A great piece by Eliot Cohen on the McChrystal-Rolling Stone episode.

The president has not spoken publicly about Afghanistan in any serious way since December, and one wonders whether he has the nerve to act, in respect to Gen. McChrystal, like a serious commander in chief. If he leaves a wounded—and therefore more malleable—commander in place, he will have shown a calamitous weakness masquerading as political cleverness.

For the rest of us, there is a lesson about re-establishing fundamental norms of civilian-military relations. For years both political parties have used generals as props. Democrats cheered when disgruntled generals snarled at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Republicans, to their equal discredit, played up military disquiet with President Bill Clinton and may do so again in this case.

In wartime, generals become public heroes. In some cases—in Stanley McChrystal’s—they really may be heroes. But that does not change the fundamental imperative of maintaining order and discipline. And if doing so means relieving a hero of command, so be it.

I’d recommend that you read this piece in its entirety.  Cohen echoes several of the points that I made yesterday regarding civil-military relations in this country. He does a great job of putting this particular incident into the proper context–that this entire episode is really just an extension of the Obama’s administration’s mismanagement of the war in Afghanistan.