THE TIMES: The man who, in effect, ended General Stanley McChrystal’s glittering military career said yesterday that he thought the top commander in Afghanistan was “unfireable”.
In a candid interview with The Times, the journalist Michael Hastings said he never imagined he would get as much access to the general and his inner circle as he did. He insisted he was simply doing his job as a magazine reporter and rebutted suggestions that there was anything underhand about the methods he employed. Hastings’s devastating exposé of General McChrystal and his aides led President Obama to dismiss the man credited widely as the mastermind of America’s strategy in Afghanistan.
“I realised that it was very strong material for a profile,” Hastings, 30, said. “But I thought McChrystal was unfireable. I thought his position was very well protected.”
The President’s decision, on Wednesday morning, hit General McChrystal “like a steam train”, a close aide said yesterday. It stunned his headquarters staff and, were it not for the surprise appointment of General David Petraeus in his place, might have derailed the American war effort altogether, some analysts have said. Read on and comment >>> Jerome Starkey, Kabul | Friday, June 25, 2010
