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GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL
was removed from his position
as commander of U.S. forces in
Afghanistan after he was quoted
making critical comments about
the Obama administration’s
handling of the situation. Members
of the military are expected to
carry out the civil leaders’ policies
and to support those policies, at
least in public.M
ANY AMERICANS EXPECT FOREIGN POLICY TO BE an area of consensus—
that we all hold similar ideas of what our country should be doing
outside our borders. As a result many Americans agree with Senator Arthur
Vandenberg, who in 1945 argued that “Politics stops at the water’s edge,” and
tend to see disagreement over foreign policy as somehow unpatriotic and
motivated by political factors.
One recent example of these beliefs in action occurred in 2010 when
General Stanley McChrystal, then commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan,
was quoted in a Rolling Stone article making critical comments about various
members of the Obama administration, questioning their knowledge of the
situation in Afghanistan and their beliefs about how military action should
proceed.^1 McChrystal was soon removed from his position by President Obama.
Some responses to the removal echoed Vandenberg’s comments—shouldn’t
Americans defer to the judgments of military leaders, who presumably are in
the best position to plan and execute military operations in Afghanistan and
elsewhere?
One of the central goals of this chapter is to demonstrate that simple
answers are rare in foreign policy. The situation in Afghanistan is a good
example. After more than a decade of military action and efforts to build a
stable democracy and a growing economy, Afghanistan remains a dangerous,
unstable place. Should the United States be responsible for creating a stable,
prosperous Afghan nation? What will happen if the United States withdraws