Papier Machet Martyr

Thank God we live in a country where military insubordination ends with catty dishing in Rolling Stone rather than tanks around the White House.

Of all the classical democratic and republican ethics and virtues that our government ignores at will, the separation between the military the the elected leadership has remained surprisingly strong.

The president made the correct decision in firing General McCrystal for his insubordination. And thank God we live in a country where the punishment for insubordination is a golden parachute rather than a lead slug.

For the general to mock the civilian leadership is the most fundamental sin of our system of government. Since the world is not nearly as neat as we would like, the general is often right. But if he undermines the president, he is wrong by definition.

Despite all that, McCrystal's critique doesn't really have a leg to stand on, since he is criticizing the president who embraced McCrystal's military advice of doubling down in Afghanistan. He asked for it. He got it. Then, when it didn't work, he sandbagged it.

But the issue is not McCrystal, who i presume is a very good man. The issue is the policy. My last blog was about the hamster wheel. So is this one, I now realize.

This war is the longest war we've fought in our history. And it won't end until we decide to stop fighting it. We've gotten nowhere. Afghanistan is no better off than it was 9 years ago, and neither are we.

It's just a hamster wheel. But the wheel spins quicker recently, lubricated as it is with blood. American deaths are now approaching Iraq numbers. We're on pace to lose 100 American lives in Afghanistan this month. For what? Can anyone answer that question?

I can. For nothing. For false pride. For an illusion. For the feeling, carried even by Barack Hussein Obama, that war, deep down, is necessary and not altogether bad.