Is McChrystal a fall guy for Obama?

If Mr Obama had devoted more time to working with senior commanders such as General McChrystal, he would have a more profound understanding of the enormous strains and pressures they endure. He might then have been inclined to take a more lenient approach to a magazine article that did little more than reflect the every day tittle-tattle that goes on in any officers’ mess. Gen McChrystal was clearly out of order, but after he issued a fulsome apology, a severe reprimand, rather than outright dismissal, would have sufficed…

The president’s critics, particularly those in the military, believe this is because he has no great faith in Nato’s complex counter-insurgency campaign, where the military offensive against the Taliban is conducted in tandem with a wide-ranging political and economic reconstruction programme. It was for this reason, they believe, that Mr Obama imposed an artificial deadline of July 2011 to begin the withdrawal of American forces.

As a senior Obama administration official told me recently when I questioned the wisdom of this deadline, “Make no mistake, the last thing this president wants is to be involved in a major military campaign in Afghanistan when the next presidential election contest beings in earnest in 2012.”