Civilian authority

I haven’t blogged about the War on Terror for a long time. This little MacArthur-like episode is worthy of comment. I could not do it as economically as Andrew Sullivan who says, of General McChrystal’s contempt for his civilian bosses:

Alas, as is also ironically the case, there is no way counter-insurgency can work in the tenth year of occupation, without commitment to another thirty years, instead of eighteen months. And there is no way it can work without a viable and trusted central government. But Obama did not have the intellectual or political guts to walk away, and was trapped by early campaign announcements in favor of the “good war” in Afghanistan. It may well have been the good war in 2002; but that didn’t make it a winnable war in 2009.

This is important. There is a young man from my church on the ground in Afghanistan. He is prayed for regularly.

I have an old high school buddy in the US diplomatic corps. He has been sending me very discouraging news stories about our position in Afghanistan for the past six months. Evidently you can’t beat the crap out of people for years and then depend on them to trust you when you really need their help.

My Grandfather, the war hero, told me when I was twelve never to vote for a Democrat because they always got America into wars. I know he also viewed Republicans as being the fiscally sensible party as well. There isn’t a sink hole under his grave yet but the way he must be spinning its sure to appear any time now.

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