So Long Sir

So the question of whether or not President Obama would replace General McChrystal as the man in charge of Allied forces in Afghanistan was answered in pretty short order. Soon after their meeting earlier this week, McChrystal stepped down and General Petreaus, the well-known General who led our troops in Iraq and now controls operations for the entire region will be taking his place. A lot of people have been talking about the entire situation; I mean how can you not. For those of us World War II history buffs out there it's probably not much of a surprise as to what happened. After all, this is sort of like what happened to General Patton during the Second World War. In essence anyways, that's how you can help people understand what's happened.

Indeed, a lot of people have wondered whether the fact that McChrystal was removed from his posting whether that means he's been fired. Well yes and no. I'm sure those who have served in the military will be able to explain it a lot better than myself but then again I can at least put it in layman's terms. You can probably compare it to a regular Joe at the office being asked to leave his position. He's not being fired but he's taking a different role in the office. Now while the actions of McChrystal weren't exactly the best when you consider his position in the grand scheme of things, he didn't really do anything that would justify his being 'fired' in the traditional sense of the term. His comments can't be considered bad enough to justify having him undergo a court martial.

But where do you then draw the line? I don't think many of us can admit to agreeing with every single action our bosses take. We always have an opinion and probably like to think that we can do it better. Rare is the time that we actually come out in a public forum and make our dissatisfaction known to one and all. Sure there are some who certainly do do that but they aren't the vast majority of us and the reason is that we know that it's not really 'politically correct'. Certainly you can't expect someone like General McChrystal or now, General Petreaus to simply accept what their civilian bosses say and then go and do it. That's where the difference comes in. These gentlemen have thousands of soldiers working for them (and the country) and their lives are in their hands.

That being the case, it's not right to expect that they should by any means just accept what they are being told. However, given that they are publicly given a great deal of respect, I would think that they could return the same sentiment in kind. Had the President or any of the others mentioned in the General's Rolling Stone article come out and talked a lot of trash about the General then he had every right to say what he said, but since that wasn't the case, he should have kept his thoughts for a more private setting. I can't imagine the pressures he and now General Petreaus must go through leading so many troops into battle. They obviously care for their soldiers, but the same level of respect needs to go to the chain of command as well.