Cantor on speed dial.
Waynski
I guess Lincoln owes an apology to McClellan as well.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
Diehl is an ass. Truman was right to slap MacArthur, and Obama would be right to fire McChrystal.
Period.Dot. All the rest is just blather. There is a chain of command, which tops out at the Oval Office. This is a no-brainer. This is not about policy in Afghanistan, this is about power and control over the military.
Fire the sonofabitch, today.
Uloborus
Before this drowns, let me say that either Obama doesn’t have fee fees, or they’re made of frikkin’ molybdenum steel. Nothing he does either way is going to be based on whether or not he or his staff feel insulted.
Zam
Well as we all know anyone who has served in the military is as infallible as the pope. The sheer fact that they signed up to serve makes them more than human, they are completely incapable of making poor decisions or having bias’ their opinions should be treated as a new American scripture. Unless of course they lie about getting shot and are from the communist state of Massachusetts, in which case they were probably sent their to infiltrate and undermine the integrity of the holy army of the constitution.
Kryptik
I’m sure Diehl would rather like an unaccountable military.
Keith G
@Waynski:
Maybe Lincoln should have apologized to Lee, while he was at it.
It is that time of week again. My familial conservatives are now up in arms about the Jones Act.
“Why does Obama value unions more than the Gulf”? they inquire. “Why are foreign ships being turned away?” “Why is he so weak?”
Yesterday I scanned an article showing evidence to the contrary, but now I cannot find it. If anyone remembers such a post, please let me know.
Ed Marshall
I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if Diehl’s next column just advocated a coup.
Uloborus
Who was the guy who advocated a coup? Who wrote that lovely, gentle column about how we had to consider the possibility that the military would bloodlessly and constitutionally(?!?) take power away from Obama before he destroyed the country until a properly elected (IE, Republican?) president could be obtained?
Redshirt
As long as Republicans run the coup, than “Real ‘Muricans” can support it, you betchya. Also, too.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
As I said in the other thread, when Darth Cheney was my nominal boss on the Joint Staff back when he was simply an apprentice Dark Lord, ie, Sec Def., if one of “his” generals had pulled this shit, said general would be gone…yesterday.
Of course the reich wing won’t remember that sort of behavior. Again, why are we looking for consistency and logic from that part of the political spectrum that wishes all of us dead, or at least gone?
McChrystal’s ass should be fired. Period. I’ve been around plenty of his peer group albeit 15-20 years ago now and believe me, most of them are no fans of Democratic administrations but most of them also know you don’t say that kind of shit while in uniform much less to a fucking ROLLING STONED REPORTER!!!!!
Brian J
@Uloborus:
I agree. Remember the supposed problems Samantha Power was going to have working under Hillary Clinton at the State Department, after she called Clinton a monster during the primary? Nothing came of it. I’m not always sure of the way I fall on various foreign policy issues, but it’s nice to know the grown ups are in charge.
DonkeyKong
“You can’t fight in here, this is a war room!”
El Cid
Jackson Diehl is a lying, war-mongering ass.
Michael
@Uloborus:
Fixed.
Michael
@Redshirt:
In June of forty-three there was a military coup
Behind it was a gang called the G.O.U.
Who did not feel the need to be elected
They had themselves a party at the point of a gun
They were slightly to the right of Atilla the Hun
A bomb or two and very few objected
Yeah, just one shot and governments fall like flies, kapow, die
They stumble and fall, bye bye
Backs to the wall, aim high
We’re having a ball
The tank and bullet rule as democracy dies
The lady’s got potential, she was setting her sights
On making it in movies with her name in lights
The greatest social climber since Cinderella
OK, she couldn’t act but she had the right friends
And we all know a career depends
On knowing the right fella to be stellar
Yeah, just one show and governments lose their nerve, kapow, die
They stumble and fall, bye bye
Backs to the wall, aim high
We’re having a ball
That’s how we get the government we deserve
frankdawg
@Waynski:
and Hooker
and Mead
and :)
Uloborus
@Michael:
Nonsense. They’d have (almost) no problems if a black Republican were president. It’s just that the idea of a black Republican president is pretty hysterical. If you could somehow find one (Colin Powell’s the only one I can remember) that had a distant shot of winning the nomination, he’d never agree to it. And vice versa.
Norwegian Shooter
Hi-larious. Where have all the shorters gone?
Michael
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Too many entrenched wingnuts wearing stars is my guess, particularly in blue suits.
dmsilev
Personally, I think the general should be fired for this:
Apparently, a lot of the quotes from that story came while McChrystal and his staff and the reporter were on a boozing it up on a bus from Paris to Berlin (couldn’t fly due to the volcano), likely consuming the general’s favorite beer while driving through the heart of Western Europe.
That’s just a crime against humanity.
dms
frankdawg
Obama should simply ask the Joint Chiefs if they would be willing to accept these sort of comments from their subs. If they say yes then he should publicize the fact that these guys think its OK. If they view it as insubordination than he should demand that THEY sack McDismal.
Of course the moran brigade of the 101st chairborne division would claim it was Obama trying to deflect blame (but we all agree that whatever road he chooses he will be wrong as far as those guys are concerned). The idea I propose is actually flexing his muscles over the guys that would be left behind.
Linda Featheringill
@Zam:
Military personnel as infallible as the Pope:
I know what you mean, but I still think that the Pope is not all that infallible.
And not particularly honorable, either. And probably not any better than a lot of military officers, which isn’t saying a whole lot.
wengler
Funny, I don’t remember the kool kids standing up for Gens. Shinseki and Taguba, and all they did to get fired was do their jobs in an honest way.
Obama really needs to fire McChrystal now, not tommorow, not next week. I for one think that Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan is bound to fail, but the generals involved never get to publicly contradict their civilian commander without escaping sacking. The chain-of-command is really quite simple. Reservations and concern are to be made privately, and if they have disagreements that can’t be bridged resignation is always an option.
I would hope this is also an opportunity for Gates to leave as well.
elmo
Bah. McChrystal can’t be a true wingnut hero; he’s still taking orders from the illegal alien Kenyan communist mooselimb. The REAL American hero is Lt. Colonel Terry Lakin.
JCT
@DonkeyKong:
Hah- perfect.
And honestly, if McCrystal were an honorable man he would step down and avoid putting the POTUS through this nonsense that is entirely due to his amazingly poor judgement. End of story. No one is irreplaceable. Duty before honor and honor before glory and all of that.
PaulW
Did anyone check what Diehl had to say about generals or admirals talking smack about Dubya?
Calouste
@dmsilev:
I don’t know what is the worst crime there:
Drinking Bud. Light. Lime. while travelling past Belgium and through Germany.
Or actually being such a wimp that you can get inebriated enough on Bud. Light. Lime. to screw up your career. I’d think you die of water poisoning before getting drunk on Bud. Light. Lime. .
Ruckus
@Calouste:
Waterboarding/Butt Lite, waterboarding/Butt Lite, hummm, I see a pretty strong correlation here.
I know that it would take a waterboarding or 12 for me to drink
that muchany Butt Lite, lime or not.Ruckus
I was enlisted in the military and I believe that if I had publicly stated about anyone in authority over me anything like what McCrystal said here or in London, I figured I’d still be locked up. And I served 40 yrs ago.
This is one of those, you just don’t do things. You don’t bad mouth your superiors publicly. You don’t get to question their authority with out repercussions. At McCrystal’s level the only thing to do is fire him. It may not be the wisest move with a war on concerning command succession, but we have plenty of generals. An overabundance. I have hard time believing that there is only one general in the army who can do this job. No one is that important. What if he got sick or died? No one takes over? We have a chain of succession for the president, and there’s one for the military also.
A military with out command control is far worse than useless. It is a fucking danger to all.
Wildthumb
Truman fired MacArthur and didn’t bat an eye about it ever.
Years later he said “MacArthur got exactly what was coming to him.”
Balls, that guy had.
I remember when Truman fired the guy people wanted MacArthur for
president. You don’t think the GOP is thinking that now?