General McChrystal, General Petraeus and 'Obama's War'
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President Obama has replaced General Stanley McChrystal with General David Petraeus as US commander in Afghanistan. The President said he admired McChrystal and that McChrystal was courteous to the Commander in Chief and faithfully carried out orders. The problem was that article in Rolling Stone magazine… Also, the Obama Administration has promised to reinstate its moratorium on deep-water drilling despite the ruling of a federal judge. Environmentalists want to know if the judge has a conflict of interest.
Banner image: Gen. Stanley McChrystal (L), the top commander of the US Force in Afghanistan, arrives at the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama June 23, 2010 in Washington, DC. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Main Topic
General McChrystal Is Relieved of Command ()
General McChrystal is out as commander in Afghanistan, replaced by General David Petraeus, one of America's best-known military leaders. By trashing the President, McChrystal and his team spotlighted ongoing dispute over the War in Afghanistan. In the White House, in Congress and on the battlefield, one side supports a troop surge followed by economic development and government reform. Can Petraeus implement the President's strategy? What about those, including Vice President Biden, who warn against bogging down in an unwinnable war?
Guests:
- Michael Scherer: White House Correspondent, Time Magazine, @michaelscherer
- David Cloud: National Security Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
- Ahmed Rashid: Lahore-based Paskistani journalist
- Kori Schake: former Director for Defense Strategy, National Security Council
- Robert Dreyfuss: National Security Reporter, Rolling Stone
- Michael Desch: Chair of the Political Science Department, University of Notre Dame
Links:
- Scherer on Obama's attempt to shift focus from McChrystal to war effort
- Cloud on McChrystal, Obama's Afghanistan strategy
- Rashid's 'Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia'
- Schake on whether McChrystal should be fired (NY Times commentary)
- Dreyfuss on the WhiteHouse-McChrystal power struggle
- Desch's 'Civilian Control of the Military: The Changing Security Environment'
- McChrystal's statement
Reporter's Notebook
Questions after Judge's Bombshell Ruling on Drilling Ban ()
Yesterday, Federal Judge Martin Feldman ruled that the moratorium on 33 exploratory wells was arbitrary-based on the unsupported assumption that what happened to Deepwater Horizon would happen to other wells too. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he'd appeal, but also promised a new order that would effectively reinstate the moratorium. Today, crews had to remove the cap that's been siphoning off some of the oil from the ongoing gusher. Stephen Power is covering the story for the Wall Street Journal.
Guests:
- Stephen Power: Energy and Environmental Policy Reporter, Wall Street Journal
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