UPDATE: 6/23 - 12:05PM PDT — Well, what else could Obama do? It’s not a win. But the Army isn’t part of the political-media complex, and free speech doesn’t apply to Generals or privates. Still, I stand behind my post, which is now old news.

I just read Michael Hastings story, “The Runaway General,” online, here. You should read it, too.

First I wondered how the Army, plus the reputed smartest guy in it, plus his hand-picked staff, plus some genius civilian consultant on, presumably, press exploitation, could have allowed a reporter for Rolling Stone, for God’s sake — a magazine with a forty-year reputation for muckraking and rude language — into the general’s most private working moments. There’s only one explanation — they’re stupidly self-destructive. Anyway you look at it, both adjective and adverb apply.

Then you read the piece. It’s either total fiction — and nobody has suggested it is — or it’s spectacular reporting supported by muscular writing.

Yes, Hastings has a point of view. He says Afghanistan is a total SNAFU. President Obama looks, well, stupid. How is it that the brightest and best people our government can assemble from either party can’t keep these big war-projects from turning into chaos? When will we stop sending ranks of mechanized troops after ragtag bands of guerrillas to get chewed up and blown up? Really, this has never worked. Remember those ranks of Redcoats marching upright in perfect lines down the road to Concord?

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m not required to offer a solution. But I do think each of us Americans needs to spend more time reflecting upon the quality of choices of leader-candidates we are being offered by our political system. And how we can demand a more intelligent, accurate system of developing and selecting them. I’m thinking about that. My choice for the immediate future is none of the above.