I will let you all know up front that my answer is a resounding yes. Many of you will agree with me and many of you will disagree, but let me explain the reason for my answer and I believe that you will understand where I am coming from. The biggest thing here is that the General showed very poor judgement when he made the remarks that he made. The remarks of themselves were really not that vicious but the point is that they failed to support the good order and discipline which is necessary to the functioning of the armed services. You do not voice your differences of opinion with your superiors publicly under any circumstances. To voice your concerns privately is one thing, but the General must have known the importance of a unified front in the face of the enemy or the rest of the world for that matter, but more importantly for the sakes of the young men and women whom we may order into situations which may cause them to lose their lives.

If the General does not agree with the way that the president wants to fight the war the time to make it known is when the order is given. If there is something contained in the orders which is uncertain it needs to be brought to the knowledge of the Commander in Chief and straightened out him. Once discrepancies have been taken care of (whether to the Generals satisfaction or not) the only other course is to execute the plan.

My next point is this: How do you discipline your own subordinates if they begin to criticize you publicly? Is this behavior that you should allow? This behavior by a General Officer only serves to negatively impact the behavior of his subordinates. It would only serve to spread the cancer of rebellion within the ranks.
When Colon Powell was at odds with things that he saw done in the Bush administration he simply chose to go elsewhere. I have never heard of him making any type of disparaging remarks about President Bush or Vice President Cheney. He took the correct action of quietly resigning after his term of service was over. This is the type professionalism that an Officer of that rank and caliber should demonstrate.
I personally believe that when General McChrystal was interviewed by the press the interviewer was skillful enough to get him to speak the things that were really in his heart. Now the General has the right to feel whatever way that he wants to, but it is not always right to utter your feelings aloud. Now there are those of you out there who will say that he is an American and has freedom of speech. Well yes he does but only as long as it is not detrimental to the discipline and good order of the armed forces. We fight to give freedom of speech to our countrymen. In the process of guaranteeing that free speech it sometimes becomes necessary for us to give up our rights.
General McChrystal was out of line with his remarks and he knows it was a mistake. He was honorable enough to resign when he realized his mistake. You may be asking yourself at this very moment if I ever did the same thing when I was in the military. My answer to you is yes I certainly did. When I was a young officer I would voice my opinion about one of my superiors aloud. I realized my mistake when one of my subordinates began to do the same thing. When he referred to this higher ranking officer as an SOB to me in front of my unit I realized how wrong my attitude was, and I never made the mistake of publicly criticizing my superiors again. When there was a problem I would go behind closed doors and make my feelings known to that person. That is the way that professionals should resolve conflict and disagreement. Military Ring Express