Classic Rant #284 (June 24, 2010): Loose Lips Sink Ships

This one has to take the cake.

Right now, the dumbest person in the U.S.A. has to be Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former Afghanistan commander who was forced to resign yesterday after the wholly negative comments he made about the Administration's handling of our war effort in Rolling Stone magazine surfaced.

President Barack Obama had a face-to-face meeting with McChrystal yesterday, and rather than be court-martialed for his comments, McChrystal resigned. Gen. David Patraeus, who oversees the Iraq effort, will now also be responsible for Afghanistan, too.

Simply put, McChrystal's negative comments about the President, VP Joe Biden, and others was clear insubordination. You can't have your man in charge making disparaging remarks about his commander in chief and his staff.

For instance, about Biden, he said, "Who's he?" when asked about him. "Did you say 'bite me'?"

And he said much worse about the President, stuff I won't get into here.

But you can't have that if you are trying to convince the public that what you are going overseas is right and just. It makes the President and his Administration look like fools.

What's more, why was McChrystal talking to a rag like Rolling Stone anyway? The main audience for this publication are young males, rockers, stoners, and people who think they are hip by reading it but are as far from hip as I am.

You know what you are going to get from Rolling Stone, so why cater to it?

Anyway, McChrystal is gone in disgrace. The tide is rising against the conflicts we are involved in, and people are truly getting fed up. Then you have a person of this stature go off like he did ... what does this tell you about the morale of our troops and the belief that they have in what they are doing?

Yes, McChrystal is a putz, he truly is. And the President really had no choice but to do what he did.

But having your long military career go into the tank because of Rolling Stone ...

Well, that has to make you the absolutely dumbest person in this country, if not in the world.