US PRESIDENT Barack Obama sacked his top commander Gen Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan over insubordination, stressing that in a democracy institutions are stronger than individuals. Gen McChrystal enjoyed much support both among ordinary people and the rulers. Gen McChrystal criticised the American civilian leadership … holding President Obama and his team responsible for “blunders”.… After sacking the general, President Obama, in a brief address to the media … said that democratic traditions required “respect for civilian control over the (military) chain of command”. … There is some message for us…. In our country, a civilian ruler cannot dare … rebuke [an army general] … or fire him from the job. This is only possible in a strong democracy where the army leadership is only to obey the orders.
…Our media, political and religious parties as well as the elite do not seem to be in the mood to strengthen democracy and civilian institutions. We have the recent example of the Kerry Lugar Bill, wherein the democratic government inked an agreement with the US government for financial aid for civilian institutions. The establishment raised objections while a section of the media … termed it a sellout. If McChrystal were in Pakistan he would not have had to face such consequences….
Apart from action taken by the US civilian leadership against Gen McChrystal, the latter’s controversial interview indicates differences between the American civilian and top military leadership…. But this does not mean that the US military leadership will not obey the orders of civilian authority. … The president is the supreme commander and it is his prerogative to fire any commander…. — (June 25)
— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Editoral-OTHER VOICES - Sindhi Press If McChrystal was here…
0 comments:
Post a Comment