What exactly did we expect?

The confrontation between General Stanley McChrystal and President Barack Obama is still front page news.  Having served under both Republican and Democrat administrations, I can tell you this tension was predictable. 

I have no scientific polling data, but the general consensus in the military was that President Jimmy Carter was a buffoon.  Carter has gone on to validate that belief in any number of venues.  It was tough serving in an administration where cost cutting and appeasement were the word of the day. 

Serving under President Bill Clinton was depressing.  Before becoming Commander-in-Chief Clinton had misrepresented his intentions to ROTC authorities as a subterfuge to avoid the draft and maintain his political viability.  We served under a man who would have faced court martial had he been one of us.  An officer in the uniformed services who had extra-martial sex with a subordinate would have been cashiered at the very least.  On two occasions I directed subordinates to stop making fun of the President.  We couldn’t prevent disgust with Clinton, but we could camouflage it.  

Now Obama comes on the National scene.  To most military men he is absurdly out of place.  As a young man he professed and supported an ideology that would have prevented him from getting a security clearance had he not been elected to high office.  Indeed Sal Alinsky and Alinsky-inspired community organizers are by their very definition “domestic enemies” that officers like McChrystal are sworn to defend the country against.  Talk about irony. 

We loved Ronald Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43.  Detect a pattern?

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think that General McChrystal showed good judgment.  But it is ironic that a guy who dedicated his life to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” was brought down by a guy who has spent his life attacking the Constitution and tearing down the Nation that it created.  As we approach the next election cycle remember that Democrats do not strengthen American security they just confuse and confound the people charged with keeping us safe.