After shakeup, Petraeus is back

Climaxing the biggest civilian-military showdown since President Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Obama this week relieved Marine Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan. Obama immediately named McChrystal’s direct boss, Gen. David Petraeus, as his replacement. The moves came one day after an article in Rolling Stone quoted McChrystal and his aides mocking Obama and his national security team. One aide called National Security Advisor James Jones a “clown,” while others said Obama appeared “uncomfortable and intimidated” when first meeting the general. McChrystal himself said U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry wrote a memo critical of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cover “his flank for the history books.” McChrystal also scoffed at Vice President Joe Biden, saying, “Who’s that?’’

A somber Obama said McChrystal’s conduct “undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system.” Obama conceded there are conflicts within the administration over the faltering war effort in Afghanistan, but he reaffirmed his commitment to the counterinsurgency policy overseen by McChrystal and the ongoing troop surge. He called the appointment of Petraeus—who engineered the turnaround in the war in Iraq—“a change in personnel but not a change in policy.”

This is a “sad end” to McChrystal’s career, said Thomas Donnelly and William Kristol in WeeklyStandard.com, but the “cringe-inducing quotes” of McChrystal and his staff sealed his fate. The remarks, though, highlight a deeper problem—the administration’s disarray on Afghanistan policy. The vaunted “‘team of rivals’ approach is producing only rivalry.”

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McChrystal’s exit “will hit Kabul even harder than Washington,” said Lloyd Grove in TheDailyBeast.com. Karzai’s relations with Eikenberry and special envoy Richard Holbrooke are acrimonious, but he enjoyed a “close rapport” with McChrystal. Now, Karzai has lost his only friend in Washington—and the shakeup could set back the struggle for a greater Afghan role in battling the Taliban.

Not necessarily, said Rich Lowry in National Review Online. While this startling turn of events is an embarrassment, the outcome is actually positive. Petraeus is “an unassailable expert” in counterinsurgency warfare with “the clout and credibility” to tell Obama if his July 2011 timetable for beginning a troop pullout is realistic. “Obama has made the most of a rotten situation.”