General Stanley McChrystal is being called on the White House carpet after a magazine article that was released this week quoted the general and his staff criticizing the Obama administration and its Afghanistan strategy. Via videoconference, McChrystal and Obama meet regularly to discuss Afghanistan. But following the Rolling Stone McChrystal profile broke, Obama demanded to see him this time in person. This isn't the first time the general has talked bad about administration in public.
Article Resource: General McChrystal publicly rips administration in Rolling Stone by Personal Money Store
McChrystal and his Obama contempt
Within the article, General McChrystal and his staff talk about their contempt with several officials carrying out the administration’s Afghanistan war policy. It was reported by Fox News the article in this week’s Rolling Stone quotes McChrystal making disparaging remarks about President Obama, mocking Vice President Joe Biden, feeling “betrayed” by U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, and recalling how Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by a roomful of military officers. An aide to McChrystal also decides he wants to call National Security Adviser Jim Jones “a clown” who remains “stuck in 1985.”
Rolling Stone fallout with McChrystal}
General McChrystal is to attend a White House meeting with Biden and many of the other advisers whom McChrystal or his staff mocked in the article. The general has fired Duncan Boothby, the press aide who booked the McChrystal Rolling Stone interview. As outlined by the Washington Post, timing of the Rolling Stone article by freelance journalist Michael Hastings could hardly be worse. With mostly just bad news coming out of McChrystal’s Afghanistan war and increasing casualties, U.S. lawmakers and senior officials from allied countries are increasingly skeptical about the U.S. Afghanistan strategy. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly backs McChrystal in Afghanistan and hopes Obama doesn’t choose to replace him.
General McChrystal does it again
This isn't the first time this has happened. Last year following the general’s recommendations for the Afghanistan war were made public, he gave a speech in London openly criticizing administration officials, vice president Joe Biden in particular, who disagreed with him. On that occasion McChrystal was called on the carpet of Air Force One in Copenhagen, where the president had traveled to speak about Chicago’s bid to host the Olympics. The New York Times reports that General McChrystal has apologized for his remarks, saying the article was "a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
Additional info at these websites
Fox News
whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/22/obama-summons-his-top-general-in-afghanistan-back-to-white-house-after-disparaging-remarks/
The Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062200813_2.html?sid=ST2010062200900
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/06/23/world/asia/23mcchrystal.html?hp
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