You see, after General Stanley McCrystal was directly implicated in the cover-up of slain football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire (see http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Tillman_mother_sought_to_warn_Obama_of_McChrystal.html ) he never should have been given command of the Afghanistan War.
And then with the leak of "General Stanley A. McChrystal's confidential assessment of the situation in Afghanistan" (see http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/05/leaking-for-national-security ) McCrystal double-downed on his not being in sync with Obama. Wasn't that strike two at a leadership level which means strike one and you're out?
Actually allowing McCrystal to skate on the first two meant Obama was setting himself up for strike three. In other words, it is not about how Obama handled this instance of poor judgment. The fact that McCrystal was given the opportunity to screw up this badly after already screwing up badly actually—IMHO—fostered the lack of respect he showed for Obama and Obama's Afghanistan policy team.
It's like the kid who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. If you don't respond appropriately you can pretty much bet on the kid doing it again. It's called human nature ... that most of learn at an early age.
McCrystal must have got to the point where he thought the bar of what he could get away with was pretty low ... and up to now he was right. Trouble is, the Obama's "bar" is still too low. McCrystal just went lower.
And the fact that Obama didn't have the command instincts to see this coming ... well, I keep saying, Obama lacks command ability at this level.
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