Too Few: The Resignation

Our biggest frustration during the Clinton years was not with Clinton, but with so-called honorable men and women that allowed the President's poor decisions and actions to continue without their resignations. Two events come to mind:

1) Clinton meeting with his cabinet members during the Lewinsky rumors to lie to them as he did the American people. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the cabinet members stood by Clinton. Not one resignation. Not an honorable one among them.

2) During the same time, August 1998, when Clinton fired on Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the embassy bombings - three weeks prior. A liberal using deadly force in foreign affairs rather than domestic affairs is a red flag, and most believed this pathetic show of force was to distract from Lewinsky, his most recent scandal. Not one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or any other senior military official resigned in protest.

There are policy decisions one can support, one can disagree with, and one that requires a resignation. The resignation sends a very clear statement of protest while giving the resigning official the space necessary between his honor and the offending politician.

According to a McLatchy story last Friday, those who know General McChrystal well suggest he will resign if not given the necessary support in Afghanistan. Just guessing at this point, but it appears Obama replaced the commander just a few months ago with a principled general, someone he is now pulling the rug out from underneath. For foreign, and war, policy, this is called voting "Present".

Remember, the generals on the ground asked for 35,000 more troops for the original Afghanistan surge. Obama sent 17,000. And guess what? The surge did not achieve the intended results. Hmmm...

Obama is in a pinch here. The seasoned leaders in uniform all joined the military during the Cold War. They prepared for the worst for most of their careers, served with the best, and will be having some reservations with a national policy of apology, quagmire and defeat.

No resignations during Clinton. Let's not make that mistake again.

U/T: Threat Matrix