McKiernan Replaced

You see that's what wrong with the neocons. For the most part none of them have any military experience and you can tell that by the way they are so cavalier about putting soldiers in harms way. Any idiot whose at least read a Tom Clancy novel knws that soldiers sleep where the can because there is no telling when the next opportunity will arise. The idea that conservatives are so much more attuned to the military seems like its more myth than reality to me.

As I read about this move all sorts of questions pop into my mind. Was he not on board with the strategy changes? Was he a sacrificial lamb to atone for air-strike casualties? Was he asking for MORE resources than the administration was willng to provide?
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This is just the sort of story that suits Joe Klein. I look forward to significant additional reporting.

I'm not sure that the constant need for a sacrificial lamb over ever minor gaffe serves much value. It seems to promote an extreme risk aversion and reverse delegation more than anything else.

Hey Joe,

I do hope McChrystal brings some fresh ideas. I just can't help but have the sinking feeling that our military is being sucked, albeit pragmatically, into the bog of ever changing ground realities and compounding complexities. 2001 sure seems like a hell of a long time ago.

Why couldn't you tell that story about Rumsfeld's incompetence and petty mind set before now? You know, like back when he was still SecDef and more of this kind of crap coming out might have gotten him the ax sooner and thereby saved American and Iraqi lives?
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I mean seriously, WTF, you guys in the media just sit on stuff like this for years, never embarrassing whoever is currently popular/powerful, but bringing all this out into the light once they've fallen.
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If the emperorer wasn't wearing any clothes, you'd just sit there and describe how awesome his outfit was until the little boy unmasked him then chortle about how everyone knew the whole time that he was naked.

Minor gaffe? Killing at least 50 civilians (Afghans say many more) is a "minor gaffe"? Damn I must have missed the part where we announced that such things are now deemed trivial.

Joe Klein
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In all fairness it reads like a personal ancedote. When I read it I thought you were recounting something you had personally witnessed back then or at least heard about back then.

Joe
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What sgwhite said. From the way you related it, I thought you were also on the plane when it happened.

Joe, thanks for responding to DeCoursey. I was also thinking the same thing: how infuriating it is for us interested reader to find out years later that journalists had "known something" very significant for years, and they never wrote about it because it was "old news" that "everyone already knew" but of course "everyone" never bothered to write about it when it could have done some good. You know, like torture programs and spying on American journalists and citizens and such. But there is lots more. This isn't you, it's a general complaint. So thanks for clarifying.

I were familiar from afar wi' General McKiernan b'cause o' livin' in Naples, IT, fer th' past 3 years (I be back in th' PNW now) whilst he were USAREUR (US Army, Europe). He be a right fine soldier, accessable an' honest concerned fer' th' welfare o' 'is troops. Mrs. McKiernan were also on th' front lines in family welfare efforts.
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I be sad t' hear o' this replacement, an' wish 'em both th' best. They used t' be sayin, on me AFN, "USAREUR rocks!" I now be thinkin', "McKiernans rock!" Bless 'em both fer their service!

What Paul Dirks said (again).
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Personally I am very concerned about the direction of Afghanistan-Pakistan policy. I don't think Af-Pak will be Obama's Vietnam in the sense that Vietnam was LBJ's disaster. But I worry that we're in an earlier stage of a similarly disastrous war, making it roughly equivalent to JFK's or perhaps Eisenhower's Vietnam: a quieter failure that will contribute to far more visible failures before 2020.

[...] in Army, Bush Administration, Military at 12:34 pm by LeisureGuy Joe Klein tells a good story that illustrates Rumsfeld’s personality: McKiernan’s departure gives me the opportunity [...]

As a career airborne infantry officer and Ranger school alumni I'd like to make an observation on this story.

1. The fact that Dave McKiernan was retained on active duty from March 2003 through the departure of Don Rumsfeld would indicate to anyone vaguely familiar with the cut throat way general officers are managed that if anyone had it out for McKiernan it was not the SecDef. McKiernan's continued tenure had to have been approved of by the SecDef twice during this time.

2. Are you seriously contending that a 3-star general staying up for 72 hours, to the point where he can't stay awake, especially if he held the position McKiernan did in OIF1, is a good thing? We don't tolerate that behavior out of second lieutenants because it kills people. If the story is true Rumsfeld should be damned for not relieving him on the spot.

There is no doubt that McKiernan was put aside after OIF1, but drawing a straight line from that to this "incident" is just sloppy journalism.

Field Marshall Joe Klein asserts: "Rumsfeld was so angered by this--hah!--insubordination that he told his staff that McKiernan would never receive another command so long as he was SecDef."

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Hahahahaha. Once again, Klein makes an allegation and, predictably, provides no evidence to substantiate his allegation. Does anyone at Time magazine know what evidence is? Is there a single soul from the non-idiot community who subscribes to Time magazine? Are there more than 100 people from the idiot, non-school librarian community who subscribe to Time magazine?

In addition to the war, I think that Obama needs to use a lot of soft power. Specifically, I would like to see him use efficient foreign aid to address severe poverty overseas. The Borgen Project has good info on the estimated cost of ending global poverty:

$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.

This is one of those Rorschach posts that confirms to everybody who reads it whatever preconception they came in with.
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Joke, would it have killed you to link to some kind of factual reporting, or do we have to do everything for you?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/world/asia/12military.html?ref=global-home
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Joke, do you agree or disagree with Ms. Bumiller? Can you link to something better? Has Auntie Broder whispered something in your ear? Or was this just so you could give us your juicy little anecdote with no factual basis?

Do you mean Rumsfeld said no more combat commands? Because otherwise:

2003: Rumsfeld says he'll never give McKiernan another command.

2005: Rumsfeld gives McKiernan command of all U.S. Army forces in Europe and promotes him to four-star general.

2007: Rumsfeld stops being SecDef.

Dee said, "You see that's what wrong with the neocons. For the most part none of them have any military experience..."

Rumsfeld was an aviator in the United States Navy between 1954 and 1957 before transferring to the Reserve.

He is both the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (74 years old) person to have held the Secretary of Defense position, as well as the only person to have held the position for two non-consecutive terms, and the second longest serving, behind Robert McNamara.

Joe, as always the king of aplomb. More military hagiography, anecdotally of course, as that allows for the most gratuitous ego-stroking.
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http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175069/everyday_is_doomsday_in_washington
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'Of course, to put this in perspective, we now live in a thoroughly ramped-up atmosphere in which "American national security" -- defined to include just about anything unsettling that occurs anywhere on Earth -- is the eternal preoccupation of a vast national security bureaucracy. Its bread and butter increasingly seems to be worst-case scenarios (perfect for our 24/7 media to pounce on) in which something truly catastrophic is always about to happen to us, and every "situation" is a "crisis." In the hothouse atmosphere of Washington, the result can be a feeding frenzy in which doomsday scenarios pour out. Though we don't recognize it as such, this is a kind of everyday extremism.'

Donald Rumsfeld was an honorable man.
Don't be so hysterical, or you'll have a stroke when the american people discover that this Obama was nothing more than a marketing agency.

Donald Rumsfeld was an honorable man.
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Interesting use of the past tense. Did he die suddenly this afternoon, or has he been dishonorable for some period of time?

He retired. He was an honorable man in his role as defense chief, no matter what some blog entry might have you believe.

This is a huge moment in military history: a library will be written about it.
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Jeebus, Joke, you pompous assclown. Based on what? How would you know? Why should we believe anything you say?

Joe, have you read AS on this? The AS with a brain, mind you, not your colleague. He links to the Esquire piece as well:
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http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/stanley-mcchrystal-a-history-of-torture.html
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So, perhaps we can wait one the histories of "seismic change"