The Conservative Soldier

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been relieved of his duties by the most under-qualified President of the United States in American history.

The truth has set McChrystal free. He is freed from the tepid American military effort in Afghanistan, an effort hindered by a President who does not lead, who allows military and civilian insiders to bicker and snipe, and who has little regard for American military strength and those who sustain it.

Considering that the Obama White House is defiantly uncommitted to dealing aggressively with our nation’s enemies, it sure has a proclivity for dropping bombs. F-bombs, to be precise.

This White House tolerates a Vice President who erupts about what a “big f—ing deal” ObamaCare’s passage will be. It operates under a chief of staff who denigrates the decisions of others as “f—ing retarded”.

Now, press secretary Robert Gibbs expects us to believe Barack Obama is outraged about a magazine, read mostly by aging 1970s war protesters, that hires a writer who, apparently, loves typing the “f” word and did so four times in a profile of McChrystal.

Somehow a reckless presidency that acts by decree without regard for the rule of law is less egregious than a reckless decision by McChrystal’s civilian communications advisor to give a vehemently antiwar journalist full access to the general and his staff.

Not one f-bomb was attributed to McChrystal, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Two were introduced by the author, Michael Hastings, who has crafted war coverage and analysis for such left-of-center digital media outlets as Salon, Slate and True/Slant. Two others were contained in unattributed comments by “aides”.

The revelation of the Rolling Stone piece is not that politicians and military personnel curse like sailors and don’t always get along. The Rolling Stone episode that brought down a four-star general is a stark reminder that the dictatorial Obama and his disciples do not tolerate truth and transparency.

We’ve seen it before. During the 2008 campaign, Sam Wurzelbacher (Joe The Plumber) was savaged by the compliant mainstream media after he dared challenge candidate Obama’s wish to “spread the wealth around”.

When Obama led the government takeover of the American auto industry, General Motors chief Rick Wagoner was fired – by the feds, not by GM. Unprecedented.

A Cambridge, Mass., police officer arrests one of Obama’s buddies, a (black) Harvard professor, for obstructive conduct. Obama hurls the officer under the bus. He “acted stupidly,” Obama said, though the truth was the (white) officer acted appropriately.

The list goes on: South Carolina Rep. Joe (“You lied”) Wilson. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (immigration enforcement). Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (BP disaster support).

But this is the Obama way: Attack any and all who oppose his version of reality, who dare to tread too close to the truth. In this case, as The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Brownfield writes this morning, the Hastings piece “revealed a larger problem for the president — festering, internal dissension regarding his administration’s Afghanistan strategy.”

Rolling Stone headlined its story, The Runaway General. It is merely a chapter in the story of a Runaway Presidency.

Video images and statistical projections related to the BP oil well disaster are nauseating. The reaction is shared universally. Equally nauseating were Thursday’s Congressional hearings during which hours were committed to the interrogation of BP chief executive Tony Hayward.

Shepard Smith, the Fox News anchor known for a left-of-center world view, said bluntly, “Today’s public dress down is as much about politics as it is getting to the bottom of this national tragedy.”

Members of the Congressional subcommittee who spent the day grilling, rebuking, admonishing, even mocking, Hayward have a lot more in common with the reserved Brit than any would care to admit. It is also shared by President Barack Obama. The lawmakers, Hayward and Obama did nothing on Thursday to further reduce the volume of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, nothing to dramatically step up the containment or removal of oil from the vulnerable waters.

Blaming BP is not a solution. Feeding populist rage is not proactive. It is reactive.

If blame is essential amid this crisis, why are Obama, his administration and members of Congress so unwilling to accept any responsibility for their complacency at the outset of the explosion and failure to recognize the magnitude of the uncontrolled oil flow? Why does President Obama travel to the Gulf Coast for photo ops but not to oversee a massive clean up effort that marshals experts and technology from around the world? Why does Obama hesitate to waive a law that prohibits foreign vessels from being dispatched to the Gulf to help collect oil?

And one other question trumps the rest: Why is there so little outrage among lawmakers and American citizens toward the nauseating politicization of the BP accident that took the dangerous turn Wednesday of subverting the rule of law? The U.S. government effectively seized $20 billion in assets of a multinational corporation, then selected the “independent” body that will determine who has been a victim of the disaster and how much money they need to be “made whole”.

The czar of this independent body is attorney Ken Feinberg, the same Ken Feinberg who presided over the Obama attack on executive pay among the nation’s financial institutions. This is the Feinberg who “independently” ruled these institutions — many of which never asked to be bailed out and, in some cases, repaid the money — were prohibited from honoring their compensation agreements with selected senior-level officers. Feinberg is an Obamatron, period.

Texas Rep. Joe Barton called the seizure of $20 billion from BP a “shakedown”.  Later, he was compelled during the Hayward hearing to reiterate that he holds BP responsible for the environmental disaster. The two are completely unconnected. The $20 billion transfer of wealth to the U.S. government represents naked exploitation in the aftermath of the rig explosion, and another example of a government takeover of a private enterprise. By the way, that $20 billion is an initial amount. The U.S. likely with extort more. And it is separate from $100 million allocated to compensate for Obama’s worst decision since the accident: shutting down all offshore drilling for six months, crippling an industry. When Obama says BP will pay he apparently means “for my reckless decisions.”

Conn Carroll, writing The Heritage Foundation’s Morning Bell analysis Thursday, gets to the heart of it. “Yesterday’s ‘voluntary’ deal between BP and the Obama administration was nothing less than a continuation of (Obama’s) ongoing assault on the rule of law,” he concludes. “From Fannie Mae to Freddie Mac, from GM to Chrysler, from AIG to Citibank, our government continues to subvert the established rule of law. This lawlessness creates uncertainty in the business environment, and it is a huge reason why our economy is not recovering as it should be.”

An environmental crisis meets an economic crisis. Which will take longer to clean up?