Where in the World Is Stanley McChrystal?
As the Prince of Denmark–pardon me, president of the United States–contemplates Hamid’s skull (“I knew him, Hillary! A man of infinite jest, of most excellent haberdashery!”) and his Good War options, one of the most perplexing questions is when and whether Gen. Stanley McChrystal will return to Washington to explain his strategy and why he needs more troops.
Members of Congress, be they pro-Afghanistan advocates like Sen. John McCain or skeptics like Sen. Carl Levin, are getting antsy, and the apparently wishy-washy briefings they’re getting thus far are making the situation worse. “We ought to get on now with what we know we need,” Levin said yesterday. But President Obama won’t be rushed, and he won’t play his trump card in McChrystal. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says his boss, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, “does not believe now is the time to bring General McChrystal back to testify.”
In some ways, this is natural and appropriate; the president is commander-in-chief and needs both to take decisive action and to convince the rest of us that he’s doing the right thing. The delay is not only making the president’s task tougher but raising a question about whether he’s going to back his commander in the field. But even when Obama makes the call, Congress and the public more broadly will want reassurance from McChrystal. And, as a number of members stressed, they will also want to hear from Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the Iraq surge, who has worked long and hard to build trust in Washington.
Indeed, it was the infamous “General Betray-Us” hearings in the fall of 2007 which stemmed the Washington tide for withdrawal from Iraq. Now, as then, Americans will want to hear from – and take the measure of – the man who leads our troops. It may be awkward for civil-military relations, but it is a truth of our current politics that successful combat leaders like Petraeus and McChrystal have a credibility that a new president, and particularly a cool customer like Barack Obama, cannot match. Nor, for all their talents, can Secretary Gates or Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, do the trick. Especially if it comes to a showdown with the anti-war wing of his own party, the president needs to stand with his field generals.
Waiting adds to the drama, perhaps, but obscures the outcome. As of now, there is no combination of Lynn Woolsey Democrats and George Will Republicans who could refuse Barack Obama, David Petraeus, and Stanley McChrystal whatever they ask for in terms of troops, time, or other resources. The White House might prefer to push its health care hopes first, but postponing the Afghanistan decision won’t make it easier, nor will it make Obama’s hand any stronger.
Tom Donnelly is the director of the Center for Defense Studies.
