Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Firing generals: Gotta happen sometime

A big American general in Afghanistan got the heave-ho for shooting his mouth off about Karzai. Lots of questioning about why a guy is fired for telling the truth. The answer is, he should have known better. In World War II, if a general had said on the record to reporters what American officers really ...

A big American general in Afghanistan got the heave-ho for shooting his mouth off about Karzai. Lots of questioning about why a guy is fired for telling the truth. The answer is, he should have known better. In World War II, if a general had said on the record to reporters what American officers really thought about Bernard Montgomery or the French, Ike would have put that general on the next plane home, probably busted to colonel and destined to run a bootcamp in a remote cypress swamp in Mississippi.

A big American general in Afghanistan got the heave-ho for shooting his mouth off about Karzai. Lots of questioning about why a guy is fired for telling the truth. The answer is, he should have known better. In World War II, if a general had said on the record to reporters what American officers really thought about Bernard Montgomery or the French, Ike would have put that general on the next plane home, probably busted to colonel and destined to run a bootcamp in a remote cypress swamp in Mississippi.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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