A Wisconsin historian says comments made by General Stanley McChrystal’s staff made his firing by President Barack Obama inevitable. John Hall, Ambrose-Hesseltine Assistant Professor of U.S. Military History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said we’ve been at this point before: President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of command in Korea in a similar situation. Hall said Obama’s decision comes as no surprise. “There’s nothing at all surprising. I think any other course of action by the administration would be not only surprising, but stunning,” said Hall. “There really was no way out of this predicament than to pick a new commander for Afghanistan.”
Wednesday’s decision by the president to relieve McChrystal of command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan came in the wake of unguarded comments made by McChrystal and members of his staff, to a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Hall says those comments were disturbing. “You would like General McChrystal to surround himself with men and woman who were smarter than he was,” Hall said. “And if that one article in Rolling Stone may be taken as being anything close to the truth, you don’t get that impression.” Hall said it’s unfortunate for McChrystal that his staff wasn’t “more reticent” with a reporter who appears to have had “unimpeded access.”