No Time For Hardball

This quote jumped at me regarding the Obama/McChrystal situation:

An adviser to the administration said: "People aren't sure whether McChrystal is being naïve or an upstart. To my mind he doesn't seem ready for this Washington hard-ball and is just speaking his mind too plainly."

I understand President Obama being upset at General McChrystal for not following the chain of command and taking his complaints directly to his superiors. But now is definitely not the time for "Washington hard-ball". Not when we're involved in a war where Americans are being killed in record numbers. Perhaps McChrystal wanted a little one-on-one with Obama, any way he could get it (since he can't seem to get it otherwise). Or perhaps he's seeing what's happening on the ground and realizes that we need more troops, not less, and he's getting nothing but hard-ball from Washington.

Obama never had a problem with the war in Afghanistan, so he told us during the campaign. That was the just war, we were told. OK, Mr. President. Your general in Afghanistan, perhaps in a moment of understandable human frustration, misspoke. But, surely, you understand what it's like to be under pressure and have the lives of countless numbers of men in your hands, right? Leadership means you sometimes have to "step in it" every once in a while for the sake of your cause. Unfortunately, our president only steps in it to defend his indefensible friends, but that's another story.

Give the man what our troops need for victory. Now.

(Via Drudge)