Maggie's Farm

Victor David Hansen sets us straight...like that new, the man is good.
"Again, suppose the following: President Bush conducts an ongoing public fight with the new commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, who in turn serially whines to the press that he is being backstabbed by an unsupportive administration. Bush then fires Petraeus. The general returns to the United States to tickertape parades, while the president becomes even more detested as thousands more Americans are killed.

That scenario sums up the Truman-MacArthur row over the stalemate in Korea. During that conflict, President Truman fired Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson; fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his senior military commander in the theater; and faced calls for impeachment from U.S. senators, including the venerable Robert Taft. By February 1952, Truman's approval ratings had hit 22 percent - the lowest-known polls of any sitting U.S. president, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon included." (more)

Again, suppose the following: President Bush conducts an ongoing public fight with the new commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, who in turn serially whines to the press that he is being backstabbed by an unsupportive administration. Bush then fires Petraeus. The general returns to the United States to tickertape parades, while the president becomes even more detested as thousands more Americans are killed.

That scenario sums up the Truman-MacArthur row over the stalemate in Korea. During that conflict, President Truman fired Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson; fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his senior military commander in the theater; and faced calls for impeachment from U.S. senators, including the venerable Robert Taft. By February 1952, Truman's approval ratings had hit 22 percent - the lowest-known polls of any sitting U.S. president, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon included.

Again, suppose the following: President Bush conducts an ongoing public fight with the new commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, who in turn serially whines to the press that he is being backstabbed by an unsupportive administration. Bush then fires Petraeus. The general returns to the United States to tickertape parades, while the president becomes even more detested as thousands more Americans are killed.

That scenario sums up the Truman-MacArthur row over the stalemate in Korea. During that conflict, President Truman fired Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson; fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his senior military commander in the theater; and faced calls for impeachment from U.S. senators, including the venerable Robert Taft. By February 1952, Truman's approval ratings had hit 22 percent - the lowest-known polls of any sitting U.S. president, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon included.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/03/iraq_war_recalls_past_us_confl.html

I really enjoy Hansen too, but paying some intellectual honesty t his piece I would simply point these things out.
#1 Lt.Genreal Patraeus is not Douglas Mac Arthur.
In WWI in the France then Captain MacArthur "went over the top", leading his men out of the trenches on an assault with a riding crop in his hand..no pistol,rifle, or knife, just a riding crop and "follow me"
His Phillipine strategy was just as good as Nimitz strategy with the bonus of following through on a promise, no small promise either.
That Truman fired him only hurt Truman and did almost nothing to reinforce the CIC concept.
So on that example Hansen's example is lacking gravitas.
His Inchon landing in Korea was military genius. His administration and rebuilding of post war Japan unequalled in the annals of mankind. Medal of Honor winner.
If Patraeus had a record remotely approaching MacArthurs then perhaps it would carry more weight.
So on that example Hansen's example is lacking gravitas.

I would have preferred a Lincoln-McClelland example.