Dis-miss

~ Patrick O'Grady

So, Stan the Man got the heave-ho. Alas, you can’t call the boss a pussy and his staff a bunch of faggots and expect to keep climbing that old career ladder. At least he had his Class A goin’ on when he showed up to take his beating.

Dude’s been in the Green Machine for 34 years now, having graduated from The Point in 1976. What’s next? Some lesser post? Retirement? I’m guessing the latter. Take one for the team — “Fellas, this is what happens when you forget that in the United States, the military is under civilian control. …” — and then join a couple think tanks, pen a memoir, become a talking head on Fox, hit the rubber-chicken circuit, form a militia.

Hey, could be worse. Most of us 50-somethings wouldn’t have unlimited earning potential, a lifetime pension and free medical care if we got sacked for being dicks. I’d have a mortgage, a whole bunch of things that suddenly needed selling and a really pissed-off wife.

12 thoughts on “Dis-miss”

  4. Don’t forget the lovely marriage he gets to partake in now, heard he averages around 30 days a year with the better half! Ha, ha, welcome home soldier boy, oh don’t forget about his spartan lifestyle–4 hours of sleep per day, 1 meal a day–holy shit its gonna be a party at the Gen’s rez.

  5. Trust me on this one folks: Stan knew EXACTLY what he was doing, why he was doing it, and knew fully who will be footing the bills and making the pay-outs down the line. This was a political move par excellence; a fantastic ploy and an outright lose/lose for Obama, regardless if he, Obama, fired Stan or kept him. This wasn’t a deal where the General got caught unawares with a camera and mic stuck in his face and said stupid things. How much time do you think he had to prepare for the Rolling Stone interview: a few days; a few weeks? This was scripted from the get-go. This man is a Army WARRIOR. He has lived his entire life following orders and demanding that others follow his. I don’t care how pissed off you are with your Commanding Officers, or the Prez, at his level you absolutely DO NOT diss the CIC – flat don’t happen. Stan will go into hiding for a year and when he re-appears, whoever the Repugnants have on the dais for the election, Stan the Man will be there with bells on, telling all how the Dems are hapless bozos – and he’s seen it from the inside. And the Tea Baggers will be at the trough eating it up…

  7. David,

    I don’t buy it. He could achieve all that end result without having to trip over his own dick in public. If he’s so smart wouldn’t that occur to him?

    I’ve spent about 2 minutes on this and don’t even know all the facts, but it sounds like he just had a brain fart and forgot to keep his mouth shut with an open mike in range.

    It sounds better to attribute it to some plan, but Occam’s Razor suggest plain old human stupidity, which afflicts the best of us at times.

  9. Jon, a good point without doubt, but again, it wasn’t an errant open mic in range; he didn’t “forget” anything. Like I said, he had plenty of time to plan out what he was going to say. AND, he said it all to Rolling Stone. Not a Republican or military-friendly newspaper, but Rolling Stone. A publication that in mainstream America’s mind is the epitome of the most liberal Democrat mouthpiece in the land.

    And, I think that there are a lot of people, like those who REALLY, REALLY don’t want to see Obama in office again, who don’t think Stan “tripped over his own dick” at all.

  10. Here’s what I took away from that article: McChrystal has been raised by the military “family” as the golden boy who could get away with anything, no matter how egregious his behavior. From West Point to West Afghanistan, his antics and outright crimes have brought him no more than a slap on the wrist. The guy has been conditioned to believe he is bulletproof. Then, in walks Rolling Stone, feeding him a line about how the rock’n’roll magazine is doing a story on the Rock Star General. Of course, he thinks, that’s exactly who I am. Then he and his staff, who don’t know that RS has been doing serious political journalism for 40 years, proceed to show this music writer exactly what kind of Rock Stars they are. Arrogance and hubris, that’s my take.
    What bugs me most, though, is the criticism of Obama and his gang is getting all the attention here, when the real point of this story is that our little war in Afghanistan is a bad situation that’s getting worse with pretty much zero chance of changing course. THAT’s what I care about, not whether the generals and the politicians are getting along.

  11. Just to review the bidding …

    95% of the inflammatory comments came from his staffers, not from Stand the Man himself. Issue seems to be not that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut but that he at best tolerated, at worst promoted an environment, not of respectful dissent, but of bitching and moaning.

    Also, at least one report claims his resignation letter was written long before he got the call from the boss. Not sure McC can come back and say “this whole administration is a bunch of wimps,” when the counter could be, “boy quit on me before I could fire him.”

    Love the Daily Show’s take on it. The big story the first 24 hours wasn’t the potential removal of a senior military commander, but that everyone got scooped by Rolling Fucking Stone. The press finally realized that they collectively suck.

  12. He had to go… You don’t make those statements and keep your job when you wear the uniform. If he needed to make them, you resign and then you make them. His staff officers are pretty much done too. I blame Gen. Mc Crystal for that too. You can’t tolerate that behavior either.

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