It's time for Obama to act forcefully, not just on McChrystal but larger issues, as Eliot Cohen notes. Will he? I doubt it. That would require more fishing or bait-cutting.
That said, I disagree with Cohen about the firm deadline for winding down the surge. Sure, the Taliban took note. But, it put kleptomaniac Afghan President Hamid Karzai on public notice, as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is likewise on public notice.
The flip side is that the one-year time for the surge was done for domestic consumption. If Obama were really making the hard choices, he would have gone a bit longer, say, 18 months.
That said, for Obama to sack McChystal would make this "Obama's war." Like Korea became "Truman's war" after he sacked Dugout Doug MacArthur.
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