Furious President Obama Summons General McChrystal To D.C. Over Remarks

[TheSarge]

The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has been summoned to the White House to explain biting and unflattering remarks he made to a freelance writer about President Barack Obama and others in the Obama administration.

The face-to-face comes as pundits are already calling for McChrystal to resign for insubordination.

McChrystal has been instructed to fly from Kabul to Washington today to attend Obama’s regular monthly security team meeting tomorrow at the White House.

An administration official says McChrystal was asked to attend in person rather than by secure video teleconference, “where he will have to explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes about his colleagues in the piece.”

Both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have spoken with McChrystal. Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, said “the chairman spoke to General McChrystal last night and expressed his deep disappointment with the article and with the comments expressed therein.”

McChrystal and his top aides appeared to let their guard down during a series of interviews and visits with Michael Hastings, a freelance writer for the magazine Rolling Stone.

The article, titled “The Runaway General,” appears in the magazine later this week. It contains a number of jabs by McChrystal and his staff aimed not only at the President but at Vice President Biden, special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Karl Eikenberry, the ambassador to Afghanistan, and others.

McChrystal described his first meeting with Obama as disappointing and said that Obama was unprepared for the meeting.

National Security Advisor Jim Jones is described by a McChrystal aide as a “clown” stuck in 1985.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38837.html#ixzz0raEcjuQ4

[thundley4]

I wonder who the new commander in Afghanistan is going to be?

[TheSarge]

I wonder who the new commander in Afghanistan is going to be?

I'm hoping the same one that's leaving for D.C. today.

[RightCoast]

Nice to see the bus going both ways for a change.

[TheSarge]

Nice to see the bus going both ways for a change.

Just had the entire Rolling Stone article arrive in my inbox...downloading now.

[JohnnyReb]

The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has been summoned to the White House to explain biting and unflattering remarks he made to a freelance writer about President Barack Obama and others in the Obama administration.

The face-to-face comes as pundits are already calling for McChrystal to resign for insubordination.

McChrystal has been instructed to fly from Kabul to Washington today to attend Obama’s regular monthly security team meeting tomorrow at the White House.

An administration official says McChrystal was asked to attend in person rather than by secure video teleconference, “where he will have to explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes about his colleagues in the piece.”

Both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have spoken with McChrystal. Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, said “the chairman spoke to General McChrystal last night and expressed his deep disappointment with the article and with the comments expressed therein.”

McChrystal and his top aides appeared to let their guard down during a series of interviews and visits with Michael Hastings, a freelance writer for the magazine Rolling Stone.

The article, titled “The Runaway General,” appears in the magazine later this week. It contains a number of jabs by McChrystal and his staff aimed not only at the President but at Vice President Biden, special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Karl Eikenberry, the ambassador to Afghanistan, and others.McChrystal described his first meeting with Obama as disappointing and said that Obama was unprepared for the meeting.

National Security Advisor Jim Jones is described by a McChrystal aide as a “clown” stuck in 1985.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38837.html#ixzz0raEcjuQ4

...and the truth shall get you in trouble.

[5412]

I wonder who the new commander in Afghanistan is going to be?

Hi,

McCrystal could find himself canned and running for president pretty soon.

regards,
5412

[rich_t]

Just had the entire Rolling Stone article arrive in my inbox...downloading now.

I hope you post a synopsis of the high points.

[TheSarge]

Hi,

McCrystal could find himself canned and running for president pretty soon.

regards,
5412

Well we already know his politics if he does...he voted for Obama.

Rich...yes if anything jumps out at me I'll post it.

[TheSarge]

From the Article:

Even though he had voted for Obama,
McChrystal and his new commander in
chief failed from the outset to connect.
The general first encountered Obama
a week after he took office, when the
president met with a dozen senior military
officials in a room at the Pentagon
known as the Tank. According to sources
familiar with the meeting, McChrystal
thought Obama looked “uncomfortable
and intimidated” by the roomful of
military brass. Their first one-on-one
meeting took place in the Oval Office four
months later, after McChrystal got the
Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much
better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,”
says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama
clearly didn’t know anything about him,
who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going
to run his ****ing war, but he didn’t
seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty
disappointed.”

[5412]

Hi,

If he does that will then create yet another controversy.  McCrystal voted for Obama so he would have even more credibility if he spoke out against him.  They will likely try to muzzle him with the threat that his retirement pay could be affected.  At the same time Fox News could more than make up for that.

How about McCrystal saying, "I see the light!" and telling all what is really going on.

The military is BO's biggest fear in my opinion.  He knows full well the day may well come when they walk into his office and say the party is over, time for you to go.

regards,
5412

[JohnnyReb]

Even though he had voted for Obama,...that ain't good.

, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable
and intimidated” by the roomful of
military brass. ....Obama was at his best sans teleprompter.

“It was a 10-minute photo op,”....standard OP for Obama.

but he didn’t seem very engaged.....again, Standard Obama OP.
 
The Boss was pretty disappointed.”....you don't say. Well, so are we but we knew it from the start.

My respect for Gen. McCrystal just went down several notches.

[debk]

From the Article:

Ouch!

While not appropriate for McChrystal(or his aide) to say to an interviewer,  anyone who was paying attention when McChrytal took over, knows that he didn't meet with Obama for months and I believe it was reported that the meeting was very short.

We ALL know how fond Obama is of the "photo op with no substance". Heck, he just did it with the BP officials last week. They got what? 20 minutes with him?

Obama and his merry band of idiots bring this on themselves. Hard to have any sympathy for the disrespect.

I've had Fox News on since 6, while I've been working this morning and this has been all over it for the last 3 hours. At the end of Fox and Friends, they were reading emails. One was from a guy, who said in effect..."McChrystal makes some inappropriate remarks and he's immediately on a plane back to DC to "answer" to Obama....yet it took Obama almost 60 days to talk to BP. Way to get priorities straight." Most comments were quite negative.

[zeitgeist]

Sounds similar to :




And we all know how that worked out 

[ROCKURWORLD]

I can't believe a general in our Armed Forces would actually vote for a Communist. Maybe McChrystal does need to go.

[TheSarge]

I can't believe a general in our Armed Forces would actually vote for a Communist. Maybe McChrystal does need to go.

He's not the only one who did.  Generals by the name of Casey and Chiraelli did too.

[Airwolf]

They may well force him out but the cost might be bigger then Eurkel could possibly imagine

[bkg]

I can't believe a general in our Armed Forces would actually vote for a Communist. Maybe McChrystal does need to go.

Many did...

I can't state that he should "go" simply because of who he voted for. What matters is how he conducts himself in his role. If he is the best of the best, then I don't care if he sleeps curled up in the fetal position sucking his thumb while wearing a bonnet and adult diapers surrounding by cabbage patch dolls.... Just do his job and do it WELL.

[DumbAss Tanker]

My respect for Gen. McCrystal just went down several notches.

Ditto.  About everyone else in the Army who wasn't already carrying a Democrat ricebowl knew exactly what Obama was, months before the election, and this dumbshit still claims he voted for Zero?  Then compounds the obvious lack of judgment involved in that grave error by running off at the mouth to an outsider?  WTF, over?

There's certainly a lot of truth in the substance of the comments, in fact there's a lot more to be said than what he did let out.  For instance, the whole deal with the political team (Obama, State, and the ambassador) trying to sell Karzai down the river on the Afghan election is probably an unrecoverable unforced error that dooms any chance of success in any politically-acceptable timeframe, particularly when combined with already-programmed withdrawal.

But true or not, comments like that normally result in at least a 50-50 chance of getting fired, unless the President thinks the guy is the only one who can deliver.  Policy aside, that's really as it should be, all up and down the chain of command.  Having a subordinate undercut his superior is totally unacceptable behavior at any level from fire team leader to CINC. 

[TheSarge]

From the article:

By far the most crucial
– and strained – relationship
is between McChrystal and
Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador.
According to those close
to the two men, Eikenberry – a retired
three-star general who served in Afghanistan
in 2002 and 2005 – can’t stand that
his former subordinate is now calling the
shots. He’s also furious that McChrystal,
backed by NATO’s allies, refused to put
Eikenberry in the pivotal role of viceroy
in Afghanistan, which would have
made him the diplomatic equivalent of
the general. The job instead went to British
Ambassador Mark Sedwill – a move
that effectively increased McChrystal’s
influence over diplomacy by shutting out
a powerful rival. “In reality, that position
needs to be filled by an American for it to
have weight,” says a U.S. official familiar
with the negotiations.
The relationship was further strained
in January, when a classified cable that
Eikenberry wrote was leaked to The New
York Times. The cable was as scathing as
it was prescient. The ambassador offered
a brutal critique of McChrystal’s strategy,
dismissed President Hamid Karzai as
“not an adequate strategic partner,” and
cast doubt on whether the counterinsurgency
plan would be “sufficient” to deal
with Al Qaeda. “We will become more
deeply engaged here with no way to extricate
ourselves,” Eikenberry warned,
“short of allowing the country to descend
again into lawlessness and chaos.”
McChrystal and his team were blindsided
by the cable. “I like Karl, I’ve
known him for years, but they’d never
said anything like that to us before,” says
McChrystal,
who adds that he felt “betrayed”
by the leak. “Here’s one that covers
his flank for the history books. Now if
we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’ ”

[delilahmused]

I can't believe anyone in the military would vote for 0bama, especially given the things he's said about them. The brass seems incredibly disconnected from the regular guys. There should be a requirement they spend a certain amount of time each year, or even each couple of years living/working with grunts and NCO's.

Cindie

[TheSarge]

I can't believe anyone in the military would vote for 0bama, especially given the things he's said about them. The brass seems incredibly disconnected from the regular guys. There should be a requirement they spend a certain amount of time each year, or even each couple of years living/working with grunts and NCO's.

Cindie

That's because at their level they are just as politically motivated as the Congress Critters.

You don't get to that level no matter who you are without knowing how to play the Beltway Game by the Beltway rules.

[DumbAss Tanker]

That's because at their level they are just as politically motivated as the Congress Critters.

You don't get to that level no matter who you are without knowing how to play the Beltway Game by the Beltway rules.

Exactly.  All general officer promotions are with 'Advice and consent' by name, not just approval of a generic promotion list, and if a promotable colonel has an enemy in the Senate he will never get his star.  Thanks to 'Senatorial privilege' it only takes one to kill the promotion.  Once they get the first star, many generals therefore cultivate friendships and alliances with Senators to further their careers, becoming increasingly political and moving away from being pure Soldiers.

[Doc]

I'm curious as to whether this is an effort on McChrystal's part to highlight a number of combat issues in Afghanistan.

First, I wonder why this entire episode was the result of an interview granted to "Rolling Stone", which is an obvious left-wing publication.

Second, whether he voted for Obama or not, what I hear about McChrystal is that he is pretty much a "soldier's soldier", and is very well respected by his troops.  He was a SPECOPS guy in Iraq, as I understand, and a highly effective commander in the past.

I'm wondering if McChrystal hasn't elected to "fall on his sword" in an effort to highlight the incompetence of the Obama administration's handling of the rules of engagement, the reticence in supplying needed troops last year, and other tactical restrictions that are coming from DC.  Specifically his obvious disdain for both Obama's ambassador to Afghanistan, as well as the "Special Envoy", both of whom seem dedicated to undermining the elected leadership of the country, and encouraging an adversarial relationship with the countries diplomatic corps.

I suspect that there is much more here than what we are hearing from the press......

doc

[DumbAss Tanker]

If this is supposed to be "Falling on his sword," he's doing a remarkably obtuse and generally shitty job of it.