Maggie's Farm

President Obama chose General Stanley McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan. There can be little doubt that Obama knew that McChrystal voted for him.

Now, McChrystal and staff let the cat out of the bag, that everyone watching knew already: President Obama, VP Joe Biden, National Security Council head Jim Jones, Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan  Richard Holbrooke, have been actively undermining the war effort through timidity, illusions and interfering with McChrystal, the only proven warrior and COIN expert in the bunch and the only one respected by the Afghanis.

General David Petraeus will now fill in, downgrading Petraeus from chief at CENTCOM with wider responsibilities for the tinderboxes in the Middle East and South Asia. That is a big hole to fill in dangerous times.  Petraeus is not holding it against Obama that Obama joined in the liberal Democrats’ defeatism in Iraq when Petraeus then proceeded with President Bush’s firm and brave support to save the bacon. Petraeus is, after all, a bigger and real man.

And, once again Obama has chosen his personal agenda and ego above military effectiveness. Obama just appointed a new Commandant for the Marine Corps, seemingly largely based on the appointee’s agreement with gays openly serving, over the true proven warrior in the missions faced, General James Mattis, who with Petraeus co-authored military COIN doctrine.

General Mattis could have been chosen to replace McChrystal.  But, he wasn’t. There’s no doubt that Petraeus will do an excellent job, but Mattis would also, and wouldn't have left a gaping hole at CENTCOM. However, Mattis is also known as a no nonsense commander, who is famous for saying in Iraq that Marines will kill if attacked (though the Left ignores that Mattis is also an advocate of “soft-power” COIN so that is less necessary).

Straight talk is not to be had when Obama’s ignorant ideology and thin ego are exposed to challenge by straight talk. Petraeus is less likely to be as blunt to Obama and the US public, whose sons and daughters’ lives are at stake on the front lines.

At least three senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have it straight:

The resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal should lead the Obama administration to re-evaluate their civilian Afghanistan team as well, three members of the Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said the controversy surrounding the Rolling Stone profile of McChrystal revealed problems beyond the comments of McChrystal and his team.

"The civilian side, in my view, is completely dysfunctional," said Graham.

Indeed.

One can hope against experience with Obama that this fracas will lead him to get more firmly behind the – at his insistence undermanned vs the military’s recommendation – troops, and make clear that there is no deadline on our commitment. The New York Times' headline, however, reports "Obama Says Afghan Policy Won't Change."

Or, one can hope against experience that Obama will feel so boxed in and revealed by his own fecklessness, especially in expectation of the drubbing coming in November, that he will straighten up, himself and his ideological coterie who are undermining the Afghanis and Americans. I have a bridge to sell you if you believe that.

Or, one can hope that even without a worthwhile Commander in Chief that General Petraeus can perform miracles.

The lives of our troops, and of civilians here in the US, depends upon one man, and that man is not President Obama.

P.S.: Henry Kissinger says of Obama's course, "Neither the premise nor the deadline is realistic," in saying "America needs an Afghan strategy, not an alibi." Read it all.

P.P.S.: As usual with Bing West, BINGO!

Bob Dylan, The Neighborhood Bully, lyrics below

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.

The old conundrum of how many angels fit on the head of a pin is now surpassed by how many Obama-Pals can be tossed under the bus before the bus falls over.

There’s soon departing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has pissed off everybody and is entangled in the former Illinois governor’s corruption trial, and White House Director of the Office of Management and Budgets Peter Orszag, who has run up $trillions of deep debts with the “stimulus” and ObamaCare.

Now, maybe to go is the Commanding General in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal, who voted for Obama, agreed to Obama’s trimmed and late arriving mini-surge, imposed US life-threatening rules-of-engagement, and now exposes the crippling inanity of the Obama national security team meddlers.

As Jackson Diehl writes at the Washington Post:

McChrystal may be at fault for expressing his frustrations to Rolling Stone. He is not at fault for the lack of coherence in the Afghan campaign or the continued feuding over strategy. That is Obama’s responsibility.

As is the other messes that Obama has created.

It is getting crowded under the bus where Obama tries to hide his blunders. How long until the bus falls over?

Senator John McCain says,

“If McChrystal goes, McCain reiterated, "we need to have a look at the functioning of the whole team."

Fish stink from the head. That's for 2012. 2010 is for emptying Obama's smelly fish tank in Congress.

The US Labor Department is going after employers of children age 13 and under.

Anyone illegally employing 12-and 13-year-olds will now face a penalty of $6,000 for each violation. The maximum fine previously was $900.

Those employing children under 12 will face a penalty of $8,000 per violation. That's up from a previous maximum of $1,150.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (soh-LEES') says the new fines are part of a stepped up effort to crack down on illegal child labor. The penalties could go as high as $11,000 per violation in cases that involve injury or willful and repeated offenders.

I started working at age 5, sweeping the sidewalks in front of stores, dusting stock, shoveling snow, and the myriad of other jobs I could find in the neighborhood.  Twenty-five cents for an afternoon’s work was big bucks to a poor slum kid.  More important, I learned work habits. Friends raised in rural areas worked in the fields at age 5. They learned work habits. We all feel better off today for the learning.

No one is in favor of putting kids in sweat-shops for 16-hour days, or such, as my grandparents were in the early 1900s.

But, next time you hear anyone complaining that kids don’t have work habits, or don’t value the money they have or the comforts, thank the types who feel that childhood and adolescence should be a skate or so protected as to deny kids and teens the opportunities to become adults with better work habits and self-responsibility.

Remember CBS’ 60 Minutes Mike Wallace? One of the most feared questions used to be, “I’m Mike Wallace, and I’d like to ask you a few questions,”  as Wallace showed up with camara crew at someone’s front door. As this tribute DVD to Wallace summarizes his career, “Take any great event in the last 50 years, and CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace has been there – asking the tough, frank, and even impertinent questions of the famous and the infamous.”

Now we have a young person daring to just ask a congressman whether he supported the Obama agenda, actually “"Do you fully believe in the Obama agenda?"  The congressman repeatedly asks, “who are you?” The young person repeatedly answers, “a student.”  The congressman grabs the questioner. (It is still unknown who the questioner is.)

It may be an “assault” by the congressman, punishable under law.  It is a congressman acting excessively, when he could have just walked away.

It is, also, a sidewalk interviewer, accompanied by another shooting video, refusing to identify himself.

I would ask the same question as the congressman did, and without an answer or an answer that would lead me to not talk with the interviewer, I would walk away. (Scott Johnson at PowerLine agrees, and still reminds us that the congressman acted like a “bully and a nut.” I think neither, but rather unhinged as the congressman apologized for acting.)

At least Mike Wallace identified himself.

Yes, there is fear being struck into the hearts of liberal Democrats by being exposed as fools and tools by ambush journalism. Liberal journalists are defending the congressman.

There’s also many fools and tools among Republican congressmen.

Will those who defend anonymous ambush journalism be as defensive of it when Republican fools are similarly exposed?

Anyone being interviewed has the right to know who the questioner is, and the right to not reply to questions. Anyone asking a question of another should have the civility and integrity to let the interviewee know who the questioner is, at least if asked. Unless assaulted themselves, the target of the interview does not have the right to assault the questioner. That much is clear.

What isn't clear is whether ethics, journalistic or otherwise, flow both ways.  It should.

The New York Times’ headline could have been “Turkey’s Islamist Government Is Just Doing the U.S. A Favor, Wink, Wink” instead of “For Turkey, an Embrace of Iran Is a Matter of Building Bridges,” by Sabrina Tavernise.

With the imprimatur “News Analysis”, the NYTs bureau chief in Istanbul, Sabrina Tavernise, with a 1993 B.A. from Barnard College in Russian Studies, tells us that “Top leaders of Mr. Erdogan’s party believe that only a Turkey that is independent from the United States will be an asset for Washington in the long run.” Tavernise adds, “Turkey is not lost, they say, but simply disagrees with the United States over how to approach the problems in the Middle East.”

Although mildly disagreed with by some sources in her article, her “news analysis” is an apologia for Turkey’s Islamist government siding with Iran, Syria, Hamas against the US, Israel, and the West. Oh, and now Hizbullah.  Erdogan has invited the head of Hizbullah, on the recommendation of Hamas, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may attend also, to attend a rally in Turkey honoring Erdogan.

Tavernise is mostly carrying water for the Erdogan government, akin to the NYT’s Walter Duranty for Stalin’s.