Marshall on the firing
It's not that I don't think Obama's tough or a strong leader or decisive or whatever adjective you want to use. Having watched Obama as president for going on two years, I've found remarkable his ability to ignore the chatter, the pundits and the polls and stick to whatever his plan is. But I've also gotten used to seeing that when crises come or key gut-check moments arise his tendency is to try to conciliate the situation. Not duck it; that's not what I mean. I mean find some new vantage point to come at the situation from which you look at it again and see that it's not really just a plain yes or no, that there's some more complexity and give in the situation. And you can find some creative way to address all the relevant concerns. I just haven't seen President Obama throw down a lot of gauntlets or, to put it harshly, cut the baby in half.
So when I woke up this morning I still couldn't quite see how President Obama could not fire McChrystal. But I also couldn't quite imagine him doing it.
But he did. Showed me a different side of him. And what I really couldn't have imagined was that he found a way not just to acquit himself honorably and protect the office but actually enhance his prestige and standing.
posted by The Front at 10:45 PM
3 Comments:
Am I the only person who was not in the least surprised that he fired Colonel McChrystal?
Perhaps we two are the only ones.
And lets be clear, McChrystal fired himself. Any commander at that level knows better than to speak candidly to Rolling Stone and not expect to be fired.
i.e. He voiced his concerns about the way things were being run, how they aren't going to succeed going the way they are going and then he gets the boot before he ends up with failure all over himself.
In short, he had a far better exit strategy than the US does.
Just glad to see a Democrat not cave in to the military on an important matter. I liked Clinton, but I never got the sense he was fully comfortable with military people, or with his role as their Commander-in-Chief. Obama doesn't seem to have that problem.
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