You've Been MacArthured!
According to military law, an officer may not "use[...] contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present [or he or she] shall be punished as a court-martial may direct." Beyond the simple inappropriateness of General Stanley McChrystal's comments to Rolling Stone magazine, they undermine the very strategy he lauded in Afganistan.
Counter-insurgency, the policy McChrystal strongly advocated for as a tactical plan in Afganistan, is a system in which the military, in addition to normal behaviors, endeavors for the completion of traditionally non-military activities, like nation building or education of the public. These strategies are not normally military duty, so counter-insurgency relies heavily on the participation of civilian military leaders, like the President and his cabinet.
By treating the President and other civilian leaders, especially the Vice-President, as uninterested and incompetent, McChrystal served to undermine his own strategy for Afganistan. Without the complete trust of civilian leaders, counter-insurgency is pointless and will not achieve the results he wishes for. Perhaps if McChrystal had show a bit more respect for the civilian leaders, he would have been more successful in Afganistan over the past year.
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By treating the President and other civilian leaders, especially the Vice-President, as uninterested and incompetent, McChrystal served to undermine his own strategy for Afganistan. Without the complete trust of civilian leaders, counter-insurgency is pointless and will not achieve the results he wishes for. Perhaps if McChrystal had show a bit more respect for the civilian leaders, he would have been more successful in Afganistan over the past year.
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