Should McChrystal run for President?

Soon after the Rolling Stone article on General McChrystal caused the resignation/retirement/firing of the same, I was asked, "Should McChrystal run for President?"

After the inner monologue of snarky Obama jokes subsided in my head, I considered an honest answer to that question.
For better or worse, this was the answer I gave:




Bottom line. EVERY soldier, from newly enlisted on up take an oath:

“I, (MY NAME), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

But notice that the President is SECONDARY to the Constitution.
If there is a conflict of the two, a soldier’s PRIMARY mission is to defend the Constitution over the orders of the POTUS.

Now, that having been said, should McChrystal have said the things he said? Yes – right AFTER he resigned his commission – not before. As citizen McChrystal – not as a general under the President’s command.

Would I vote for him if he ran for President?
Hell no.

Being a general is HARD.
But if he can’t do that properly and by the book, how could he properly run this country?
Being the President is HARDER.

But hey, that’s just me…

Endeavor to persevere

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Tennyson

Memorial Day

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

General George S. Patton

Lest I forget...

The Necessity of Force

When I was teenager, I was a liberal.
Actually, I was a pot smoking, foul mouthed, Marxist spouting little twerp of a hippy.
I got better.

Not all at once, but gradually, I found myself at odds with everything I had once put my secular "faith" in.
My new faith was in Someone and something outside of myself.
But along side of that, I found a world that was full of real heroes.
Those men and women who put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor above their personal comfort.
When talks broke down, when reason was scorned, when pleas of mercy fell on deaf ears, these heroes sought freedom from oppression with that final choice left to people desperate to choose their own destiny.
Some would call it applied force.
Others, physical resistance.
Or more honestly: violence.

We hear that word today, and many cringe at the term.
But ask any soldier that has met the enemy on the field of battle, and they will tell you that you can use those earlier, prettier terms for it, but violence is still it's name.
And many have paid the ultimate price in it's application.



An excerpt from Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein:

History and Moral Philosophy.
H. & M. P. was different from other courses in that everybody had to take it but nobody had to pass it – and Mr. Dubois never seemed to care whether he got through to us or not. He would just point at you with the stump of his left arm (he never bothered with names) and snap a question. Then the argument would start.
But on the last day he seemed to be trying to find out what we had learned. One girl told him bluntly: “My mother says that violence never settles anything.”
“So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn't your mother tell them so? Or why don't you?”
They had tangled before – since you couldn't flunk the course, it wasn't necessary to keep Mr. Dubois buttered up. She said shrilly, “You're making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!”
“You seemed to be unaware of it,” he said grimly. “Since you do know it, wouldn't you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea – a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue – and thoroughly immoral – doctrine that `violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

Lest I forget...

"I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did." 

Benjamin Harrison

Food for thought on a Sunday...

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Clive Staples Lewis

Yes, it's an old one - but it still makes me smile...

Happy Vladimir Lenin's birthday !

Or as the hippies call it, Earth Day...

Garbo Talks

Hat tip to Illustr8r and iOwntheWorld

Just realized I aint the Old Spice guy...

Hello ladies.
Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me.
Luckily, he isn't me.
Now please appreciate your man.