On the recordJuly 15, 2010
After General Stanley McChrystal was relieved of his command last month and replaced by General David Petraeus, we read a lot of headlines that said things like this: "Generals Change, But Afghan Doesn't." "Afghan Policy Won't Change After Dismissal." But that is precisely, Madam Speaker, the problem. All the chatter about General McChrystal's indiscretion and firing obscured the critical point. The problem isn't with the personnel or the leadership, but with the strategy and the policy. The problem isn't with the generals, but with the war itself. There's a bit of a rearranging-of-the-deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic quality to all of this. No matter what the captains say and no matter who captains the ship, as long as we continue to prosecute this failed war, as long as we keep sending Americans to die on a mission that's doing nothing to defeat terrorists or stabilize Afghanistan, then we are headed straight for that iceberg.
