Honor & Loyality

Yesterday, General McChrystal resigned from his position as Commander of ISAF and US Forces in Afghanistan. This decision has left many people scratching their head, since many believed that McChrystal was untouchable. To me however, it was an easy decision. (Here is the article.)

1. The immaturity of the comments
If one read the article, the comments were very immature and puerile. It seemed as if the a group of wasted fraternity guys got together and attempted to analyze the Afghan War. Not only was there criticism of policy, there seemed to be personal attacks on people. And that is the source of the problem. It is ok to disagree about policy; but once you devolve into name-calling and personal attacks, you have stepped over the line. McChrystal allowed himself and the people around him to take the low road. That is what got him in trouble.

2. Loyalty Matters
No matter how you may feel about the mission, the military requires that you fulfill it to the best of your abilities without complaint. You may disagree with your commander, but you do not throw him under the bus. Imagine if you disagreed with a decision your boss made. Instead of keeping that disagreement between the two of you, you blast him/her on Facebook, Twitter. It gets on the cover of newspapers and magazines.

Of course your boss will fire you. You have showed no loyalty to your boss by throwing them under the bus. McChrystal did the same to Obama and Obama had to remove him for his disloyalty. You cannot keep disloyal and disrespectful employees

3. International Outlook
How weak would Obama look if he allowed someone who disrespected him and his administration to keep their job? He would look incredibly weak allowing men under his command to disrespect him.

Secondly, McChrystal and his aides also talked badly about our allies with us in Afghanistan They called the French "gay" and McChrystal said that he would rather be beaten by a room full of people than attend events held by the French. This obviously is not going to over well with any of our allies. Thus, Obama had to get rid of him.

McChrystal really messed up. He reallyneeded to think before he speaks. He should have joined #teamsaynothing

Patience is Needed

Recently there have been a slew of prediction, guestimations, and prophesies about what is going to happen during the mid-term elections. Some are predicting the Tea Party candidates to run the table. Other pundits are predicting that the Congress will fall to the Republicans. Many pundits are saying that all incumbents are out the door. So many predictions, so few tell the complete stories.

So yes, the Tea Party candidates have won handily in some states (KY, UT, NJ, NV). In other states, incumbents have fallen (PA). In some states, establishment candidates have held on (CA, VA, AK). Even though all of this seems to show no pattern, there really is one. Of all the candidates that one, they won because the ran a good campaign. They had a clear, concise message that resonated with the population. Majority of the winning candidates had well-funded campaigns, whether personally financed or through party apparatus.

So what we have seen is that we should all relax on the predictions. Whether Democrat or Republican, establishment or newcomer, it really all boils down to one thing:

Let the best campaigner win.