McChrystal Apologizes for Scandalous Magazine Profile (Updates)
America's top general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, and his staff are quoted saying nasty things about Obama administration officials in a new Rolling Stone article, for which McChrystal apologized Tuesday. (continued)
Updates:
The Rolling Stone piece is now online and you can read it here. McChrystal has been summoned to the White House, and Politico reports he could be fired. Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, observes that the Rolling Stone revelations were written by a freelancer, not by a beat reporter for a major news outlet, a fact that points out the failure of mainstream media: “The better their sources, the less we know.”
Original Post:
America’s top general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, and his staff are quoted saying nasty things about Obama administration officials in a new Rolling Stone article, for which McChrystal apologized Tuesday.
Among others, Team McChrystal reportedly cut down Richard Holbrooke, Karl Eikenberry and National Security Adviser James Jones (the latter dubbed a “clown” by one aide).
Holbrooke is the State Department’s special envoy to the region and Eikenberry is the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Together with Jones, the three men constitute the president’s top representatives to McChrystal’s theater of operations.
Even the president caught some grief. According to the article, McChrystal thought little of their first meeting.
Washington Post:
McChrystal and some of his senior advisors are quoted criticizing top administration officials, at times in starkly derisive terms. An anonymous McChrystal aide is quoted calling national security adviser James Jones a “clown.”
Referring to Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s senior envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, one McChrystal aide is quoted saying: “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous.”
On one occasion, McChrystal appears to react with exasperation when he receives an e-mail from Holbrooke, saying, “Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke. I don’t even want to read it.”
Can’t say that we blame him. We wouldn’t want to read Richard Holbrooke’s e-mail either. In case you’ve forgotten the name, he’s the Clintons’ pet hawk who prefers bombs to common sense.
More dirt on the Rolling Stone piece here. — PZS
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