Posted on 06/26/2010 11:15:17 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
It was 2:30 Tuesday morning in Kabul, after a busy day of travel to Kandahar and meetings with top Afghan officials, when Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was awakened by an aide with grim news.
"There's a Rolling Stone article out," the aide told McChrystal. "It's very, very bad."
Forty hours later, McChrystal had been relieved of his command, his 34-year military career in tatters. Apart from a terse apology, McChrystal has not discussed publicly the disparaging remarks that he and his aides made about administration officials and that appeared in the article.
On Friday, however, officials close to McChrystal began trying to salvage his reputation by asserting that the author, Michael Hastings, quoted the general and his staff in conversations that he was allowed to witness but not report. The officials also challenged a statement by Rolling Stone's executive editor that the magazine had thoroughly reviewed the story with McChrystal's staff ahead of publication.
The executive editor, Eric Bates, denied that Hastings violated any ground rules when he wrote about the four weeks he spent, on and off, with McChrystal and his team. "A lot of things were said off the record that we didn't use," Bates said in an interview. "We abided by all the ground rules in every instance."
A senior military official insisted that "many of the sessions were off-the-record and intended to give [Hastings] a sense" of how the team operated. The command's own review of events, said the official, who was unwilling to speak on the record, found "no evidence to suggest" that any of the "salacious political quotes" in the article were made in situations in which ground rules permitted Hastings to use the material in his story.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If the General can spend over 30 years in the Army, and still think that any comment made to a Rolling Stone reporter that could be used to indict a war effort, wouldn't be used even though it was off the record, then the General is off his rocker. How could be so stupid?
He voted for Obama. He may be smart about some things but he’s very stupid about a lot of others.
One of the first thing every private in the Army learns is you never trust a reporter, they are not your friends.
I am in agreement with your observation. To not understand that America hating leftists like this Rolling Stone reporter would use anything to undermine America and our military shows a gross misunderstanding of the enemies of this country from within and without
At least there should be no mistake now, that this is truly how McChrystal and his aides feel about the Lady Gaga President.
It affirms and re-affirms to the world in a somewhat official capacity, that the Kenyan and his minions just ain’t up to the job.
Clearly the man is naive. Naive to trust a RS reporter, and also naive to believe that the “soft counterinsurgency” plan will work.
Something still doesn’t smell right about this. My opinion is this was done on purpose. Either the General wanted to resign or the administration wanted him to be replaced. I don’t know which. But encounters with the media are so highly prepped at that level it’s really hard for me to imagine that the entire staff so deliberately and cavalierly would all put his command in jeopardy. They must have been directed in some way to act the way they did.
Hastings also claimed the staff never even attempted to get his trust. That was what was so bizarre to him. That they started saying those things and acting so frankly around him basically from the moment that they met.
RULE Numero UNO: NOTHING is OFF THE RECORD
Rule # 2 Refer to rule Numero Uno
( Off course we all learn the hard way!)
I spent almost 8 years in the Marine Corps, and observed numerous talented, serious and extremely smart officers to be completely devoid of political savvy, outside of the Corps. Their whole being was just too wrapped up in their avocation.
You remember that McChrystal had seen very little of his wife in the past 7 or 8 years. Lack of social contact like that would tend to result in lack of commensurate social and political awareness (beyond a very focused non-civilian scope). I cut him a bit of a break there.
My guess is O’bamianna has lost his vote now.
What do you get when you cross a lying reporter with a lying administration?
Sounds like the start to a great joke. I’m afraid the joke’s on us though.
He voted for Obama. He may be smart about some things but he’s very stupid about a lot of others.
That pretty much says it all.
bttt - cogent comment
I was saying pretty mujch the same thing on another thread yesterday.
he got what he deserved. McChrystal is an idiot liberal that voted for the pig in chief and banned Fox news at his headquarters. Piss on him. What’s really ironic is that he is one of O’s butt buddies and he still tore him a new one. Pretty bad when your supporters rip you to shreds.
Leftist McChrystal gets fired, and conservative Petraeus gets undermined by zer0 until he fails. The loss of the war falls on Petraeus’s shoulders, and the regime and its friends skate away, innocent as the new-fallen snow.
heh... thanks OldDeckHand. What is really needed here is that graphic of the Chicagoland mugshots of people wearing the “elect Zero” t-shirts, but with assorted shots of McChrystal’s face superimposed on each one. Or somethin’.
1. There is no such thing as an “open door policy.”
2. There is no such thing as “non-retribution.”
3. Nothing is ever “off the record.”
Lots of senior officers, of all branches, seem to be liberal in terms of political affiliation. I just don't know if it is one of those scenarios where the individual chooses to be liberal, chooses to remain a democrat because of the ‘family tradition’ or the years of military service.
I spent 7 years on active duty as a US Marine (1974-1981) and the officers in my circle despised jimma carter.
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