THE TIMES: The US commander in Afghanistan has been forced to apologise over a magazine profile in which he launches a blistering attack on the US Administration, mocking the Vice-President while his aides dismiss President Obama.
Tensions between the military and the White House burst into the open with General Stanley McChrystal’s interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he also denounces the US Ambassador to Kabul.
His aides were less than flattering about President Obama and frequently derided top civilian leaders, including the special envoy Richard Holbrooke. One anonymous aide calls the White House national security adviser James Jones “a clown”.
“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile,” General McChrystal said in a statement issued hours after the article was released.
“It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never happened.”
General McChrystal, a former special operations chief, usually speaks cautiously in public and has enjoyed mostly sympathetic US media coverage since he took over the Nato-led force last year. But the article appears to catch him and his staff in unguarded moments. Read on and comment >>> Anne Barrowclough | Tuesday, June 22, 2010
