PRESS: President outranks general

By Bill Press

Do the words “commander in chief” mean anything?

That’s not so clear anymore, after Gen. Stanley McChrystal publicly disagreed with President Obama over sending more troops to Afghanistan.

McChrystal made his remarks shortly after sending the president his request for 10,000 to 45,000 more troops — without which, he warned, our mission in Afghanistan would fail. Addressing a forum of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies in London, the general not only repeated his demand for additional forces, he shot down the proposal by Vice President Biden that our mission be changed from one of occupying Afghanistan to hunting down terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That would be nothing short of “Chaos-istan,” McChrystal sneered.

Then, even though his recommendation had not yet worked its way up through the Pentagon chain of command to reach the president’s desk, the general also slammed Obama for taking too long to make up his mind. “Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome,” he told his London audience. “These efforts will not remain winnable indefinitely. Public support will not last indefinitely.” His words were clearly a direct criticism of the president’s decision-making process.

Which raises a couple of important questions. First, what the hell was McChrystal doing in London in the first place? As commander of International Security Assistance Forces and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, his job is on the battlefield in Afghanistan, not hanging out in some swanky London hotel.

If McChrystal feels he needs more troops to accomplish his mission, fine. Let him tell the president that. In private. And let him put pressure on the president — in private, not in a public speech, sure to be reported immediately around the world. McChrystal’s boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, gets it right: “It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president, candidly but privately.”

Second question: Who’s in charge here? Obama or McChrystal? The president or the general? It’s a matter of command and control generals sometimes forget. As once, famously, did Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

After Dwight Eisenhower, MacArthur may have been the most popular general in American history. A decorated leader in World War I, he then served as superintendent of West Point before becoming Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific in World War II and later overseeing the reconstruction of post-war Japan.

MacArthur seemed the logical choice to head American forces in the Korean War, until hubris took over. When he proposed bombing military targets in China, President Truman said no -- afraid that would bring the Soviet Union into the conflict and trigger nuclear war. Whereupon MacArthur wrote a letter to Republican House Minority Leader Joe Martin, openly disagreeing with the president’s decision.

At which point, Truman fired MacArthur for insubordination and, in so doing, made an important point: In the United States, civilians control the military, and not the other way around. If he ever learned it, that’s a lesson General Stanley McChrystal seems to have forgotten.

Nor is this the first time McChrystal’s found himself in hot water. In 2004, he led a Pentagon cover-up in the friendly fire death of Army Ranger and NFL star Pat Tillman in eastern Afghanistan. McChrystal admitted that he approved a posthumous Silver Star to Tillman, usually awarded for heroism under fire, even though he already suspected at the time it might be a case of fratricide — thereby deliberately hiding the truth from Tillman’s family and the American people. “I was part of that (cover-up), and I apologize for it,” he told a Senate hearing.

Later, it was reported that as head of Special Forces in Iraq, McChrystal also oversaw operations at Camp Nama, a military base outside of Baghdad, where the abuse and torture of prisoners was common practice, both before and after the scandal at Abu Ghraib. Senator Carl Levin revealed that McChrystal requested permission to use five “enhanced interrogation techniques” not listed in the Army Field Manual. The result, according to Human Rights Watch, was “the serious mistreatment of detainees by the special task force, including beatings, exposure to extreme cold, threats of death, humiliation and various forms of psychological abuse or torture.”

Now, let’s see: insubordination, cover-up, and torture. By my count, McChrystal already has three strikes against him.

President Obama hired Gen. McChrystal. He can fire him, too. And should.