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MSNBC’s Jim Miklaszewski is reporting that Pentagon sources confirm that President Barack Obama has relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his command of forces in Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama has decided to relieve Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command over all U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, sources tell NBC News.
Obama is scheduled to make an official 1:30 p.m. EDT announcement about the general.
MSNBC is also reporting (now confirmed by a CNN national security source) that Obama has tapped Gen. David Petraeus, current head of US Central Command, as McChrystal’s replacement.
UPDATE: President Obama will speak spoke to these changes in the next few minutes from the White House just before 2pm EDT. FDL will have video as soon as it is available. (Video above.)
“War is bigger than any one man, or woman, or general,” said the president. “I encourage debate, but I won’t tolerate division.”
In naming Petraeus, Obama said, “This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change in policy.”
Considering how things are going, I’m not sure how that is supposed to be reassuring. Yes, “continuity,” for lack of a better word, is less “upsetting” to the fighting forces, perhaps. . . but I expect another year of fighting without meaning might be more upsetting.
UPDATE 2: Poetic footnote noticed by Siun:
A reporter yells
“Mr President, can this war be won?”
but Obama turns and walks away.
UPDATE 3: Dave has more:
This sounds like the same policy with a reset of the commander. The Very Serious foreign policy establishment will probably start saying how this is Day One of the new Afghanistan war, nine years in. And with media darling Petraeus at the helm.
UPDATE 4: Petraeus now in charge of a war strategy designed to keep al Qaeda out of Afganistan. . . when, just last week, the general said he thought that al Qaeda’s numbers in Afghanistan were only in the “double digits.”
Petraeus has also given conflicting messages about his embrace of the July 2011 drawdown date.
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Excellent — he’s been canned. Of course, Petraeus is just a slicker McChrystal.
ABC New’s Jake Tapper confirms.
Woo hoo! Now the United States is definitely going to win the war.
So nice … fire the guy and appoint his mentor.
Heckuva job Obama
Savvy move by Obama, putting a prospective 2012 opponent in charge of this catastrophe.
Although this is a demotion for Petraeus — wonder if it’s temporary.
Doesn’t exactly signal a shift in direction, does it?
No price too high to avoid admitting a mistake.
You didn’t seriously expect any real change, did you?
It was the best political move he could make, esp. with the notion that this charade was an attempt to hang the failure of Afghanistan around PBO’s neck.
Politics 101 – Always CYA !
Unless he’ll still be in charge of CENTCOM. Player-coach analogy.
About to start the announcement
Relieved of command isn’t the same as leaving the military, right? McChyrstal is a general without a command, isn’t he? This would mean he’s unable to hit FOX News as an advisor…
Petraeus will just pull a Reagan — he’ll look those terrorists in the eye, and they’ll all back down, on account of what a tough cookie he is. Really, it’ll work!
Wonder what Moveon.org will have to say?
General Petraeus or General Betray Us?
General “Move the goalposts” Petraeus? We are never getting out of there.
Fox News gig starting in 5-4-3… Just wondering.
Exactly.
Thing is, they’re going to need someone experienced even to preside over a pullout; Petraeus was probably the only guy available.
And really, regardless of what you think of Obama, not replacing McChrystal would be a tacit admission that the military is no longer under civilian control.
First thing I thought of – that Move-On would get another shot at him…..if they are brave enough to take it.
It’s a traditional move in basketball.
When you have to can the coach fast, either you promote an assistant or the GM takes over as interim coach. The assistants here were all in it with McChrystal – no extra stars for them.
I don’t think it means much one way or another for whether there’s a big shift in strategy coming – it just means Petraeus has to get the command cleaned up.
PW !
Of course you know, this would’ve nevvuh happened under Emperor Chimpy …
Totally agree Petro.
On a positive note, Petraeus and Biden are now seeing eye to eye on I-P conflict and on Israeli influence on American politics as hurting ME progress.
O drags out the all-purpose AQ bogeyman.
Why yes, I actually thought the Jays would be leading the AL East.Nevvuh mind !Iran……Pakistan
Petraeus as human shield
and Vice President Bite Me’s human shield at that
Weak. Eddie Murphy has it right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPdgrr5diM
No surprise … sadly.
Obama just said “this is a change in personnel, not a change in policy”
though he misses the fact that Petraeus has already said the July 2011 drawdown will not be much
and now Obama is mourning having to let McChrystal go … thanks him, etc …
Now that Petraeus is working for O they won’t make a peep. Turns out he’s VEALLY good!
Yep, at least not under this civilian’s control.
A reporters yells
“Mr President, can this war be won?”
but Obama turns and walks away.
Define “won.”
If he’d answered he’d have said it can, whether he actually believes it or not.
Great. This positions McChrystal to become the Roberto d’Aubisson of American politics.
Just as BP is the oil company that can respond to the oil spill?
I am amazed at how readily people are willing to suggest that we have zero depth on the bench. In a country the size of the United States this is an argument that makes no sense.
There may well be political reasons for choosing Petraeus (in fact, I suspect that is exactly why he was chosen), but to claim he is the only available guy makes no sense to me at all.
Jeebus, how did Helen Thomas manage to sneak in ?
Whew! Good to know!
Hot damn, the boys and girls will be coming home soon.
Another example of the ineptitude of Bush and the greatness of Obama. Bush could’ve selected him years ago and we’d already be out of this mess. It took a stong leader like Obama to dump that loser Mactorture replace him with a guy this capable.
I feel better about my country already.
(Do I really need to add it?)
Glad the question was asked. Might make Obama think a little. Probably very little.
Oh, right. That’s a possibility.
I’d like to see the shine come off the super-general, whose surge was falsely credited for decreasing the violence in Iraq (it was in fact a Shia victory of the Sunni that decreased violence there.)
But in any case, this is all hopelessly beside the point. The horror continues.
To bad Obama can’t fire Hamid Karzai while he’s at it. Less filling or tastes great? This Bush lite is still corporately sponsored crap. The wage of empire is ignominious failure.
Petro, you’re so cute when you get your hopes up like that ; )
MoveOn won’t say anything, they’ve moved into the veal pen. They might even praise the move. Of course Obama had to do it and I generally approve of what he said until he got to the part where we’re not changing strategies or missions. GET OUT NOW!
Read this FP article and some more insight on “why” Petraeus.
Who benefits from Petraeus gaining more power and visibility?
Very savvy move. Petraeus was put in a spot he couldn’t climb out of. Had he refused, he would have made himself open to a charge of derelection of duty for electoral purposes; now that he is inside, he is sharing responsibility for the catastrophe that he and everyone else at the level knows is inevitable.
Petraeus was the obvious Republican candidate for 2012, assuming they have any sanity left, which is an open question. Obama just took him out. Like his politics or not, that guy is good.
Can’t be pointed out enough that President Obama stated:
This is a change in “personnel” not “policy“.
That is exactly ALL this is.
That’s what “coups” are for.
Why do you say O took P out of running in 2012? Doesn’t P still have time to resign to run?
Just yesterday I predicted the President wouldn’t do this. I’m glad to see I’m wrong, if for no other reason than that he will at least not overlook the obvious when it’s about to kick him in the gonads.
Oddly enough, these days I like it when I’m wrong.
Rotating the bad actors in this tragic farce.
A Tribute to Betrayus’s political future
Sorta puts a crimp in the conservative dream of Petraeus as an American Caesar. In order for Petraeus to have a political future, he has to succeed at this mission and quickly. If it’s unwinnable, Petraeus will fail to win it. If a successful resolution comes of this action, Obama not Petraeus gets the credit. And McChrystal has been put in a box relative to any future career at Fox. And Republicans are put on the spot to rapidly confirm Petraeus, their guy.
The key to ending the war is rearranging the domestic politics that drives it. This might very well be a start.
I think enough has been said and written in the last couple of days to show that this isn’t about policy. Anyone who thinks otherwise is very good at ignoring the obvious.
sweet jesus. now it’s time for some hot bobblehead-on-Petraeus action with Brian Williams, David Gregory as designated fluffers
It would also be a McClellan analogy, who was both General in Chief of the Union Armies, and Commander of the Army of the Potomac, which concerned many people, because they thought he couldn’t really do both well, but he disagreed.
You mean like he overlooks the fact that he is pouring lives and treasure down a bottomless drain? This ill-conceived war with it’s undefined objectives can never be won.
It’ll go something like this.
As we near the pullout date of July 2011, the Republicans, backed up with the full force of their GOP/Media Complex, will manufacture some bullshit that Obama is refusing to allow Petraeus to do. And this of course will be the SOLE REASON why the war is going badly.
Then P will announce his resignation, and at the press conference tell the country how Obama’s ineptitude lead to the military failures and that he couldn’t in good conscience continue to serve under him.
Then he’ll announce his candicay for the Republican nomination of POTUS.
All nice and neat, thank you.
cant let the Military Industrial congressional media complex…….run outa bullets can we
I waited around for Olbermann’s special comment about this last night, though I had wanted to watch something else in that time slot, (Okay! It was the “Avatar, the Last Airbender” cartoon, alright?), and I was horribly disappointed. Kieth should really refrain from commenting about things in which he has no clue. That was really bad and made him look like a buffoon. Of course McChrystal had to be relieved.
He put on a good parades. It’s not about how good you do your job, it’s about how good you look doing it. In other words, spin… Some things never change.
Yeah, I turned it off as soon as Gregory was introduced. I just had lunch.
It’s the only leadership trait that Obama has shown a talent for. It’s sad that this is all there is to praise about this appointment – that it’s a good political move.
P is stood off and short…………Napolean the XV1th?
No, I mean the obvious, which is that he could have been the President who lost control of the military.
That’s exactly the scenario I had in mind. Or P can fob off the area command on someone junior to him in the next year, allowing him to resign to run in 2012.
ya know….maybe………….it really makes no difference who pulls the trigger…they are all basically on the same page
BROWN PEOPLE =SCARY
and suddenly, a torrent of Petraeus gaffes and sundry fuck ups will find their way in to TradMed – all courtesy of some “anonymous WH sources”
Sadlyyeshesureisamidgetovich !
i loves my PERT PETRONOPETRAEUS-OVITCH!
I don’t know that Patraeus has shown any remarkable abilities, not even the ability to keep his mouth shut. Yeah, I’m sure it takes some doing to become a four star General but I don’t see him as a game changer.
I was going to have a bite of lunch but I’ve suddenly lost my appetite…
Changing generals doesn’t solve the main problem. Without a half million troops on our side, plus a legitimate national government, plus another decade at least, counterinsurgency can’t possibly work in Afghanistan.
Marjah has been a fiasco. The Kandahar operation has apparently been canceled by Karzai because it might do more harm than good.
I really hope President Obama is quietly re-thinking the strategy. Without a clear mission, what we are doing now is sending more of our soldiers to be targets for Taliban IEDs.
he sure has 157 billion flags on his uniform……..oy
Indeed, it makes very little difference who pulls the trigger. Like I said, I don’t see this as a game changer. Obama HAD to fire McChrystal but once again, he refused a unique opportunity to change the whole policy and settled for more of the same.
The fear card appears to be the only one in anybody’s deck these days. Some people say I should continue to support Dem politicians because of the scary Republicans. I refuse to live, or vote, in fear.
OT. How did the interview go, Margaret?
Not a big difference between Procounsel Betrayus and McChrystal. Hate hippies and are homophobic. Not saying a lot, really. Most generals are trogs.
stupid question
WHY ARE WE IN AFGHANISTAN ?
Barstow was already booked? Just a SWAG…
O’s policies reflect the fact that he is morally and intellectually bankrupt, which helps make him an excellent corporatist.
fear …….and mucho BIG FAT BUCKS for the war machine and the few families that reep bazillions from it
stupid answer
BECAUSE YES WE CAN be there!
Has our trillion dollar a year military been able to win anything other than the Battle for Grenada in the last 60 years?
To transform Afghanistan into a narco state. Mission Accomplished.
How would I know? Why would you ask me? And in all caps….?
it is such a big money makaer ,but look
U.S. Health Care Ranks Low Among Developed Nations: Report
Despite high cost, it delivers too little to patients, Commonwealth Fund saysBy Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) — Compared with six other industrialized nations, the United States ranks last when it comes to many measures of quality health care, a new report concludes.
Despite having the costliest health care system in the world, the United States is last or next-to-last in quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the ability of its citizens to lead long, healthy, productive lives, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based private foundation focused on improving health care.
“On many measures of health system performance, the U.S. has a long way to go to perform as well as other countries that spend far less than we do on healthcare, yet cover everyone,” the Commonwealth Fund’s president, Karen Davis, said during a Tuesday morning teleconference.
“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that despite our significant investment in health care, the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries,” she added
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is belated due to breaking news but is now available: Jeb Bush: It’s “Childish” to Hold My Brother Accountable for Decisions He Made as President
its all theatre,iut was a rhetorical question
Don’t forget Big Oil. Seems like I read recently that BP supplies most of the oil for our Af/Pak operations.
It was okay. I thought I looked good and presented at least competently. It was over fast and I got the impression that there were a lot of candidates that she was trying to get through as quickly as possible.
As I stated when they got rid of McKeirnan – they fired the wrong four star – and bu that I meant they should have gotten rid of Petraeus at that time. I have always been suspicious of Petraeus. He is just too slick. McChrystal was a disaster from the beginning – look at his testimony on the Tillman incident.
Obama still doesn’t know what to do with the military – just like Clinton never did.
The entire middle east policy arena is broken and will continue to be until we get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan, do away with the ‘Bush Doctrine’ and get Israel to the peace table. And I don’t think Obama has the guts to do any of that.
A rhetorical question in all caps? ;-)
i forgot too…………so cool to PRE-SELL your products
its BIG rhetoric
ROFL … especially the rolling part, cuz Toronto just had a 5.5 tremor roll through the area !
General Bud Lime strikes me as a guy who has lots of contempt for civilians. Not saying our civilian leadership is cool, either. But the guy has issues.
Weird thing is we pay for this trog’s salary. It makes me sick.
See ya, sadly. time to return to my regular programming. Tell Bassie that Bob and I said, “Hi.”
Us military…complete life of its own…….uncontrolled chaos
Obama on the roof fiddling while the chorus of clueless, complacent media intoning with righteous affirmation, “CONTINUITY!”
Wow, all is well with you and yours I hope..
oh noze,have a chilled chardonay for me…is it hot …94 here…oy
LMAO! Touche’
Petro you wild man!
Been just missing you by minutes for weeks now.
Thanks for the Queen link; I took the whole ride in the wayback machine, all 3 minutes and 34 seconds of it!
By the by, if Mr. Bosh decides to leave your beautiful city could you tell him to hang a right at I-90 and come here?
With or without LeBron.
will do…backatcha
Hey Buddy !
I’ll trade you Bosh and the City of Hamilton for LeBron … deal ?
im going to the laudramat…big chocolate Lab i rescued……REALLY smelled up my basement………….hope its cool in there….see yall loves ya
Supposed to flirt with 100 here tomorrow (northern Virginia) with high, high humidity.
Just what overweight folks like myself just LOVE.
Dammit.
If Barry wasn’t mealymouthed, incompetent, and weak, I’d say this is a canny move. It ties the anchor of Afghanistan around his (Petraeus’) neck, likely to sink any chance of a “hero” running for Prez in 2012. How can a General that lost Afghanistan run for president, afterall?
Then again, if by SOME chance (help from Harry Potter?) Afghanistan improves it goes to Barry and his decisiveness instead of just to Petraeus.
I would think by now that politicians would be aware that President Obama makes decisions (with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s help) solely based upon the effect to his presidency. Usually it is through appointments to an “out of sight, out of mind” position OR an attack on someones character using the main stream media. To this day, I wonder whether Congressman Kucinich understands that he was cut off at the knees by “going along with” President Obama’s health insurance bill?
Tn. east…here
Peter Jennings laments that Petraeus will now have to miss his father of the year presentation ceremony in NYC. Tweety chirps that he has feeling the nation will now be coming together behind this war. Once again for the villagers it’s all about them.
By cleverly blaming the POTUS for the loss during his resignation speech, saying he could no longer in good conscience run Obama’s losing strategy.
Tweety is an idiot. People are getting more irritated about the war and that sort of opinion does not reverse itself.
The worse part is that I’ve so far failed to mow the lawn today, meaning it will HAVE to be done tomorrow. Ugh.
I keep telling myself I’m gonna go out and get started, but I keep finding something to read that keeps me glued to this nice, soft, chair inside this nice air-conditioned room.
Can’t imagine why it’s so hard for me to break away.
If you’ll throw in Yonge Street and bottle of Grand Mariner, you’ve got a deal!
I don’t get it.
If Obama has no trouble overlooking Bush-Cheney war crimes and treason, why couldn’t he overlook this?
Hastily pulls 2 bottles of GM out of Marcy’s Likker Cabinet … done !
Riiiiight. It was all McChrystal at the helm that prevented the American public from going all ga-ga for the endless war. THAT’S the ticket.
There is a miniscule kernel of truth here, however. I think that something like this will gain Barry and Petraeus, oh, maybe a couple days (give or take) to change the shit stink of Afghanistan into the scent of flowers but then…Karzai the Illegitimate Election Thief is still there and the people of Afghanistan STILL don’t support our most important partner in Afghanistan.
Yeah, this will end well. How can it not? Having an illegitimate and unpopular government in S. Vietnam did WONDERS for the war there.
I did it, you can do it. The sweat will dry in no time once you come back inside…and the day only gets hotter and hotter as 4:00 pm approaches.
Yeah, I’ve gotta get at it.
Today is only a brisk 93 with high humidity. I better take advantage of that since tomorrow we’re supposed to perhaps reach triple digits with high humidity.
How come they’ve successfully genetically engineered plants to do all kinds of things but haven’t engineered grass to just grow 2-3 inches tall and STOP?
And the drones press on, as the press drones on…
If Petraeus wants to run for president maybe he will speed up ending the war.
Personally I think Obama made the best decision possible. Petreaus will at least likely result in less disruption of the short range battle plans and be accepted by the troops. That is a plus for the troops risking their lives in this obscene enterprise. It is also a decision that emasculates any GOP efforts to politicize and divide.
Traffic must be really heavy at fdl. I couldn’t get on until just now and that almost never happens. I am surprised. I thought Obama would let McChrystal off with a stern lecture. I mean look at how badly Bernanke has fucked up and Obama not only re-appointed him but pushed his confirmation.
Still Obama is trying to maintain his status quo cred by saying the man but not the policy has changed. As I have said about a million times, Obama has no Afghanistan policy. That’s the problem. We have an army in a country for 9 years and no policy reason to explain its presence there.
However, this change in personnel will be a major disruption. How can you have a McChrystal strategy, for instance, without McChrystal? More than that he had a team. Its fate is unknown. How will it interact with Petraeus? Petraeus is much more a political general. McChrystal was much more an ops guy. Then too remember that the Afghanistan surge is on a tight timeline and it is already months behind schedule. I doubt that there will be major withdrawals, barring something like a return to depression, after July 2011, but after this point our presence in Afghanistan will be on a downward trajectory. Maybe Petraeus can pay off some warlords like he did in Iraq, but Afghanistan was a mess when McChrystal took it over. It became an even bigger one under his watch. And Petraeus is unlikely to have either the time or the skill set to salvage anything out of this quagmire.
How often will Petraeus faint? If I were one of the troops I would be a tad wary of him.
But what’s your point? We’ve ALWAYS been at war in Afghanistan and always will. It is what we DO.
Your grandkids will have the drone of drones over Afghanistan on the nightly news. They will be going to career days and getting to look at choices like Door Greeter at Wal-Mart or soldier in Afghanistan.
Guess which one pays better.
That’s right, the soldier has it MADE man.
Olbermann really made a fool of himself on this one. Glad Obama had better sense.
The quagmire will keep quagmiring along.
The REAL money is working as a “faux” soldier for Halliburton, KBR, or XE (blackwater).
Obama should have fired McChrystal back in September for strong-arming him into escalating the war in Afghanistan. And, more to the point, Obama should’ve never hired him in the first place to be the top commander in Afghanistan after knowing full well that he played a key role in covering up Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death and authorizing the torture of detainees at Camp Nama. By doing this, Obama is sending the message to all military employees that the more murderous and hate-filled you are, the farther and the faster you’ll move up the ranks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/01/jon-krakauer-mcchrystals_n_341545.html
http://www.commondreams.org/print/42178
I caught about the last half of KO’s special comment (I didn’t know he was doing one) and had a real WTF????? moment. KO can hit the nail on the head sometimes, but last night was definitely NOT one of those times.
I think KO’s premise was that IF BHO fires McChrystal, then the righties are going to whine and say bad things about BHO. I mean? Seriously?? THAT’s the reason to keep McC on?? Really?? Bc the righties are going to whine and diss BHO no matter what he does ever about anything.
WTF???
Insofar as it goes, I think that BHO made the right decision here and thankfully ignored whatever word salad that KO was unfortunately spewing out last night.
So how as the cartoon – eh??? Or did ya miss it totally, which is too bad, as KO was definitely not ready for prime time last night.
This is spot on. This is what this entire incident is all about. Let’s all be honest about something: big shake-ups in our government do not happen spontaneously. McChrystal is out because he wanted to be out – either that or he knew he was going to be booted soon so spoke freely with the RS reporter. A guy like that does not suddenly “slip up” and say such absurd things to a reporter of a major magazine, if he does not intend to pay the price.
This is a “fresh start” to the war. The administration will continue everything they can to keep this war moving along at a slow speed. They don’t want to leave and they won’t be.
McChrystal’s just made a statement on Fox News:
“O it’s Stanley this, an’ Stanley that, an’ “Stanley, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister McChrystal”, when the band begins to play,
—The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister McChrystal”, when the band begins to play.”
boy, that little pearl was cast in the wrong setting.
Quagmire is good for business.