today they said

President Barack Obama: "This was not personal. This was about civilian control of the military."

James Healy: "The firing of Stanley McChrystal was about as personal as you can get. It was about Barack Obama's fear of the American military. It was about Barack Obama's inferiority complex. It was about Barack Obama's innate inability to lead. So McChrystal is gone and every Jihadi on earth is celebrating. Meanwhile the rules of engagement that have been imposed on our troops in Afghanistan are getting them killed and maimed daily, and handing the initiative to Al Qaeda. General McChrystal bears some of the responsibility for accepting such rules of engagement from the Obama Administration in the first place. But McChrystal finally got tired of seeing Americans die because of Barack Obama's faux humanitarianism. Yeah. Barack Obama wants to cut and run from the War On Terror. That's a different priority from actually winning, you understand. McChrystal understands. Finally. Barack Obama's priority is to criminalise the previous Administration of President George Bush and then hope Al Qaeda will go away. I am giving Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt in postulating that Barack Obama doesn't actually want Al Qaeda to win. His delusion is that the terrorists will go away if Obama betrays America sufficiently to appease them. But I may be wrong on this. He may actually want them to win. Obama's policies of releasing Al Qaeda members from Guantanamo Bay, of bringing down troop strength in Iraq, of announcing withdrawal dates from Afghanistan, have all combined to revitalise the Jihadi's. In addition the reduction of active combat units in Iraq has allowed Iran and Syria to continue destabilising Iraq at their leisure while refocussing the Jihad effort in Afghanistan. But it is Obama's insistence on suicidally restrictive rules of engagment for American troops in Afghanistan itself that has given Al Qaeda a capacity to function on the battlefield which it never had before. American troops are not permitted to fire on Al Qaeda members who aren't clearly showing weapons. Even at the height of a battle if an Al Qaeda terrorist walks into view and shoulders a shovel, the Americans are forbidden to fire on him in case he's a farmer. The Americans are also precluded from firing on buildings without official permission from Afghan authorities. If the Americans want to search a building they are required to give seven days notice to the residents. This Obama style dilettante warfare is getting our soldiers slaughtered before our eyes by an enemy that couldn't fight its way out of a wet paper bag unless we let them. Our soldiers were worth more than this. Our soldiers. Because if the Americans don't defeat Al Qaeda all our countries are going down."