Magazine Article Forces Resignation of Top U.S. General in Afghanistan

In the article, entitled "The Runaway General," McChrystal said President Obama seemed "uncomfortable and intimidated" in initial meetings with top military commanders. McChrystal and his top aides also made disparaging remarks about Vice President Biden and other officials.

After learning about the article, President Obama summoned McChrystal to Washington, D.C. The next day, after they met, the president announced that he had accepted McChrystal's resignation.

Decision comes at a difficult time in war effort

	June 2010 has seen the most American casualties so far in the Afghan war.

The shift in leadership at the top of the military comes at a difficult phase in the Afghanistan war. Last December, President Obama announced he was sending 30,000 more troops to bolster the war effort there -- a number slightly below McChrystal's request of 40,000 troops.

There are now 92,000 U.S. troops and 48,000 troops from allied countries serving in Afghanistan. Their goal is to oust the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic group that endorses terrorism, and to strengthen the democratic government in the capital of Kabul.

Since the troop surge, efforts to reclaim Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, from the Taliban have taken longer than expected. June has seen more attacks on U.S. troops resulting in increased casualties, and President Obama's stated goal of beginning to remove troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 is in limbo.

Generals and presidents have been at odds before

	Civil War Commander George McClellan was dismissed by President Abraham Lincoln for failing to carry out orders as the head of the Union Army.

This is not the first time that a top military general and a commander in chief have been in conflict.

During the Revolutionary War, Brigadeer Gen. Thomas Conway, serving in the Continental Army, tried to overthrow George Washington, the commander-in-chief of American troops. Conway was forced to step down from his post when his letters were intercepted and delivered to Congress, exposing the conspiracy.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had a significant dispute with his top general in the Civil War, Maj. Gen. George McClellan. After McClellan, fighting for the Union army, repeatedly failed to engage the opposing Confederate army in combat, Lincoln questioned whether he was faithful to the Union cause.

In a letter to McClellan, Lincoln famously wrote, "My dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the Army, I should like to borrow it for awhile." When McClellan failed to change his behavior, Lincoln relieved him of his duties. The two also ran against each other in the presidential election of 1864, which Lincoln won.

More recently, President George W. Bush dismissed Adm. William "Fox" Fallon, then the head of U.S. Central Command, after the admiral questioned the Bush administration's Iran policy in an article that appeared in Esquire magazine.

Civilian control of the military is key principle

	General David Petraeus, who led the troop surge in Iraq two years ago, has been named as McChrystal's replacement.

"War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or a president," President Obama said. "And as difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security."

Tension between the military and the president are not new.  When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they were careful to divide up war powers between elected officials (civilians) and the military.  Only Congress can declare war, and the president is the "commander in chief" in charge of military strategy. 

President Obama replaced McChrystal by appointing Gen. David Petraeus, who is head of the U.S. Central Command (a unit overseeing all U.S. military operations in the Iraq and Afghanistan). Petraeus has been hailed by many for his handling of the troop surge in Iraq in 2007 and 2008.