General Stanley McChrystal is being called on the White House carpet after a magazine article released this week quoted the general criticizing the Obama administration and its Afghanistan strategy with his staff. McChrystal and Obama meet regularly to discuss Afghanistan via videoconference. But after 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
Obama contempt from McChrystal
In the article, General McChrystal and his staff reveal their contempt that they have with several officials carrying out the administration’s Afghanistan war policy. Fox News reports 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.”
Fallout of McChrystal Rolling Stone}
General McChrystal will attend a White House meeting with Biden and numerous of the other advisers with whom McChrystal mocked in the article. The general has fired Duncan Boothby, the press aide who booked the McChrystal Rolling Stone interview. The Washington Post reports the timing of the Rolling Stone article by freelance journalist Michael Hastings could hardly be worse. With little but 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. Within the meantime, the Associated Press reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly backs McChrystal in Afghanistan and hopes Obama doesn’t decide to replace him.
It is done again by General McChrystal
General McChrystal’s Afghanistan remarks have veered off-message before. 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 very same 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. As outlined by the New York Times, General McChrystal has apologized for his remarks, saying the article was "a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
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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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