The Runaway General (McChrystal's Rolling Stone Article)

[tekisui]

Source: Rolling Stone

By Michael Hastings

'How'd I get screwed into going to this dinner?" demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It's a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He's in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of Germany's president and sparked both Canada and the Netherlands to announce the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, who have lost more than 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on him.

"The dinner comes with the position, sir," says his chief of staff, Col. Charlie Flynn.

McChrystal turns sharply in his chair.

"Hey, Charlie," he asks, "does this come with the position?"

McChrystal gives him the middle finger.

The general stands and looks around the suite that his traveling staff of 10 has converted into a full-scale operations center. The tables are crowded with silver Panasonic Toughbooks, and blue cables crisscross the hotel's thick carpet, hooked up to satellite dishes to provide encrypted phone and e-mail communications. Dressed in off-the-rack civilian casual – blue tie, button-down shirt, dress slacks – McChrystal is way out of his comfort zone. Paris, as one of his advisers says, is the "most anti-McChrystal city you can imagine." The general hates fancy restaurants, rejecting any place with candles on the tables as too "Gucci." He prefers Bud Light Lime (his favorite beer) to Bordeaux, Talladega Nights (his favorite movie) to Jean-Luc Godard. Besides, the public eye has never been a place where McChrystal felt comfortable: Before President Obama put him in charge of the war in Afghanistan, he spent five years running the Pentagon's most secretive black ops.

much more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236#

[mikelgb]

1. Bud Light Lime and Talladega Nights

:puke:

[KansDem]

2. Sounds like a "real 'Murikan"

You know, a "George W Republican."

[glitch]

8. Without even the juvenile laughs. (actually, a fan of Will Ferrell)

But with McChrystal and his crew we're talking Adam Sandler. Mean and humorless.

[Jim__]

3. Is this the article that caused all the controversy? Thanks for posting it! - n/t

[tekisui]

4. Yes.

In all its glory.

[Justitia]

5. Sounds like real officer material, right there.

Blech. I've known lots of officers, even a few generals - they had truckloads more class & decorum than described here.

No wonder his command control is falling apart.

[ashling]

6. Who's the boss - they need a serious reminder

:argh: :rant::rant::rant::rant::rant::rant:
This story is disturbing not just because of this general. It indicates a general attitude toward authority which is contrary to the Constitution.

I refer to this quote - though there are oh so many others:

"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 fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."

The boss was disappointed? The BOSS was disappointed? They need to be reminded who is the fucking boss!!!

This kind of behavior would not be tolerated from enlisted personnel. They would be court martialed and given a dishonorable discharge. (See the Code of Fucking Military Justice!)

****

I'm sorry, I usually don't get this upset or use "the F word" like that (I know, I know, I'm a piker.) But I am sitting here grading papers fom my college government class and trying not to explode when students don't know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. I had to read one that went on for 7 pages like it was a speech to the VFW: "the nation, our blessed nation."

But these military dipwads are supposed to know the difference!!!

*****

O.K>, I'm over it. Thank you for listening. :argh: :argh:

[flyarm]

7. And Obama put this man in charge of the Afghan war..

Hersh: U.S Executing Afghan Prisoners

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126589§ionid=351020403

As the Afghan occupation continues to prove troublesome for the Obama administration, a report says US-led troops torture and execute prisoners in the country. Seymour Hersh, an investigative journalist with the New Yorker, made the revelation during the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva.

"I'll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan," Hersh said. He also alleged that US forces were engaged in 'battlefield executions' and other heinous offences, Raw Story reported. "They're being executed on the battlefield. It's unbelievable stuff going on there that doesn't necessarily get reported. Things don't change," Hersh noted.

Hersh who worked for many years at The New York Times also helped break the story that detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were being tortured by their US jailers. The report comes as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently confirmed reports about the existence of a secret detention facility at a US airbase in Bagram in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups say Bagram and other US-ran jail facilities have remained US torture centers since the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan nine years ago. However, US officials claim that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.

[glitch]

9. That's the substance.

Can't be reported here.

[GreenTea]

10. Amazing Rolling Stone does it again....

Looking forward to RS expose of the criminality of BP in the Gulf in favor of arrogance & greed.

[thewiseguy]

11. "Does this come with the position?"

God bless Obama. His appointments are amazing!

[petersjo02]

12. I can only get page 1 to load.

What do I need to do to access the rest of the article?

[thewiseguy]

13. You can switch to the next page at the bottom of the article just above the comments

[petersjo02]

14. I can only get page 1 to load.

Message: What do I need to do to access the rest of the article?

[jody]

15. I read the article, link below, very carefully. McChrystal said nothing disrespectful.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

[Connie_Corleone]

16. I just read the article myself.

I still think he needs to be replaced due to the failure of his COIN theory. Put somebody in charge who will get our troops out of there.

[jody]

17. I agree McChrystal needs to be replaced but IMO the major problem is bringing troops home.

The McChrystal incident is a sideshow that sadly will not change Obama's policy of continuing the war in Afghanistan.