However, I don't think currying favor with this party or that party had anything whatsoever to do with it. The bulk of the military are proudly apolitical, and consider getting down in the political muck with the Pelosi's, Bruce Ackermans, et al., is dirty stuff to be transcended at any cost. While usually liberal civilians love to haughtily remind generals that “they work for the civilians”, generals are usually happy to leave the scummy stuff to the civilians to handle.

It looks to me like McChrystal is trying to make this U.S. effort succeed, with the least number of lives ultimately lost. And he's willing to absorb attacks on himself and his career in order to do it, which is more than I can say for some of his superiors, military and civilian. Whether he turns out to have been right or wrong, it is quite refreshing to see a man aggressively and unapologetically pursue victory. Almost forgot what that looks like.