Editorial: Bad case of loose lips

• McChrystal

FILE - In this June 2, 2009 file photo, Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then President Barack Obama's nominee to be commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Armed Services Committee. McChrystal was put in charge of a drifting war in Afghanistan in part because he wasn't afraid to speak up. That quality may prove to be his downfall as President Barack Obama decides whether to fire him. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Talk about it

If it’s considered unpatriotic in some quarters for Americans to speak negatively of a U.S. military mission, what is it when a military commander speaks negatively of the people who placed him in that position of leadership?

Consider the case of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, our nation’s top commander in Afghanistan, that began making serious waves Tuesday morning. Reports that President Barack Obama had summoned McChrystal to Washington — after learning about negative comments Gen. McChrystal and his staff made about him and members of his administration in an upcoming magazine article — aren’t only bad for the general. They’re bad for all of us.

Here’s why: According to The New York Times, Gen. McChrystal or his aides are shown in the article — to appear in the upcoming Rolling Stone issue — “talking in sharply derisive terms” about Vice President Joe Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, and special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. One of the general’s aides, according to the Times, is “quoted as referring to the national security adviser, James L. Jones, as a ‘clown.’” Aides are also quoted as saying Gen. McChrystal was “pretty disappointed” by an oval office meeting with Obama.

Last we checked, it’s poor form to disparage your boss — and the company for which you’re employed. (Businesses, for instance, have specific policies for such behavior in the age of Facebook and Twitter). And if we can’t have our top military folks in Afghanistan be fully on board with the U.S. team, how can we expect Americans to be as fully supportive as they can be?

Obama has no choice but a military shakeup at this point.

Tags: loose lips, opinion, editorial, mcchrystal