McChrystal's Calculated "Gaffe"

Does anyone really think General Stanley McChrystal didn't know what he was doing when he sat for the Rolling Stone interview?

Surely, this was not an accident or simply a case of, as yesterday's Wall Street Journal lead staff editorial contended, "bad judgement."

McChrystal headed SOG command and may be considered among the most elite and higher ranking Army officers on duty. Being SOG-trained and its commander, it's easy to imagine the General and his staffers seeing Wonderboy and his staff as a joke. And feeling it an insult to have to report to the First Rookie as Commander in Chief.

A guy like McChyrstal can probably only take so much political interference and incompetence before he believes he has a choice to make- between his troops' safety and the accomplishment of his mission, or silence and failure.

McChrystal chose the former, and the loss of his job. Probably resignation to follow shortly. I personally believe he had chosen this end with full knowledge as he began the fateful interview.

I'm curious as to why he even made a pretense of apologizing to people whom he derided in the interview. Does he really care?

I think not.

After a career of dangerous service to his nation, including stints in the blackest ops element of the service, McChrystal sacrificed the remainder of that career to highlight to the American people, in a very public manner, the mistakes and fecklessness of Wonderboy's administration and its hapless approach to military conflict.

We owe General McChrystal a major debt for his courage in speaking his mind and consenting to pay the inevitable price for that in our system of civilian control of the military.