I don't get it...but then again you list "Dooce" as an "actually funny" website, and I don't get that either.

Heh.

Killing women and children: a-ok

Criticising your boss: BANG

Someone, quick! Give that man a medal!

C'mon, he wasn't taken out, he just fainted.

Seth, some of these facts have been mentioned by commenters here recently, but I don't recall seeing the Rolling Stone quote here, so maybe that is what is lacking to reveal the true cleverness of the joke.

What makes this a witticism is the juxtaposition of:

a)McChrystal was an important part of the Army's cover-up of the "friendly fire" aspect of Tillman's death [see Wikipedia's article on Pat Tillman for the details, and you will be able to figure out for yourself the chilling implication of just who would have benefited from killing Pat Tillman before he got home from Afghanistan]

b)The sub-headline of the Rolling Stone story that just got McChrystal fired is "Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House".

On the other hand, Rob Payne is referring to Petraeus's, not McChrystal's, fainting while testifying to a Senate committee last week. If this is a witticism, it refers to the fact that replacing a demigod like McChrystal with an even shinier demigod like Petraeus is a smart move by Obama, from the MICFiC perspective.

May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.

Thanks Mistah Charley,

That’s pretty much what I meant.

Powell covered up Mai Lai and lied for the Iraq war. The military ALWAYS has skeletons in the closet and some pouring out the door. Its ALL ya git here.

Powell covered up a Mai Tai?

mistah chaley, ph.d.

"From the MICFiC perspective" Bingo! What looks an awful lot like the same way Ghengis Khan and company behaved from any other perspective looks entirely different from the MICFiC perspective.

Why does anybody need to care about the MICFiC perspective? Because it's our obligation as subjects to understand the predicaments our rulers find themselves in so that we can judge them fairly. Otherwise, we might blame them for wanton death and destruction that they feel bad about. This could weaken them and lead to their replacement by other rules who don't feel bad about causing even more wanton death and destruction and, worse, the new rulers enjoying themselves in the process.

That sort of sickening sadistic enjoyment of violence by our rulers must be stopped at all costs, because otherwise they will lose their sense of self-restraint and want to kill everyone who is a nuisance to them, which is pretty much everyone.

Therefore, fatalistic self-loathing and resignation to the necessity of wanton death and destruction are the necessary and appropriate emotional responses among our leaders to ensure moderated albeit perpetual wanton death and destruction rather than a bloody orgy of excess that will kill everyone before anyone gets rich. Or re-elected.