McChrystal’s Resignation

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had warned that all options for General Stanley McChrystal were on the table, and following the meeting at the White House, McChrystal resigned from his position, as expected. Talk of McChrystal’s resignation began when, during an interview, he criticized Vice President Joe Biden and other U.S. political officials in regard to developments in Afghanistan.

However, several other reasons exist for McChrystal’s resignation, among which are the White House’s dissatisfaction about the direction of the war in Afghanistan and the rising mortality rates of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Other reasons include overly independent individual responsibility exhibited in the Afghanistan war, designed to reduce pressure on the Obama administration; Zionist lobby movement for a change in the U.S. military structure that would help reach their own goals; and U.S. efforts to change the command structure to satisfy other NATO members, thus enticing them toward becoming more active in Afghanistan, as has been mentioned previously. However, behind the scenes one can notice more important issues.

The most important problems found concerning the McChrystal resignation are the deep differences between the U.S. Army and the diplomats, especially regarding the war in Afghanistan. These differences in position can be observed between people like Biden, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and finally U.S. Commander in Afghanistan McChrystal. These differences in perspective led each to take unique positions and thus there was a lack of overall coordination toward global developments, especially in Afghanistan.

Another point made apparent in this resignation is the confused and uncoordinated U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Developments show that the U.S. military has not yet approached its agenda in Afghanistan in a regular manner, but merely as temporary work. The resignation signals change for the U.S. military’s structure in Afghanistan.

In any case, the resignation of McChrystal showed that, on the one hand Obama — contrary to his claims about and disapproval of Bush for similar reactions — is not ready to accept any criticism and responds to such with serious reprisals. On the other hand, this resignation caused another flurry of differences between the U.S. military and America’s politicians, which could result in long-term consequences for America.