Goodbye, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, soldier in the U.S. Army for three decades and the former head of the NATO operation in Afghanistan. McChrystal was ingloriously deposed after Rolling Stone magazine revealed his loose-tongued, insubordinate streak. –JCL

Los Angeles Times:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said goodbye to the Army on Friday in a poignant ceremony that paid tribute to his three decades of military service and barely mentioned his firing by President Obama for insubordination.

It was McChrystal who alluded most directly to his own precipitous fall, standing at the podium and looking out at formations of soldiers and former comrades.

“Service in this business is tough and often dangerous, and it extracts a price for participation, and that price can be high,” McChrystal said. “If I had it to do over again, I’d do some things in my career differently, but not many.”

[…] “This has the potential to be an awkward, even sad, occasion,” McChrystal said, beginning his remarks with an allusion to the circumstances of his departure.

But he tried to puncture the tension with a joke, telling the crowd that if anyone challenged the war stories he was about to tell, “I know a Rolling Stone reporter.”

Read more

 Your support is crucial…

With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.

Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.

Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG