America’s top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and his closest aides, mocking vice president Joe Biden, calling National Security Adviser and former Marine general James Jones a “clown,” and questioning whether the war is winnable.
That’s according to a Rolling Stones profile of McChrystal due out Friday titled, The Runaway General. In it, McChrystal says his first meeting with President Obama left him “disappointed,” calling it a political stunt, a photo op by a White House eager to deflect criticism over Obama’s delay in urging an escalation of the Afghan war.
The story claims McChrystal seized control of the Afghan war “by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.” The general’s aides criticize administration envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke as weak, ineffective and on his way out; the death knell for a political appointee.
The most biting criticism was directed at Amb. Karl Eikenberry, who McChrystal aides accused of working at cross purposes with them and trying to cover his own ass if the Afghan war goes south. The tensions between McChrystal and Eikenberry are well known and this latest bit of ugliness will likely result in one of the two leaving Afghanistan.
McChrystal was quick to issue a statement from Kabul: “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.””
Poor enough judgment to get himself fired? At the least, McChrystal and his aides are being insubordinate, that in itself could get him canned. The latest reports are that he’s on his way to Washington for damage control.
Marc Ambinder provides some back story that might explain why McChrystal, and more so his aides, would mock White Officials on the record to a reporter:
“He was tired of being the victim of what he believes is a concerted effort on behalf of Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and others to undermine everything he was given 18 months to do. He was tired of being perceived in the press as a neoconservative killer, Dick Cheney’s hired assassin, or disloyal to President Obama and his staff. He was angry at being blamed for leaking the draft of his report to the President to Bob Woodward. (He did NOT leak the document). He was miffed that a large number of mid-ranking soldiers and battalion commanders and enlisted guys didn’t support his strategy.
Even though McChrystal voted for Obama and told him so during their first meeting, he sensed that a number of senior White House aides didn’t really believe that the former commander of the military’s special missions unit during the Bush-Cheney years was suddenly on their side. National Security Adviser James Jones, who is a bit of cipher to McChrystal’s team, may or may not have been one of these aides. No one in the West Wing bought all that liberal internet chatter about JSOC’s alleged crimes — but no one really didn’t buy it, either.”
The fallout from this story could obviously be huge. During his election campaign, President Obama famously pushed the “no drama” mantra among advisers and staff. The pressures of Washington have brought out quite a bit of drama over the past year-and-a-half. Of course drama among campaign staffers is one thing. Drama between the top leadership of a long and bloody war that’s going rather poorly is quite another.
Are McChrystal and his close knit team looking for an out from what they see as a faltering war effort, with U.S. and European support for the war fast eroding? I sure hope not. I have been hearing rumors from folks in the special operations community that McCrystal does not want to be around when the July 2011 withdrawals begin.
From the Rolling Stones piece:
“Even those who support McChrystal and his strategy of counterinsurgency know that whatever the general manages to accomplish in Afghanistan, it’s going to look more like Vietnam than Desert Storm. “It’s not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win,” says Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville, who serves as chief of operations for McChrystal. “This is going to end in an argument.”
– Greg Grant
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Sometimes the truth hurts. The Emperor's clothes and all that.
This is what happens when wars are run by politicians instead of soldiers. When one side places limitations on their forces for political reasons, the best they can hope for is to not lose. it happened in Vietnam, and it's happening again.
Opine
McC is gone, toast, a victim of honesty, and irreveant Aides. Regardless that his comments are spot on, This OBNA barely tolerates Fox, Beck, Rush, or anyone, that dares to speak irreveantly of thier admin.
So, again, the truth hurts, not the focus but the messenger. We, the USA Electorate, get the results. A loss of a dedicated pro and a continuation of failed leaders.
end
Semper Fi
Does anybody know this retired General Karl Eikenberry? His wikipedia entry is far from impressive: "held staff positions in airborne, ranger, and mechanized infantry units in the United States, Korea and Europe".
That's about as far as you can get from any fighting assignment these last 20 years.
Sounds like one of David H. Hackworth's perfumed princes.
What’s with this “Even though McChrystal voted for Obama and told him so during their first meeting…” ********. Really General? Really? You told the CINC you voted for him? Did you have your kneepads on too? And yeah, if you did, I’m pretty sure you’re the only guy from JSOC with that dubious ‘honor’.
Pretty pathetic, to be honest. At this point, just retire while you still have some shreds of dignity left.
Articles like this make me really happy I’m retiring in 18 months…
I spent most of the late '90s with 1st Brigade of the 82d Airborne Division; David Petraeus was my bridgade commander, and Bill Mayville commanded 1st of the 504th towardthe end of my time at Bragg. I got there just a few months too late to meet McChrystal, who handed over 3rd of the 04, but his reputation lingered. It was good, and Mayville's was even better; if Bill Mayville says we're losing the war, then we are losing the war. You can take that to the bank.
All of these men were formidable officers; none of them was a loose cannon. That was a tight, intense little world, where loyalty was expected and if you didn't like it, well, there was always the highway. I seldom saw a field grade officer unbutton about his superiors; I cannot imagine one talking to an outsider in the way these guys are supposed to have talked to a newspaper reporter – and in that world, you can guess where newspaper reporters and politicians ranked.
(this concludes previous post)
This can only have been deliberate, and it is a sign of desperation. The last place I can imagine most of the officers I knew in the '90s going is the news media – but they know the media loves a story, and the fact that they're willing to pass this story to an intermediary they're naturally primed to dislike is a sign not only of desperation, but strategic calculation. They probably knew they were toast when they did it – but saving their own asses may not be the goal.
This does hurt, But that doesnt excuse the General from what he did. With that said. They are not going to force him to retire either. He knows to much and will name names.
If Gen. McChrystal is to be removed so should Amb. Karl Eikenberry. The lack of coordination and distrust will continue if Amb. Karl Eikenberry is to remain and McChrystal to be removed. All blame should not be put on Gen. McChrystal, and Karl Eikenberry deserves at least half of the blame.
The Afghanistan War should be run by the Commander and Chief through the Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon, and finally CentCom to Gen. McChrystal. Politics should be handled by the President and State Department through Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. Any insubordination or inpropriaty by the General or Ambassador should be grounds for their immediate dismissal from their command or office respectively.
Perhaps he wants this out in the open, willing to be the sacrificial lamb, knowing hes gonna get his @$$ handed to him, to save HIS troops. He knows they are being spent cheaply and without honor, and he wants it all out in the open…and the best way to do that is something like this, in these times.
I agree that he breached protocal, and normally I'd say he did something that should be punished. This time though, maybe he sees something we don't, and this is the only way to fight the PR/Politic war and save lives.
It's Rolling Stone, folks, not Rolling Stones. I believe they're some kind of rock and roll band.
It's in there twice, too.
We shouldn't even be in Afghanistan in the first place. I thought the entire reason this President was elected was under the false pretenses of pulling out of these unconstitutional wars. Yet, we are still around. Have we even caught the people so called responsible for the entire reason we declared war???
The s*** has hit the fan and we need to remove all heads from rectums. Our global military is sucking us dry financially all the while we can't even take care of protecting our own boarders, ie; Ciudad Juarez.
This War on Terror has been a joke. Yes we've gained massive exp and military tech, but at what cost??? Has/will the elusive enemy we fight grown stronger?
Umm, why shouldn't we be in Afghanistan. We were attacked, remember?
Attacked by hijackers that were all Saudi's. We weren't attacked by Iraq or Afghanistan. Are you going to say we were attacked by terrorist, or Al Quada? Well then in that case, we better get troops in Pakistan, Yemen, and everywhere else in the world these so called attackers are…
We were suppose to get the people for the attack, not start a world war on terror.
The World war on terror started several years before 9-11 with the bombing of embasies in Africa. The Hijackers nationality was Saudi but, they were trained and operated out of Afghanistan by al quada. Al quada was in Afghanistan under the protection of the taliban. This conflict does not have national borders as conflicts in the past have had. Regardless of what the media and politicians tell us this is a war of religion with the instigators refusing to recognize anyone or any government outside thier circle as ligitimate therby open to attack. Do a little reading on this and you will see.
There's pretty much no question of the legitimacy of starting a war against Afghanistan in the wake of 9-11. Lots of non-Americans, including my old unit, were only too happy to get involved.
So what if they were Saudi's? The spear was thrown by the Taliban
There was a clear sense that this was a war that needed fighting.
On the other hand, everyone I spoke to was a bit puzzled about why we were fighting in Iraq again.
We cant take care of our borders because the federal Gov. wont pass anything to protect it. Its a lack of leadership. They are more concerned about giving illegals health care then protecting our borders. And
Afghanistan is right place we should be. In fact, Iraq was the war that is suspect. But if we leave Iraq to soon, before we train them, it would be just like Afghanistan.
This illustrates the ineptitude of President Obama and his administration, but what else can be expected from individuals who can’t keep their word on nearly anything. Gitmo is still opened regardless of being right or wrong. Pork spending is ramped regardless of Obama saying it won’t happen during his administration – he even had his pork in the stimulus package days after he entered office – Acorn. Right after he said no more bailouts – he does exactly that with 3 socialist troubled states to the tune of $50 billion more of our money. This president and his administration live in a “Reeboks World” the real world be damned.
I hope McChrystal is regretting voting for our current regime now. If he gets canned for calling it as he sees it, it will be a damn disgrace.
Any general who disrespects the Office of the VP or Pres must be canned for insubordination. Doesn't matter whether he's right. Doesn't matter what party is in the White House. You don't complain outside the chain of command.
I have to agree, and history also supports this look up Gen. McArthur. Keep the complaining IN HOUSE and work on fixing the problem not compounding it.
Since when? Obama, and every other president, was elected president, not God. It wasn't like O was called what he really is. The General inferred that O was unprepared. Thats nothing new with O.
Uniform Code of Military Justice. See insubordination.
Gaff or not, Obama won't fire McChrystal. That would be the final nail in the coffin containing his national security credibility.
..Then again, perhaps that would be the perfect pretext to pull us out of Afghanistan. You never know with this guy.
McChrystal should be canned because he voted for Obama.
Lol, nice, your right though
i see respect for democracy and the freedom to vote is alive and kicking then.
I just read the Rolling Stone article. McChrystal comments were not a deliberate attempt to get a message to the public. It was just him and his staff (who sound like a bunch of sychophants) talking big in front of the reporter.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/1…
**** the Administration. We did not elect them to put the lives of foreign civilians above the lives of our children.
Damn the Administration. We did not elect them to put the lives of foreign civilians above the lives of our military children.
Did you not get the memo that the US is a superpower?
Haha! did u guys read the Rolling Stones article? It's freaking hilarious I love this general! We should elect this guy president. I'd vote for him!
"Hey Charles" McChrystal asks"dos that job come with this?"
Middle finger
Puck the folititions!
We really don't know what the general and his staff really said. All we have is the word of a left wing, anti-military reporter. Reporters have been know to either get the facts wrong, or present a slanted view before. IMO, the general and his staff's biggest mistake was saying anything at all to a reporter, particularly one from Rolling Stone.
exactly, the media is always going to puy a slant on the facts to support their ideology, see FOX news.
I think that the method for which General McCrystal expressed his very important, and in my opinion, correct, views was not the right way to do it. But that being said, I hope to God that he's not fired. We need as many strong commanders as we can get that will hold their ground and do what is best and necessary to complete the mission, even though it is sort of vague now, and get the troops home and out of harms way. War is not meant to be fought by civilians, and when it is fought by civilians, it is lost. We need our experienced warfighters to be making the decisions. WWII was led by our generals and we won. Vietnam War was commanded by politicians who don't know crap, and we lost. They drag it out and make it a much larger conflict. What are politicians need to do is say our generals, "Look, we want Al Qaeda gone, and we want to keep our nation secure. Do what is necessary." I guarantee you we would have been out of this quagmire years ago.
> Perhaps he wants this out in the open, willing to be the sacrificial lamb,
> knowing hes gonna get his @$$ handed to him, to save HIS troops.
Perhaps he knows _his_ grand strategy, which _he_ sold to Obama (over the objections of several of the civilian leaders of our Government whom he denigrated) is failing [1], and he decided to go out in a blaze of McArthurite glory.
Cranky Observer
[1] In fairness, there is no possible strategy or tactic that will "win" in Afghanistan for any usable value of the word "win", but that's not something we are allowed to discuss.
Read more: http://defensetech.org/2010/06/22/mcchrystal-vers…
Defense.org
I wonder if things would have been different if Westmoreland would have called the white house out as well.
There is a good deal of sour humor to be had from the denunciations here of the Obama Administration. The war was left to drift, and starved of resources, so that we could pursue the war in Iraq. President Obama multiplies the resources invested in this theater, but comes in with the public already weary of all things -stan. Whose fault is this? Why, Obama's, of course ….. never that of his predecessor. We had to make sure that the uranium that Saddam didn't get from Niger wasn't made into bombs via centrifuges made from the (unsuitable) aluminum tubing that he got, and so on. (And what about those mobile biowar labs?)
We could have mobilized the resources for both wars. For the year or eighteen months after 9/11, President Bush could've had a million volunteers by asking …but the bill would have interfered with his greater priority, of tax cuts. First things first. Whose fault is a five year delay in prosecuting the Afghan war? Who is to be held accountable for the gift we made of time to the Taliban and al-Queda? Obama, of course.
Moving right along: the important aspect of this collision between Gen. McChrystal and the President is the implication that the war is lost, and that Gen. McChrystal and his staff have been staring at that conclusion for some time. If so, the conclusion seems reasonable. Counterinsurgencies are time-intensive and we gave away five years, more or less, during which available resources went mostly to Iraq. We are now out of time. We do not have a honest or competent government to offer the people of Afghanistan: we have Karzai, an apparent electoral fraud, and his kleptocracy. If McChrystal has reached a conclusion that we've lost, then that ought to be the focus of discussion, not the incoherent dislike of so many for the President. What, then, is Plan B to protect America from further attack?
As you point out, there is a big problem with a professional army. It's politically only useful in war-lite. "We can fight in Afghanistan, but it has to be on a budget and you can't pre-empt important stuff. And we need to include major military powers like Italy and Germany, whose rules of engagement don't actually allow them to fire their weapons."
A guy from your side of the pond I worked with on occasion said to me, a few days after 9-11, "We should mobilize a few million citizens, and form a line around Afghanistan. Every hour, the line should move in a couple of hundred feet, and everyone who doesn't surrender once they get within range of the line is a target". Alright, that's probably not a plan that would have worked. At that moment, however, a large enough force could have been raised, and the Taliban could have been destroyed.
Now, it's basically too late. The Taliban is a department of the Pakistani government. The Afghan government is about as stable as the South Vietnamese one. The war has dragged on, and it has worn down two or three very fine militaries.