Full credit to Obama on his command, or lack thereof

Gen. McChrystal was Obama’s handpicked general to run the war in Afghanistan. And when Obama’s handpicked General turned on him, he fired him…and hired President Bush’s hand-picked Gen. Petraeus. The same Gen. Petraeus who was the architect of the surge in Iraq—the wildly successful surge in Iraq that was at first dismissed by Obama, and then grudgingly, barely, reluctantly acknowledged by Obama to be a “moderate” success.

And so, like much of the controversy that surrounds this administration, we’re once again confronted with elements of pure tragedy, blessedly wrapped in total comedy. Seriously.

Obama’s tactical mistake was an elementary one; he stepped in his own trap. McChrystal complained to the media because Obama had failed to properly equip his Army, and so, on the eve of the most important tactical operation in years—the Kandahar Surge—Obama takes the guy out of theater.

This is military leadership?

Did Obama relieve McChrystal in order to strengthen our position in Afghanistan? To buoy troop morale? To assuage the often fungible commitment of the Karzai regime? None of these. He did it solely in an attempt to “save his own face.”

Well, the enduring salient point remains, Obama tapped a Bush veteran—a veteran he once assailed publicly—to lead the way in Afghanistan.

The only certain outcome here is that Obama now, definitely, “owns” this command. God help us all.

Scott Wheeler is a former investigative journalist, and the Founder and Executive Director of the National Republican Trust PAC. Buckley Carlson is a Washington-based writer and political strategist.