Obama/McChrystal Saga Shows Differences In Priorities

President Obama fired on general and demoted another on Wednesday. After a Rolling Stone interview, in which Obama was criticized for not being prepared and intimidated in a strategy meeting, the president made the decision to relieve General McChrystal of command. In doing so he also demoted General David Petraeus from being McChrystal's boss to doing McChrystal's job.

For the record, I understand why General McChrystal said what he did but I also understand why he can't say it. Whether we like it or not President Obama is our Commander and Chief and regardless of how unprepared, unqualified and unprofessional he is when it comes to addressing the war, or anything else for that matter, any person who serves in the military under his command should refrain from speaking in such a manner. Unfortunately, I also agree that this is a decision that had to be made.

Now, what I disagree on is Obama's statement that this wasn't personal and was what is best for our national defense. Please, Mr. Obama, don't continue to believe that we the American people are stupid. This was totally personal because McChrystal exposed you for who you really are. Obama is a president who could care less about the war effort. In fact, that what led to the frustration behind McChrystal's comments. Obama balked on getting him support and very rarely gave him face time or any time for that matter. Its hard to win a war without the support of your president.

That brings me to my final, and initial, point. The difference between these two men is just a matter of priority. General McChrystal was trying to win a war but unfortunately for him he had to work for a president who was trying harder to form a public image of himself.

How About We Become Good At Stopping Terrorists Rather Than Just Lucky

There's an old saying that goes, "It's better to be lucky than good." However, when it comes to stopping terrorism plots on American soil, I say let's be good and quit relying on luck. It was luck that saved lives when the when the Christmas Bomber caught his pants on fire and it was luck that saved lives in Times Square last weekend when Faisal Shahzad set the timer wrong on his bomb. We should be thankful that these potential tragedies have failed but we should also be extremely cautious. The problem with riding a streak of luck is that at some point its going to run out.

Of course the biggest farce in all of this is in the way our government has handled it. For some reason the Obama Administration has a major problem admitting that we're involved in a war with Islamic radical extremest. While his administration is putting navy seals on trial for being too rough on an Islamic radical who murdered American businessmen in Fallujah, not calling the Ft. Hood attack what it really was, working to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center, changing the military lingo to make it appear as if our enemies are not of Islam faith and mirandizing terrorists to give them the same rights as the American citizens they are targeting, another attempt to kill innocent civilians came too close for comfort to being carried out fully.

Its sad to me that the Democratic Party is so self-centered and so paranoid that their immediate reaction was to cast blame on those who oppose the Obama Administration. No one from the "left" wanted to admit that there was potential this could have been a foreign act of terrorism on American soil and when it turned out that, in fact, is what is was they're painfully admitting the terrorist we've been giving liberties too are still trying to kill us. Even at that, we're being told that Shahzad was an American citizen who has a family and faced financial hardships that over burdened him and pushed him to his breaking point. What the main stream media isn't reporting is that he's only been a citizen for a year, has strong ties to Pakistan (where his family lives) and paid for everything (SUV/Supplies/Plane Ticket) in cash. Why are we not willing to admit this was an act of terror against American citizens by an Extreme Islamic Radical.

Now everyone wants to take the credit for apprehending the non-terrorists, American citizen who is misunderstood and just needs a hug. Keeping up with new protocol, he's already had his Miranda rights read to him so now he has the right to remain silent while his buddies back in Pakistan are plotting the next attack. I would be very hesitant to thank the government for stopping this attack because in every since of the matter, just like the Christmas bomber, the government failed. In his own words Obama said this attempted attack fell apart because, "ordinary citizens were vigilant." Thank the people who had enough sense to call the authorities. Thank the firemen and police officers who arrived at the scene and literally defused the situation. Don't thank the government because they didn't do anything!

The government lost track of Shahzad who was on a plane, that had already pushed back from the jet way, heading back to Pakistan by the time they caught up with him. They only found him at the airport because the airline notified him that he'd purchased a last minute ticket and paid in cash. Authorities were only able to connect the Pakistan bound terrorist to the bomb when the previous owner of the Nissan Pathfinder used as a car bomb identified Shahzad from government watch list.

So if your connecting the dots here, the people trying to take credit for foiling this bombing attempt knew that Shahzad had entered the country in February from Pakistan. They had given him a secondary screening upon re-entry and then promptly lost him. They were lucky enough to catch him after the bombing attempt but just like the Christmas Bomber (who was also on a government watch list) they did absolutely nothing to prevent the actual attack from happening and are taking all the credit when they're actually just extremely lucky.