The Lesser-Commented Part of the McChrystal Meltdown Piece: "We're Fucking Losing This Thing"

In the brouhaha over the insubordination of General McChrystal and his staff that was published in the Rolling Stone article, most commentators seemed to pass over the subject that the soldiers on the ground are also angry about the war is being handled and, for that, they blame McChrystal.

But however strategic they may be, McChrystal's new marching orders have caused an intense backlash among his own troops. Being told to hold their fire, soldiers complain, puts them in greater danger. "Bottom line?" says a former Special Forces operator who has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I would love to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules of engagement put soldiers' lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing."
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"Fuck, when I came over here and heard that McChrystal was in charge, I thought we would get our fucking gun on," says [SSgt Kenneth] Hicks, who has served three tours of combat. "I get COIN. I get all that. McChrystal comes here, explains it, it makes sense. But then he goes away on his bird, and by the time his directives get passed down to us through Big Army, they're all fucked up – either because somebody is trying to cover their ass, or because they just don't understand it themselves. But we're fucking losing this thing."

If the brass cannot sell the strategy to the troops whose job it is to do the dirty work on the ground, then all we are doing is dragging it out.

We had 25,000 KIA in Vietnam between the time that it was recognized that we had lost the war and the time that Nixon arranged his "surrender with honor." Are we going to be as stupid and get a lot more people killed as we fumble for the exits?