Rákosi’s a fool!
Rákosi’s a fool!
Fred Smoler: Rákosi’s a fool!
An old Hungarian joke alleged that an inebriated worker who had shouted “Rákosi’s a fool!” was sentenced to 121 months, thirty days for insulting the General Secretary, and ten years for revealing state secrets. General McChrystal, some of whose aides have alleged that their boss thinks Vice President Biden a fool, has gotten off more lightly, but those aides to Vice President Biden who keep leaking their boss’s opposition to the President’s policy in Afghanistan have gotten off more lightly yet, indeed, they seem to operate with perfect impunity.
Noting the folly of a VP who seems to subvert his President’s war effort is pretty far from revealing a state secret, so I suppose McChrystal deserved at most the equivalent of the thirty days. Foolishly assuming the discretion, possibly the honor–of a journalist, the General’s chief sin, or at least the sin of some of his aides, is not too much like MacArthur and Truman, despite the startlingly silly analogies one saw online. The most probable result of this episode is that it will be a cold day in hell when an American general again speaks freely around an American reporter, which makes Frank Rich’s celebration of this particular reportorial feat look at best premature.
It is harder to tell what precise difference General McChyrstal’s removal will make to a war effort the President still supports, but in the short term the difference seems unlikely to be very obviously for the better; Karzai and the Pakistani elites already doubt our commitment, and this episode seems bound to reinforce their instincts, at least in the short run, accelerating their current tendency to subvert the American effort. At least at this distance–I write from Berlin–most people who sound delighted at McChrystal’s fate also seem markedly hostile to the President’s commitment to Afghanistan (Frank Rich again springs to mind), so their enthusiasm for this decision is unlikely to be motivated by a pure concern for the dignity of the executive branch.
I find myself recalling a wise decision made by the president’s Illinois predecessor: when one of Mr. Lincoln’s generals, like General McChrystal, a promising one, said and did a much worse thing, issuing Order No. 11., that general kept his job, and within a few years won his President’s war, which argues all the more for only thirty days. On the other hand, General McChrystal’s successor is also a very good general, so what matters now is the strength of the president’s convictions. If he decides to back his new general with as much determination as some members of his administration have displayed when undercutting his former one, things could look up.
Photo: General Secretary Rákosi (Wikimedia Commons)
