General McChrystal Learns Nothing From Pierogi-Gate

General Stanley McChrystal was removed by President Obama as the commander of the United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday. Technically, McChrystal resigned but only because he was about to get fired. McChrystal publicly criticized the civilian chain of command in an interview in Rolling Stone by essentially insulting President Obama, Vice President Biden and national security advisor Jim Jones. Insubordination, particularly in the military, is a fire-able offense. Doing so in a public forum of Rolling Stone makes things even worse. This would have never happened if McChrystal learned from the mistakes of Andrew Kurtz. Perhaps you don’t know the name Andrew Kurtz. However, if I mentioned that he was the pierogi fired by the Pittsburgh Pirates, does that sound familiar?



Kurtz posted a message on Facebook last week after the Pirates announced the contract extensions of manager John Russell and general manager Neal Huntington stating, “That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates." Tim at BuccoFans.com, Pat of WHYGAVS and Rich of This Is Getting Old all covered this well, so I’m not going to expand on their great posts, but you can’t publicly criticize your employer. Unfortunately for McChrystal, he did not heed this advice.

The Post-Gazette yesterday announced that Kurtz was rehired as a pierogi “because he was not teminated in accordance with company [human resources] procedures. While his conduct was in violation of [the Pirates’] company policy (and many other companies), it was not subject to termination at this time.” McChrystal is not going to be so fortunate to return to his position. However, maybe he can apply for a job as a pierogi!