“McChrystal has few peers and makes even fewer mistakes,” a former Delta Force commando wrote last year when his former boss was tapped to run the war in Afghanistan. But Gen. Stanley McChrystal didn’t suffer military gasbags gladly, the retired major warned. He’d often dismiss officers in the middle of briefings that bored him. “He is always respectful, but it’s never pretty.”

The same could be said of President Obama’s quick canning of McChrystal Wednesday, following one the general’s few mistakes — allowing disparaging remarks by himself and his team about their civilian overseers to make it into print. While there was disappointment in some military circles over the outcome, there was little outrage. McChrystal had crossed a line, the consensus seemed to be, and the Commander-in-Chief was justified in deeming it a firing offense.

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