Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin vs. Gen. McKiernan

I don’t really have much to add to Laura and Matt‘s takes. Just one quick item worth mentioning.

These two things cannot coexist: the McCain-Palin insistence on deferring to ground commanders in war and the McCain-Palin insistence that the “surge strategy,” as Palin put it, is necessary in Afghanistan.

As I reported after Gen. David McKiernan’s Wednesday press conference, McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, unambiguously rejects the idea of an Afghanistan surge and of a “Pashtun Awakening.”

If they’re for a surge in Afghanistan, they’re arguing against the explicit recommendations of the commanding general. Which they’re free to do! They just can’t say any longer that it’s the ground commanders who best understand the strategy.