Well, there is no joy in Mudville these days — for reasons like a sluggish economy and man-made oil spill calamity, among others — but especially since the Afghan war general, Stan McChrystal, has struck out.Yes, our head man on the front lines of the United States’ longest running war — longer even than the abominable conflict in Vietnam — was promptly remanded and then removed from his post last Wednesday by President Obama. General McChrystal’s unfortunate misdemeanors in France and abroad before a drooling media presence earned him a pink slip from the executive branch. The big fuss was over a string of pejorative cracks that the general had made about Joe Biden and some other senior officials at a dinner table in Paris — which is perfectly acceptable, under normal circumstances. But the crew made the fatal error of permitting some goony journalist from Rolling Stone to sit in on their charades — which was a poor idea, I think, given the kind of biased and amateurish swill that dishrag of a publication is liable to churn out on the subject matter.It started out innocently enough. The jig went down when the press disclosed some choice language by McChrystal and the boys that was supposed to have been said before their good journalist friend, Michael Hastings, “in confidence.” But of course, the whole non-disclosure agreement was a lark from the beginning. After yucking it up with the boys from Afghanistan, and spouting a bunch of crude drivel in front of some geek of a Rolling Stone profiler, the McChrystal crew had set themselves on the fast track to termination by the same people they ridiculed at parties and told their interviewer they all loathed.It was a foolhardy move, but McChrystal and his aides did not realize their peril until it was too late. All the horrible things they had said “off the record” in front of this goofball reporter in Paris were suddenly appearing in print and making the top command look like a gang of cruel loons. By Tuesday, it was common knowledge among all the press wizards and heavy gamblers in Washington that the insubordinate general and his surly aides were doomed.The White House replaced him with the old warhorse Dave Petraeus, the only person who can still excite Senator McCain at his advanced age. Since General Petraeus was one of the early proponents of the “counterinsurgency” tactics the administration is so adamant about, and now experimenting with in Iraq, the transition should be run of the mill. At least it is not the hellstorm the cabinet would have set off by formally ceding control of the Navy over to Dennis Kucinich.President Obama was naturally displeased with the content of Rolling Stones’ article after reading an early release of “The Runaway General’s” acrimonious comments about his civilian superiors. Political dissent is OK, but a published transcript of godawful locker-room talk from senior military officials is a spectacle that shames the entire Armed Forces. So it’s easy to see why the president would be peeved over his general’s lewd behavior.Indeed, there is not much Mr. Obama is happy about these days. There is no real room in the high command of the most powerful military in the world for profanity and casual dinner talk of sedition. And when your Commander-in-Chief is a hardline president like Obama, it is best not to undermine the administration and wreck morale for the sake of negative publicity and some more cheap pulp for Rolling Stone to send to the presses for their July issue.In truth, there are probably a lot crazier and more mutinous opinions about the administration interspersed throughout the ranks of the Armed Forces, but most sergeants — and even bottom-of-the-rung grunts — have the discretion to keep their rancid fantasies of U.S. imperialism and international fascism to themselves.In retrospect, the McChrystal deal is not the worst thing that could have happened; Harry Truman had to sack his best general in the Korean War after the field marshal brazenly defied orders and exhibited a public contempt for the office of the presidency that would have shamed Richard Nixon. By that time, MacArthur was far gone in the terminal stages of bloodlust, and was ready for a full-scale invasion and nuclear war with China. It was clear to Truman and others at this point that the general was stark crazy and had to go.And so, he was fired – General Douglas MacArthur, gone out with a bang – and a spectacular bombshell raving before Congress that high school U.S. history teachers now call the “Old Soldiers Never Die” speech. Yes, old soldiers never die, they just fade away … and now, like that old soldier from the proud barracks ballad, Stanley McChrystal, too, will just fade away.
—-Contact Trevor Fanning at [email protected].