This story is a huge embarrassment to the Obama administration.  He will probably fire McChrystal, but the damage is done.  One thing is crystal clear, the top ranking military commander personally chosen by Obama to right our ship in Afghanistan is either a raving lunatic, or he is sick and tired of dealing with raving lunatics:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/22/latest-mcchrystal-developments/

McChrystal cannot survive this and stay in the military.  But he can resign and retire.  He could pull a Palin and make millions traveling around the country telling everyone exactly what he thinks of Obama.  That is the real problem for Obama.  If he accepts McChrystal’s resignation, he no longer has any control over what McChrystal will do or say.  Active duty officers have to follow orders.  Officers who have retired can say what they want.  Common sense says that Obama will fire McChrystal, but don’t be surprised if Obama doesn’t do the expected.  Obama has a hard time making a difficult decision.  So far, with regard to Afghanistan, Obama has been paralyzed with fear over having to make any decision.  When confronted with the request to add more troops Obama took several weeks to make a non-decision.  McChrystal is one tough guy.  I don’t think he will accept a demotion.  He will either resign and move on, or go back to his command.  He, unlike Obama, is someone who can make a decision.  Right now I would bet that there are full scale damage control meetings at the White House.  Since just shooting McChrystal is not an option, they are trying to decide how to mitigate the damage.  No matter what they decide, Obama has been severely damaged. 

The word from the troops is that they are kind of glad to see McChrystal in trouble, because they hate the rules of engagement.  McChrystal has to know that and his past record indicates that this was unlikely to have been his idea.  He was definitely a hard core take no prisoners kind of guy, until he took over in Afghanistan.  So what changed; his orders or his outlook?  All McChrystal has to say to make this absolutely impossible for Obama is that the rules of engagement were Obama’s idea and he was just following a direct order he despised.  If he does that, Obama will lose the last smidgen of respect from our troops on the ground.

On final thought:  McChrystal said he voted for Obama.  That leaves three choices.  One, he is a liar.  Two, he voted for Obama because he is that ambitious.  Three, he actually is stupid. 

Latest and greatest.  McChrystal is out, replaced by Petraeus.  Probably the best option for Obama under the circumstances.   But it doesn’t matter.  It just make Obama’s mismanagement of the Afghanistan war the hottest topic.  Interestingly while most people felt Obama should fire McChrystal, at the same time they all said McChrystal is a very good commander and that this is a symptom of poor management by the White House.  Even MSNBC has figured that out.

http://www.foxnews.com/

TDM