Stanley A. McChrystal, who is a retired Army General - he is pictured, above - has just weighed in on the upcoming presidential election. Here are some words about McChrystal, from Wikipedia:
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates described McChrystal as "perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat I ever met." However, following unflattering remarks about Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials attributed to McChrystal and his aides in a Rolling Stone article, McChrystal was recalled to Washington, D.C., where President Barack Obama accepted his resignation as commander in Afghanistan.
McChrystal is, clearly, not some sort of Democratic Party fanboy. Still, in a New York Times opinion piece, published on Saturday, September 28, 2024, McChrystal endorsed Kamala Harris for president over her opponent, former president Donald J. Trump. The headline on McChrystal's statement was this: "Why Kamala Harris Has Won Me Over."
I thought McChrystal's commentary was instructive. You can click the link above to read his column for yourself (though a paywall may frustrate your effort). To be sure that you get the essence of what McChrystal has said, I am providing the following excerpt (emphasis added):
Some deeply consequential decisions are starkly simple. That is how I view our upcoming presidential election. And that is why I have already cast my ballot for character — and voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.As a citizen, veteran and voter, I was not comfortable with many of the policy recommendations that Democrats offered at their convention in Chicago or those Republicans articulated in Milwaukee. My views tend more toward the center of the political spectrum. And although I have opinions on high-profile issues, like abortion, gun safety and immigration, that’s not why I made my decision.Political narratives and policies matter, but they didn’t govern my choice. I find it easy to be attracted to, or repelled by, proposals on taxes, education and countless other issues. But I believe that events and geopolitical and economic forces will, like strong tides, move policymakers where they ultimately must go. In practice, few administrations travel the course they campaigned on. Circumstances change. Our president, therefore, must be more than a policymaker or a malleable reflection of the public’s passions. She or he must lead — and that takes character.Character is the ultimate measure of leadership for those who seek the highest office in our land. The American revolutionary Thomas Paine is said to have written, “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” Regardless of what a person says, character is ultimately laid bare in his or her actions. So I pay attention to what a leader does.
I think McChrystal is right - and like McChrystal, I have problems with both candidates and their campaigns. I think it's correct, for instance, that the Biden Administration did not handle the United States' evacuation from Afghanistan without having made some grievous mistakes. Perhaps even more telling, for me, I would like Vice President Harris to take a strong stand against the kind of devastation that Israel has brought to Palestine, and is now bringing to Lebanon. The United States is helping to fund actions that I think are profoundly wrong.
Still, at this point, our choice is binary. On November 5th, we will elect either Kamala Harris or Donald J. Trump to be our next president. What counts most for me, as for McChrystal, is my evaluation of the character of the two candidates. Past is not inevitably prologue (though if it were, I would still vote for Harris, based on my evaluation of past mistakes by Biden/Harris, and the past mistakes of Trump as president). If McChrystal is correct, and I believe he is, "events and geopolitical forces will ... move policymakers where they ultimately must go." If what is happening in Israel and Palestine is high on your list of concerns about this election (as it should be!), I think Harris is the persoon who will, I believe, take our nation in the right direction. I have no such faith in Donald J. Trump.
This is particularly true because we have seen how Donald Trump conducted himself as our former president, and becaue we see how he is campaigning right now. In the same edition of The Times in which the McChrystal opinion column appeared, The New York Times examined "every falsehood, exaggeration and untruth in stump speeches by Trump and Harris." As a subheadline in The Times noted, "Over an hour and 3 minutes, Mr. Trump made 64 false or inaccurate statements (emphasis in the original)." The Times found six instances of false of misleading statements in the Harris speech that The Times examined (emphasis added).
Ultimately, what our government does depends on us. If we are waiting around for some "perfect candidate," who will, once elected, relieve us of our obligation to act, politically, and to demand that the government do what we believe is right, we are waiting for an illusory non-future. Who do we want in the office of the president as we move forward next year? That is actually the question at hand.
We have two choices. I'm with McChrystal, and I am voting for Kamala Harris - not because I agree with everything she has done, or is proposing to do, but because she is, in my estimation, the better person.
I have a hunch I wouldn't much agree with McChrystal on lots of policy matters, but I agree with him on this. Kamala Harris has character, and Kamala Harris gets my vote on November 5th!
ReplyDeleteNot the deep thinker this article depicts. Our military leaders are not to be political. He FAILED miserably and was fired for his BIAS.
McChrystal led US forces in Afghanistan under President Barack Obama, but resigned in 2010 over comments he and his top officers made in a Rolling Stone article that belittled other administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden. Obama replaced him with Army Gen. David Petraeus.