Sunday, June 27, 2010

An Honorable Exit from a Dishonorable Situation

What can be said of the McChrystal flap? Everything has been said–––or has it?

The redoubtable William O'Reilly shook his head in disbelief upon hearing the news. He opined on the Factor that he could not understand McChrystal being so stupid as to allow such unguarded moments before a hatchet media man from a hatchet rag like Rolling Stone.

Mr. O'Reilly does not seem to be able to consider the plain facts and come to a logical conclusion. First, General McChrystal is not stupid. He is very savvy--including media savvy. He is also, by nature, a tactician and one of the things tacticians do is take calculated risks. With that in mind let's go by the evidence. Let's reasonably assume that McChrystal knows what he's doing and why he's doing it. What happened, therefore, was no accident.

What, then, did he have in mind by such conscious exposure to this media hack?

The armadillo must conclude, based upon the evidence, what he hand in mind was exactly what happened. Exactly what happened? McChrystal's exit strategy happened––his honorable means of exiting a dishonorable situation that cannot help but end in loss, defeat and humiliation. His dilemma after months of thinking about the situation and watching it deteriorate was how does a warrior quit without being considered a warrior who quit?

If this was McChrystal's intention he achieved it and did so brilliantly. If this was his plan the fact that not one of the media pundits considered it a possible motive demonstrates the strategic brilliance of the man.

The armadillo can't wait until his book comes out. Let's hope it's just before November.

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