It’s Started All Over Again

It’s Started All Over Again




Well, if you live long enough, you’re bound to see history repeat itself. Yes, there is that whole thing about “forget your past and you’re condemned to repeat it”, courtesy of a philosopher, George Santayana, that poorer history students might mistake for a general from the Mexican/American War. That doesn’t mean that these students are the only ones who have trouble remembering this, though.



Take, for instance, that Douglas MacArthur/Harry Truman run-in from the Korean War. This involved a heavyweight military officer, a household name, who oversaw the Japanese Theater of Operation in WW2, and who accepted Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri. His opponent? A one-time senator from Missouri, of all things, who many thought was the President by accident.



To make a long story short, MacArthur decided the Commander-in-Chief (CinC) did not know enough to conduct the war in Korea. His criticism of the President was made public by a well-meaning Member of Congress with whom MacArthur had been corresponding. Perhaps he thought his rank, General of the Army, or his standing with the public, would shield him from any fallout. If so, he reckoned without considering who Harry Truman was. In short order, Harry called his man back to D. C., and gave him his walking papers. Big Mac gave his “old soldiers never die” speech, and in short order, faded away.



Fast forward some 60 years, and again, we find a highly-regarded military commander, Lt, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and a lightly-regarded President, Barrack Obama. But here, the highly-regarded military officer did MacArthur one better. Not only did Lt. Gen. McChrystal dis the CinC of the U. S. Military, he went after other higher-ups in a story that was published in Rolling Stone magazine.



First up was the second-in-command. “ Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal joked. “Who’s that?” Then the Lt. Gen. revealed that he also had trouble with the White House’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrook. Of Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the Lt. Gen. speculated that the Ambassador was protecting himself when a memo critical of the war effort was leaked. And a retired four-star General, Jim Jones, was singled out as “a clown…stuck in 1985”.



But it was the criticism of President Obama that led the news coverage of this whole sordid affair. What is most surprising is that McChrystal revealed that he actually voted for Obama, but was “disappointed’ in his CinC when the two actually met. He also expressed some displeasure in having been reprimanded by Obama after he went public with his desire for more troops last fall.



McChrystal does show that he’s taken at least some of the MacArthur/Truman affray to heart. He apologized. “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened”, the Lt. Gen. was quoted as saying.





Obama is showing that he has studied history, too. Like his predecessor, Harry Truman, Obama has summoned McChrystal back to D. C., to a high-level meeting.



Will the President dismiss his commander in Afghanistan? I’m tempted to say, no. Obama has shown that he is tolerant of dissent, and if he fired McChrystal, he’d have to break in a new man.



Better to keep an experienced man on the job, an experienced man who would then owe Obama big time.