Winslow Wheeler is either an ignorant idiot...
...or too politically naive to be working in Washington DC.
The General and His Senate Vassals:Whatever you may think of General Stanley McChrystal and his succession by General David Petraeus, something very sad is about to happen. The Senate Armed Services Committee has already scheduled its hearing for the constitutionally required confirmation of General Petraeus in his new job. Watch that hearing. (It will occur at 9:30 am on Tuesday, June 29 and will be broadcast by the committee's webcast, and surely C-SPAN.) You will observe how useless and ineffectual the Senate Armed Services Committee, among others, has become at performing its most important job.
Wheeler fails to appreciate that the Party requires General Petraeus services to save their ass in Afghanistan, or at least provide an acceptable facade of success that will give Obama an excuse to withdraw the troops. The Party is not about to allow its antiwar loony wing any time to bitch at their chosen general. In this instance, the standard kabuki of Evil Pentagon Generals v. Righteous Social Justice Warriors has been laid aside. As for Lieberman and the Republicans, they're not about to give the new CinC Afghanistan a hard time by asking him difficult questions. The GOP is the Pentagon's traditional ally, and Lieberman is the last of the Scoop Jackson Democrats.
Wheeler will have to wait for the traditional "Democrats as steely-eyed critics of defense" kabuki until the GOP is back in control of the White House and/or Congress. Then and only then will the Pentagon and its generals be viewed as bloodthirsty thugs clawing the bread from starving children and the medicine from sickly seniors. i. e. business as usual for the New Left.
The General and His Senate Vassals:Whatever you may think of General Stanley McChrystal and his succession by General David Petraeus, something very sad is about to happen. The Senate Armed Services Committee has already scheduled its hearing for the constitutionally required confirmation of General Petraeus in his new job. Watch that hearing. (It will occur at 9:30 am on Tuesday, June 29 and will be broadcast by the committee's webcast, and surely C-SPAN.) You will observe how useless and ineffectual the Senate Armed Services Committee, among others, has become at performing its most important job.
Wheeler fails to appreciate that the Party requires General Petraeus services to save their ass in Afghanistan, or at least provide an acceptable facade of success that will give Obama an excuse to withdraw the troops. The Party is not about to allow its antiwar loony wing any time to bitch at their chosen general. In this instance, the standard kabuki of Evil Pentagon Generals v. Righteous Social Justice Warriors has been laid aside. As for Lieberman and the Republicans, they're not about to give the new CinC Afghanistan a hard time by asking him difficult questions. The GOP is the Pentagon's traditional ally, and Lieberman is the last of the Scoop Jackson Democrats.
Wheeler will have to wait for the traditional "Democrats as steely-eyed critics of defense" kabuki until the GOP is back in control of the White House and/or Congress. Then and only then will the Pentagon and its generals be viewed as bloodthirsty thugs clawing the bread from starving children and the medicine from sickly seniors. i. e. business as usual for the New Left.