Just found out...

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Just found out...

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Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

Just found out...

I might have known...

McChrystal's ancestry is from the Glasgow/Paisley area of Scotland...

http://www.ancestryfamilytree.com/facts/McChrystal-family-history-sct.ashx

(That explains a lot now...

)

Full RS article here if anyone's interested...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 24 2010 19:13:21

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

His favorite beer is Bud Lite Lime.... He deserved to be fired for that alone.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 26 2010 18:30:22

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Just found out... (in reply to estebanana)

And he took his wife (dressed for dinner) to Jack-In-The Box.

I like the guy though.

He just can't take crap, especially white-collar crap.

He puts me in mind of that General in "Apocalypse Now" who "loved the smell of Napalm in the morning..."

He also puts me in mind of that occasional hero at work, who is called up for a disciplinary carpeting by Senior Management after a misdemenour or prank... and ends up losing it and giving them all a mouthful and telling them all to stick their job up their collective ass and walking out....

BTW: (In Scotland anyway), we add Lime to really crap lager to make it just about drinkable.... (true!)

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 26 2010 18:47:41

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

Oh yeah, he's not without redeeming qualities for a professional killer. His judgment lapsed when he let a reporter loose in his office. Whether he liked it or not his position was political and he should have vetted the reportage to fit.

Some people here are calling foul on his firing because the article offended some State Department weenies, but it had a damning subtext of a Col Kurtz out of the control of the president. During the Iraq war McC said some very controversial things, but Rumsfeld protected him, (side note- Rumsfeld is a major **** hole of a human being ) so he walked. Pentagon generals who are powerful can work with amazing autonomy, but you simply can't disrespect one man, the president, and keep your career.

It seems like a very elementary blunder for such a skilled tactician. Which makes you wonder about many things, like who read this article before it was run.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 26 2010 20:44:53

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Just found out... (in reply to estebanana)

quote:

for a professional killer

Not much use in having an Army full of professional flower arrangers...

quote:

His judgment lapsed

So did Obama's when he gave him the job.

The guy's obviously a loose cannon (his record shows that), but the hierarchy thought he might be useful to them.

Don't take it so seriously Estebanana....this is the first bit of light relief in a month of miserable news.

(Personally...I've got a feeling he told them all to stuff it before they got round to telling him he was fired...guys like that don't grovel, squirm and apologise..they're nuts already!

)

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 26 2010 21:01:01

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

I think this was unexpected for McC because he was trying make four star general before he retired. Now he retires as a three star general. If he had not allowed this to happen he would have been promoted in several more months even if he had left command.

I also think as a bit of investigative journalism or a personal profile the article is weak and baldy written in the sense that the author does not offer counter opinions from any State Dept. people or Afghani's. It seems to border on being intentionally inflammatory. Which I why I made the comment I wonder who read it before it ran.

You can write about a guy like that and make him seem like a tough minded hero straddling the gulf of politics and grunts in the dirt warfare. The writer took the low road when instead of saying the language in the Mc C's briefing rooms can get salty he quoted all the f-words. I feel the writer sensationalized that aspect of the language of the military. We all talk like that at times, but he took much of it out of context. He never asked Mc C directly to say what he thought of Obama and his staff. If he had he could have contrasted that with the informal take Mc C's staff had on the Whitehouse.

The journalist gets a C- in my grade book.
Mc C gets an F
Obama gets an A- for for firing him swiftly.

The other thing that caught my attention is the way Mc C's staff said his meeting with French diplomat was "gay". Serious problem. The Obama admin is trying to change the don't ask don't tell policy of gays in the military. They can't have high ranking officers setting that example. And you don't openly call a diplomat names or allow your staff to do so.

And McC is a redneck that does not like Paris! What a hayseed.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 26 2010 23:56:54

kovachian

Posts: 506
Joined: Jan. 30 2008
From: Americanistan

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

I like McChrystal.

When I served, I could only dream of having commanding officers like him.

And Bud Lite Lime is good, dammit. It tastes like fermented skunk piss. It's not as good as any decent micro-brew, but I happen to like fermented skunk piss.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 27 2010 1:25:45

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Just found out... (in reply to estebanana)

Hey Estebanana...we're talking about Rolling Stone Magazine, not the New York Times for Heaven's sake!

..

The guy just acted as a "fly on the wall" journalist and gave his impressions and quotes with no holds barred.

What do you want the guy to do? Censor it for the sake of not offending his readership?

The truth is both Afghanistan and Iraq are "unwinnable" (as in one Army gets defeated by a bigger and better Army in a face to face conflict...bla, bla, bla...)

The World ain't like that anymore...hasn't been like that for ages.

I would have thought Vietnam proved that to leaders everywhere.

Christ, even the entire British Army couldn't put down a dedicated "anti-British rule" bunch of people in a small province in Northern Ireland after 20 years of high tech equipment and thousands of troops!

This quote made me laugh..

"Even Afghans are confused by Afghanistan," he says. But even if he somehow manages to succeed, after years of bloody fighting with Afghan kids who pose no threat to the U.S. homeland, the war will do little to shut down Al Qaeda, which has shifted its operations to Pakistan. Dispatching 150,000 troops to build new schools, roads, mosques and water-treatment facilities around Kandahar is like trying to stop the drug war in Mexico by occupying Arkansas and building Baptist churches in Little Rock. "

The thing is that both the US and UK Governments are so embarrassed to lose face over this that they just keep on going on and on losing lives and spending zillions of dollars rather than admit to the fact it was a wrong decision to get involved in the first place and it can do no real good whatsoever.

Real life is rarely like the Movies.

But folk are still allowed in a free society to wrap themselves in the flag and sing "The Star Spangled Banner" or "Land of Hope and Glory" with a tear in their eye and a hand on their heart and mourn the deaths of the fallen at Ceremonies while completely dismissing the war-wounded and amputees who return as a "problem" and a "burden" on the State and ignoring them.

A couple of UK Generals here who retired, so had no need to toe the line, shook up the UK Establishment by giving their plain and candid views on the whole situation.

Of course, they were roundly dismissed and condemned by the young up and coming Oxford and Cambridge graduates who had found fame and fortune in Government without ever having to get their hands dirty or actually do a day's hard work, but just pushed pens and shouted at minions and govellers.

So let's rally round and salute our respective flags.

As for nutters..

Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin were pretty nutty, self obsessed people.

Sometimes folk like that are useful.

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 27 2010 18:57:07

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

Ron,
I agree with your points, but would only add that we drink Corona beer with a wedge of lime in the summer. I just think the journalist could have written a more informative and rounded profile. And like I said, I wonder who the RS editor showed that article to before he sent it to press? Not that I would protect Mc C. Just saying it seems fishy, like a set up.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 27 2010 22:23:07

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Just found out... (in reply to Ron.M)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/opinion/27rich.html

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 27 2010 23:48:21

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Just found out... (in reply to estebanana)

quote:

I wonder who the RS editor showed that article to before he sent it to press? Not that I would protect Mc C. Just saying it seems fishy, like a set up.

estebanana,

Definitely someone must have read it to avoid legal action in case of reporting errors or having no recorded backup to what was said.

(Which makes me think that McC must have known what was going to hit the fan, but didn't care.)

Not quite so spectacular but still incredible is that I have heard a couple of ex British Generals, fresh from months of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan who have given their candid account (on a Radio interview) of what things are like on the ground... the lack of proper equipment.. the morale and motivation of the troops... the attitudes of the locals.. the stale-mate situation etc.

The interviewer then turns to a Politician penpusher, who spends all his time in an office in central London...who responds by saying that what the General is saying is completely incorrect.

Just unreal!

It's interesting too to consider that 9/11, the London Underground bombings, the Madrid bombing etc etc including the latest (luckily failed) attempt at Times Square all originated from WITHIN the respective countries and only took a few people to carry out.

Going halfway round the world to try to defeat not an army, but an ideology just seems a waste of time and effort IMO.

I've no particular like or dislike of McC...I just find him a character.

BTW: The BBC found the reporter's complete article worthy of broadcasting on BBC Radio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t2rf4

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 28 2010 9:25:12