{"id":60,"date":"2010-06-28T11:53:07","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T11:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/06\/what-mcchrystals-firing-says-about-american-values-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach.html"},"modified":"2010-06-28T11:53:07","modified_gmt":"2010-06-28T11:53:07","slug":"what-mcchrystals-firing-says-about-american-values-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/06\/what-mcchrystals-firing-says-about-american-values-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach.htm","title":{"rendered":"What McChrystal’s Firing Says about American Values By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems I’m one of the few Americans who was appalled at the firing of General Stanley McChrystal. In a rare moment of unity, pundits on both the left and right supported the President relieving the general of command. The arguments were uniform (no pun intended). If the President had not fired McChrystal it would have eroded civilian authority over the military. McChrystal’s comments showed a lack of professionalism and conduct unbecoming an officer. He insulted our allies, etc, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But put aside the hysteria and think soberly for a moment. What was
\nMcChrystal guilty of? Insubordination? This wasn’t General Douglas MacArthur
\nwho publicly and willfully criticized President Truman’s preparedness to accept
\na partitioned Korea. MacArthur was also a public advocate for going to war with
\nChina. This was rank insubordination on the part of a commander who was an
\nAmerican hero but who had, perhaps because he had served as viceroy of Japan
\nfor half a decade, grown a little too big for his britches and needed to be
\ntaught who was boss. Not so McChrystal who was the architect of a policy wholly
\nendorsed by President Obama and never once challenged the orders of his
\nCommander-in-Chief either in public or even in the Rolling Stone article.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 But wasn’t he guilty of stupidity and mouthing off in front of a
\njournalist?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps. But how media savvy do you expect a general who for years has
\nbeen running the blackest of black opps to be? We train these men to hunt down
\nthe most dangerous murderers in the world, not to be experts in PR. Of
\nnecessity they’re going to be the kind of people who buck authority just a
\nlittle. And if they do so in the privacy of a military bull session, who cares?
\nGuys like McChrystal deal with a level of pressure that we civilians,
\nsurrounded by our plasma TV screens in our air-conditioned homes, can scarcely
\nunderstand.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

McChrystal’s error was to blow off steam and allow his subordinates to
\ngrumble about their civilians overlords – which one assumes is pretty standard
\nfare in military circles – in the presence of a journalist. But anyone who has
\never been the subject of a lengthy magazine profile, where a reporter follows
\nyou around for weeks, knows how easy it is to simply forget they’re there, or
\nthat off-the-cuff remarks are on the record, especially when you have a million
\nmore important things to worry about.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Vice President Biden is known to be gaff-prone and recently dropped
\nthe F-Bomb into a live microphone at Obama’s signing of the health care bill.
\nPoliticians are human. So are Generals, as are their staff. But you don’t
\ndestroy the career and reputation of a hero officer who has served his country
\nvaliantly for three decades because a journalist decides to publish the private
\nbanter of decorated soldiers who have never challenged the civilian authority
\nin any meaningful way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And why should I care about McChrystal? It’s not the general that is
\nmostly on my mind, but American values.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

President Obama said that he had to fire the general to bolster
\ncivilian control over the military, which conjured up images of McChrystal
\npoised to cross the Rubicon and storm Washington in true Julius Caesar style.
\nBut the president, who loves teachable moments, could have used the incident to
\nteach the American people about the importance of gratitude, a value sorely
\nlacking in our democracy. He could have told the country that McChrystal screwed
\nup. A general has to be measured and in control. But given the fact that this
\nwas just a silly magazine article and the country owed McChrystal a tremendous
\ndebt of gratitude for three decades of service – especially as head of the Joint Special
\nOperations Command<\/span><\/a>, which captured Saddam Hussein<\/span><\/a> and killed
\nAl-Qaeda Iraq head Abu Musab
\nal-Zarqawi<\/span><\/a>, he was going to overlook the incident and accept the
\ngeneral’s public apology.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wall Street bankers who may never have sacrificed anything for their
\ncountry were given multi-billion dollar bailouts by the government when they,
\npropelled by greed rather than patriotism, messed up. But McChrystal, who will
\nmake a fraction in his entire career of what a Wall Street investment can make
\nin a year, was thrown to the wolves for saying things like he didn’t want to
\nread Richard Holbrooke’s emails.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, but the war is bigger than any one individual, the President said.
\nTrue. But so are American values.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gratitude is a dying virtue in American society. We continue to live
\nfree only because of our brave military, yet most Americans offer empty words
\nof support to our troops that are rarely backed by tangible action. This is a
\nshame, given how much criticism the militaries of democracies receive because
\nof tragic civilian casualties that are unavoidable when fighting terrorists who
\nuse kindergartens and hospitals as bases of operation. In this past Sunday’s
\nNew York Times Thomas Friedman came awfully close to a blood libel when he
\nwrote of the “brutality of Israel’s retaliations” against Hezbollah and Hamas
\nand how Israel “chose to go after them without being deterred by the prospect
\nof civilian casualties.” Irresponsible words like these betray contempt for the
\nchallenges commanders of Western armies face when fighting terrorists who both
\nmurder innocent civilians and also use them as human shields.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But it’s not just in military situations where gratitude is lacking in
\nour culture. It is also dying in marriage, with more and more men and women
\nrefusing to stay in relationships where they don’t feel appreciated. Gratitude
\nis an increasingly rare commodity in the parent-child bond with more youth
\nfeeling a sense of entitlement and more parents feeling like they are glorified
\nATM’s. Neither do employees in today’s economy feel appreciated as they are
\nlaid off in record number by companies who often put profits before people.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But gratitude is also lacking in today’s media, which is often
\nprepared to exploit human error to bolster circulation and ratings. Michael
\nHastings could have showed some gratitude toward a general who trusted him,
\ntook him into his confidence, and gave him unique access to his challenges
\nfighting the murderous Taliban in Afghanistan, including his occasional
\nfrustrations with his civilian superiors. Instead his revelations will ensure
\nthat public officials trust journalists even less then they do already, making
\nour newspapers and magazines, which are already on life support, blander and
\nmore colorless.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


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It seems I’m one of the few Americans who was appalled at the firing of General Stanley McChrystal. In a rare moment of unity, pundits on both the left and right supported the President relieving the general of command. The arguments were uniform (no pun intended). 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