Oy vey…
Mike Rogers (MI-08) says dumb things pretty regularly but this is particularly absurd. Check out the video at about 0:49 in.
But, I tell you, I think this is a huge symptom when a guy like General McChrystal feels so frustrated to express himself the way he did (or at least he allegedly did) in that article, it shows the symptoms of the problem of the policy in Afghanistan. The diplomacy level and the military level are working at cross-purposes here and it’s causing a huge problem.
Ah. So if only it weren’t for that damn Obama Afghanistan policy, this never would have happened. Apparently Congressman Rogers is unaware that General McChrystal was one of the authors of the counter-intelligence (COIN) strategy that he’s condemning!!!
But, hey, let’s not let that get in the way of a good ObamaSlamTM, eh?
As is typical, the Livingston County Press used this as their lead story, over the fold yesterday with the headline Rogers: Sacked general erred; criticizing war plan ‘my job’.
Once more from the interview (around 2:09):
You can’t have military commanders out there working against the policies of the president even if they’re wrong. That’s my job and it’s the job of others to comment on the policy of how they’re doing this and for us to bring to light that there are serious problems with the way they are going about the fight in Afghanistan and it’s causing serious problems…
Problems like having our commanding generals not being able to shut the hell up? Yeah, Mike, that’s a real problem. Good thing they have guys like you to take the blame off their shoulders and place it squarely in President Obama’s lap. Funny, though, how you stayed so quiet about our military strategy in Afghanistan when George W. Bush was president, despite the fact that it really hasn’t changed. Just another IOKIYAR example, I suppose…
I’m just sayin’…
