Fault lies not with the Pentagon, but with the White House

Since news of the piece leaked over the weekend, Gen. McChrystal has issued repeated public mea culpas and was forced to fly to Washington for an in-person dressing down by the president. The apologies were not enough; Wednesday afternoon, President Obama announced that he had relieved Gen. McChrystal of duty as commander of the Afghan theater.

 The decision was the correct one. In his capacity as commander in chief, Mr. Obama has the right to dismiss wayward military commanders, and there were compelling reasons for him to do so in this instance. Insubordination of the kind detailed in Rolling Stone should be untenable even in peacetime. In the midst of an existential conflict such as the one in which we have found ourselves since Sept. 11, 2001, it is simply intolerable.  

But the furor over Gen. McChrystal’s fall from grace should not obscure the larger issue in play - that of deep and enduring divisions within the administration over the way ahead in Afghanistan. Gen. McChrystal may have been handpicked by the White House in May 2009 to take over the Afghan war effort. But, as the Rolling Stone profile makes clear, since then, Mr. Obama has been largely disengaged from the particulars of America’s most pressing military commitment. Other administration officials, such as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and State Department Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke, have not, but their involvement has tended to be more complicating than clarifying, at least in military terms. Read more....