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Why Does the U.S. Get All the Tornadoes?
Posted By Blake Hounshell
Monday, June 21, 2010 - 11:44 PM
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You may have heard by now that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, inexplicably gave Rolling Stone unparalleled access to his inner circle, and the magazine dropped a bomb on him today, feeding reporters a story that finds him dissing Ambassador Karl Eikenberry on the record and quotes his aides mocking Vice President Joe Biden, special representative Richard Holbrooke, and National Security Advisor Jim Jones. We also learn that McChrystal was none too impressed when he met President Barack Obama for the first time last year.
As you might imagine, folks in Washington are not pleased. "Within hours after today's Rolling Stone story broke," reports the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, "McChrystal was called by the White House, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They were not happy."
No kidding.
Here's McChrystal's statement:
I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard. I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."
Too late? It's hard to imagine how McChrystal survives what is going to be an epic sh*tstorm all week long. And then the article itself goes up Friday.
As James Dobbins noted last fall in a prescient article for FP, the disagreements between McChrystal and Eikenberry have been unusually public, to the long-term detriment of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. But I wonder why Eikenberry was able to stick around so long. After all, he clearly didn't believe in the mission, as his leaked memos made clear. And those memos made it impossible for him to get along with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai -- which is one of the main jobs of an ambassador. How could he possibly be effective?
MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images
I know Stan McChrystal and had the honor of working with him when he was the JS VJ-3. Good man and warrior with the highest integrity and "Soldier first" mentality.
Which is why the entire article -- with his active participation -- is so baffling.
I can't believe that he simply made those comments without thinking.
Or thought that a Rolling Stones article would be the proper forum.
Or that anything said about the CYA wimps (every Administration has them -- especially after Gore invented the Internet) would not come back and bite his Alpha.
Poor judgment, Stan.
He wasn't going to go down with the ship
Clearly the good General had reached the point where he felt the mission could not succeed due to the problems with the Administration from the top down. Given his loyalty to the troops, etc he most likely felt he would do them and the country a better service by making this information known - inflamatory as it is - and getting the boot than by simply offering his resignation and some mealy mouth statement of thanks of the opportunity.
Obama and co. put in place an Afghan 'strategy' which was unlikely to succeed and they have done everything possible to make sure it fails. This will allow them, in their view, to leave Afghanistan far sooner (before nov 2012) than would a longer term strategy which might have a higher degree of success.
He might survive Afghanistan, as this is the **U*S** made war, but I doubt if he can survive the **C*I*A**, as they might put him out of the way and send him with millions of secrets to the Grave,
the same happend to some Mujahideen Comanders e.g.(Massod, Mazari) they were hired for the war and when mission completed, they were taken away
Administration from the top down. Given his loyalty to the troops, etc he most likely felt he would do them and the country a better service by making this information known - inflamatory as it is - and getting the boot than by simply offering his resignation and some mealy mouth statement of thanks of the opportunity.
Obama and co. put in place an Afghan 'strategy' which was unlikely to succeed and they have done everything possible to make sure it fails. This will allow them, in their view, to leave replica TAG Afghanistan far sooner (before nov 2012) than would a longer term strategy which might have a higher degree of success.
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