FIRE THE GENERAL; CANCEL THE PARADE

In April, 1951, my mother took this six year old to a gigantic parade in Chicago to honor the recently fired General Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command over our Korean War forces by a very unpopular President Truman. How could a President be so foolish to fire such a wildly popular and successful general, I thought, just beginning my life long interest in international affairs and diplomacy. Some years later I discovered McArthur deserved to be fired for actively trying to subvert the President's Constitutional powers to set foreign policy and conduct war. MacArthur's generalship brought America thousands of needless casualties when he totally underestimated China's willingness to intervene on behalf of their neighbor North Korea as MacArthur pressed his attack to the Chinese border. Not satisfied with that defeat, MacArthur publicly pressed for confrontation with China.

Now, fifty-eight years later, another General, Stanley McChrystal, who heads up our military forces in Afghanistan, is treading MacArthur's path to a possible showdown with President Obama over his quite vocal and public lobbying for an immediate infusion of 45,000 more soldiers to avoid what he claims will be imminent mission failure. Obama was reportedly so upset over McChrystal's politicing for a wider war without his permission, he brought the General aboard Air Force One for some serious "face time" while parked in Copenhagen during the President's Olympic meeting visit.

After eight years of utterly senseless, wasteful and murderous war, in which American casualties are at a all time high and Afghan civilian casualties are too numerous and scattered to count, the last thing we need is a General trying to set policy on behalf of his real masters in the Military Industrial Complex.

I wasn't quite seven when President Truman left office, but I still miss him. I saw his famous paperweight inscribed "THE BUCK STOPS HERE" at his Key West, FL retreat, and wish some of that mantra would rub off on the current Commander In Chief. If the President fires McChrystal for insubordination over Afghan policy, a majority of Americans will applaud. And one more thing; there won't be any parades for the fired General this time.

Also published in Daily Herald, October 18, 2009