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  1. #1
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Obama calls top Afghan commander on the carpet

    Obama calls top Afghan commander on the carpet

    By Anne Gearan and Julie Pace
    June 22, 2010 7:44 AM



    WASHINGTON (AP) - An Obama administration official says the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain his controversial comments about colleagues in a recent interview.

    The official says Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been directed to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person Wednesday rather than over a secure video teleconference, so he can discuss his comments with President Barack Obama and top Pentagon officials.

    An article in this week's Rolling Stone magazine depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

    The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the general's schedule.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

    WASHINGTON (AP) - The top U.S. war commander in Afghanistan apologized Tuesday for an interview in which he said he felt betrayed by the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

    The article in this week's issue of Rolling Stone depicts Gen. Stanley McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to convince even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

    In Kabul on Tuesday, McChrystal issued a statement saying: "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."

    In Rolling Stone, McChrystal is described by an aide as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with an unprepared President Barack Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama called McChrystal on the carpet last fall for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.

    "I found that time painful," McChrystal said in the article, on newsstands Friday. "I was selling an unsellable position."

    Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.

    McChrystal said Tuesday, "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."

    In Brussels on Tuesday, a NATO spokesman called the article "rather unfortunate, but it is just an article."

    The spokesman added that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen "has full confidence in General McChrystal as the NATO commander, and in his strategy."

    The profile, titled "The Runaway General," emerged from several weeks of interviews and travel with McChrystal's tight circle of aides this spring.

    It includes a list of administration figures said to back McChrystal, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and puts Vice President Joe Biden at the top of a list of those who don't.

    The article claims McChrystal has seized control of the war "by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House."

    Biden initially opposed McChrystal's proposal for additional forces last year. He favored a narrower focus on hunting terrorists.

    If Eikenberry had the same doubts, McChrystal said he never expressed them until a leaked internal document threw a wild card into the debate over whether to add more troops last November. In the document, Eikenberry said Afghan President Hamid Karzai was not a reliable partner for the counterinsurgency strategy McChrystal was hired to execute.

    McChrystal said he felt "betrayed" and accused the ambassador of giving himself cover.

    "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books," McChrystal told the magazine. "Now, if we fail, they can say 'I told you so.'"

    There was no immediate response from Eikenberry.

    Eikenberry remains in his post in Kabul, and although both men publicly say they are friends, their rift is on full display.

    McChrystal and Eikenberry, himself a retired Army general, stood as far apart as the speakers' platform would allow during a White House news conference last month.

    http://www.gopusa.com/news/2010/06/obam ... carpet.php
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  2. #2
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    McChrystal's Job in Peril Over Obama Slam

    Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010 09:12 AM
    By: David A. Patten

    Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander in charge of the stalled war in Afghanistan, may be on the verge of being fired over remarks in an upcoming edition of Rolling Stone magazine that appear to disparage President Obama and members of his administration.

    NBC News is reporting that the White House has summoned McChrystal to return the United States to attend a meeting in the White House situation room Wednesday, where he will be asked to explain controversial comments, most of which appear to come from his aides.

    On Tuesday afternoon, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined independent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in a joint statement on the McChrystal controversy.

    "General McChrystal's comments, as reported in Rolling Stone, are inappropriate and inconsistent with the traditional relationship between Commander-in-Chief and the military," the senators stated.

    The senators said they share "the highest respect" for McChrystal, but added that "The decision concerning General McChrystal's future is a decision to be made by the president of the United States."

    Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., praised McChrystal's service on Tuesday but also said his fate should be determined by the president.

    McChrystal has apologized for the article but did not take issue with its accuracy.

    “I extend my sincerest apology for this profile,â€
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