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Obama sacks McChrystal over contemptous article
US commander in Afghanistan fired after aides attack White House ‘wimps’
America's top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, was fired by President Barack Obama today after the general and his tight circle of aides expressed their contempt for senior members of the Obama administration in the course of a magazine profile.
The Rolling Stone article by Michael Hastings, headlined The Runaway General, is due to be published this Friday, but was widely leaked in advance.
The article claims McChrystal has seized control of the war in Afghanistan "by never taking his eye off the real enemy: the wimps in the White House" and it includes several explosive passages in which McChrystal's aides belittle Barack Obama's team.
As a result, the general was recalled from Kabul to Washington and ordered to appear in person at the White House today. Obama and McChrystal spent 30 minutes together this morning before it was announced that McChrystal had been relieved of his command. It was not immediately clear who would succeed him.
Obama had said yesterday that the article showed "poor judgment" and McChrystal had - according to reports - offered to resign before he presented himself at the White House.
The Rolling Stone article includes these vignettes:
• A message from special envoy Richard Holbrooke was apparently greeted by McChrystal with the words: "Oh not another email from Holbrooke. I don't even want to open it."
• A McChrystal aide reportedly called the White House national security adviser, Jim Jones, a clown who was "stuck in 1985".
• Describing McChrystal's first meeting with Obama, another aide told the magazine: "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The boss was pretty disappointed."
• McChrystal is quoted as saying of his diplomatic partner in Kabul, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who he felt betrayed him: "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books."
The article consistently depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf who failed to connect with Obama right from the start. Last autumn, when the general went public on his desire for a troops surge in Afghanistan, Obama carpeted him for speaking too bluntly when he was not yet ready to make up his mind.
"I found that time painful," McChrystal is quoted as saying. "I was selling an unsellable position."
After the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, called McChrystal in Kabul on Monday night to express his "deep disappointment" over the article, McChrystal issued an apology on Tuesday.
"I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war," he said, "and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome.
"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
McChrystal's PR aide, Duncan Boothby, who organised access for the Rolling Stone reporter, had already resigned from his post before today's announcement.
McChrystal is not the first commander to be fired by President Obama. His predecessor, Gen David McKiernan, was sacked on the grounds that the US military needed "new thinking and new approaches" in Afghanistan. ·
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It is hard not to be reminded of Admiral Byng who was shot for losing Minorca. He was sent out ill equipped to deal with a superior force and decided to back off in accordance with the rules of engagement that remain to this day. George III was no whimp and had him shot. Obama by contrast promised an end to the military madness and then whimped at the last minute to stay in Afghanistan and now tries to deflect his failed underequipped mission by disgracing his minion. As a Doctor of constitutional law he should read Voltaire's Candide and see how the French laughed and probably still do.
General Stanley McChrystal called a spade a spade, in this case whimps as whimps. Did Barack Obama, Richard Holbrooke and any of the so-called advisors ever served or even wanted to serve defending the USA?
General McChrystal was sowrn to protect the US Constitution against all enemies - foreign and domestic.
If the founding fathers who wrote the US constitution thought that enemies could be domestic too, what is the General's fault?
I did agoogle search for 'Military career of Richard Holbrooke'. This came up.
'Following these assignments, Holbrooke spent a year as a mid-career fellow ..... one of the Indonesian military's brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in East ...
Public service - Business career, humanitarian ... - Positions
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holbrooke - Cached - Similar'
So Holbrooke does not have any military expertise to write home about? These these so-called career diplomats are in actuality career messer-at large. Their job is to mess around.
Searching for Military Career of Obama, second entry states, 'Antiwar Barack Obama says he once considered military career | Top ...8 Sep 2008 ... He says he considered enlisting but since the US was not at war anywhere, he opted for another career.
latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/.../obama-soldier-i.html - Cached - Similar'
So much for President's military expertise! It's easy to be bombastic and order others what to do when one does not have any experience.
Undoubtedly the best PR brains are working on this one. It probably is a lot less chaotic than it looks. Interesting to read that Obama who was cool now gets angry. According to Mr. Cameron sending 10 thousand trops and getting 300 killed is saving lives in England from terrorist plots which might be hatched there. There are thousands of other excellent training grounds in Sudan, Pakistan Somalia etc. In spite of that nothing comes to fruition. Probably nobody is seriously trying. If you poke a stick at a dog for long enough it will bite back. I think the Arabs are being rather patient.
Amazing how Obama can whinge about a bit of third rate banter from one of his Generals when he's handed out so much uncalled grief in the direction of Tony Hayward.
Perhaps Obama needs to go golfing to relieve the stress?
I find it difficult to accept that this a temporary lapse in judgement, General McChrystal aint that stupid. So maybe there's a game plan here. Is it to try and cleanse the WH of some of the wimps or perhaps it's to detract from the recently reported Taliban swelling their war chest by extorting bribes from overland transport contractors of military supplies for 'protection'. This apparently runs into $millions per week which should alarm tax payers of every country engaged in Afghanistan.
One vignette you missed was McChrystal questioning the identity of Biden, humerously no doubt, and on that subject it seems only fair to point out that Obama was more or less forced into appointing him as VP to ensure that he looked good himself in whatever situation.