Obama Says McChrystal Can Keep Fourth Star
AFP: WASHINGTON — He might have sacked him as the US war commander in Afghanistan, but President Barack Obama will allow General Stanley McChrystal the honor of retiring as a four-star general.

The White House said Tuesday that the president had intervened to ensure that McChrystal would keep his rank, even though he had not served the requisite number of years at the level to retain the rank.

"We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that somebody who has served the country as ably as he has can retire at a four-star level," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman.

McChrystal was promoted to four-star rank last year, when Obama chose him to serve as Afghan commander. >>> AFP | Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I Thought General McChrystal Was ‘Unfireable’, Says Rolling Stone Writer
Michael Hastings: admitted he was surprised by the access he was given to General McChrystal. Photo: The Times
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

Obama remplace McChrystal en Afghanistan par le général Petraeus
Le général McChrystal lors de son arrivée à la Maison Blanche pour un entretien avec Barack Obama, le 23 juin 2010. Photo : Le Monde
LE MONDE: Le président américain Barack Obama a annoncé, mercredi 23 juin, avoir révoqué son chef militaire en Afghanistan, le général Stanley McChrystal, après ses propos désobligeants sur l'exécutif. Il l'a remplacé immédiatement par un autre officier d'expérience, le général David Petraeus, actuellement commandant des forces américaines en Irak et en Afghanistan.

S'exprimant face à la presse dans la roseraie de la Maison Blanche, le président a estimé à propos du général McChrystal, avec qui il s'était entretenu plus tôt, que sa "conduite telle qu'elle apparaît dans un article récemment publié ne répond pas aux critères requis d'un général". Il a toutefois rendu hommage à la carrière de l'officier et assuré ne pas l'avoir révoqué à cause d'"insultes personnelles".

Selon le magazine Rolling Stone qui a publié leurs propos, le général McChrystal et certains de ses adjoints s'en sont pris nommément à de hauts responsables de l'administration. Le général se moquait notamment du vice-président américain Joe Biden. Le président a assuré que le remplacement de Stanley McChrystal par David Petraeus ne signalait pas un changement de stratégie sur le terrain. >>> LeMonde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | Mercredi 23 Juin 2010

Obama Remarks on McChrystal Dismissal
THE WASHINGTON POST: President Obama accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation after controversial remarks in Rolling Stone magazine, replacing him with Gen. David Petraeus. Obama called the decision "a change in personnel...not a change in policy" in Afghanistan. (AP)



THE WASHINGTON POST: Don't blame McChrystal, blame Obama: Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal should not lose his job because of the article about him in Rolling Stone magazine. If anyone deserves blame for the latest airing of the administration’s internal feuds over Afghanistan, it is President Obama. >>> Jackson Diehl | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Wimps in the White House >>>

McChrystal Out as Afghanistan Commander Following Critical Remarks
FOX NEWS: Gen. Stanley McChrystal is no longer the top U.S. commander and strategist for Afghanistan, reportedly being told Wednesday by President Obama that he is out of a job following a scathing article in which McChrystal and his aides were quoted criticizing the commander-in-chief over his leadership in the Afghan war.

McChrystal got his marching orders as he held a face-to-face meeting at the White House, where he met with the president after a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon.

The Wednesday meeting preceded a regular session of the administration's strategy team for Afghanistan, held in the White House Situation Room. Normally, McChrystal would have joined via teleconference but he was summoned to Washington as he faced a private flogging over the article that appeared in Rolling Stone.

If not insubordination, the remarks in the Rolling Stone magazine article were at least an indirect challenge to civilian management of the war in Washington by its top military commander.

Military leaders rarely challenge their commander in chief publicly, and when they do, consequences tend to be more severe than a scolding. >>> FoxNews.com | Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Analysis: Gen Stanley McChrystal's Colossal Blunder
THE TELEGRAPH: Gen Stanley McChrystal's colossal blunder in allowing himself and his close aides to vent their frustrations to a Rolling Stone reporter has left him fighting for his job and indeed for his military career.



Robert Gates, the Pentagon chief, spoke of the general's "significant mistake" while a visibly angry Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama's spokesman, spoke of an "enormous" error with a "magnitude and graveness" that were profound.

Before boarding his plane bound for Washington and a dressing down, possibly accompanied by a dismissal, Gen McChrystal spent Tuesday apologising. He telephoned Mr Gates, Vice President Joe Biden, General Jim Jones, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Admiral Mike Mullen, Senator John Kerry and very possibly others.

The Left was baying for Gen McChrystal's blood, asserting that he was guilty of insubordination and had possibly even breached military law. Many were surprised that Gen McChrystal appeared likely to keep his job into Wednesday and that he had not resigned even if he had not been fired.

Mr Obama's hesitation in immediately getting rid of Gen McChrystal was an indication, however, of the extraordinary difficulties that would be created by taking such a course of action. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Oval Office Showdown: Gen. McChrystal to face President Obama amid firestorm


Related here and here

General Stanley McChrystal Offers Resignation to President Barack Obama
THE TELEGRAPH: General Stanley McChrystal has offered his resignation to President Barack Obama after he was summoned to the White House to explain derisive comments he made about the US leader and his administration.



The White House is actively considering how a successor could be swiftly confirmed by the United States Senate, according to a senior congressional source.

The US commander in Afghanistan was ordered to fly back from Kabul for a carpeting after he and his aides were quoted in "Rolling Stone" magazine mocking the president and senior officials.

The Capitol Hill official said that General James Mattis, the outgoing head of the US Joint Forces Command and due to retire after being passed over as US Marine Corps commander, and Lieutenant General William Caldwell, commander of Nato's Training Mission in Afghanistan, were being discussed as possible replacements.

However, it remained to be seen whether Mr Obama would accept the resignation. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

US General Could Be Fired After Remarks


THE ATLANTIC: The Rolling Stone Article's Juiciest Bits >>> Marc Ambinder, Politics Editor, The Atlantic | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Rolling Stone Article's Juiciest Bits
THE ATLANTIC: Here are the most interesting paragraphs:

"Who's he going to dinner with?" I ask one of his aides. "Some French minister," the aide tells me. "It's fucking gay."

Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."

Even those who support McChrystal and his strategy of counterinsurgency know that whatever the general manages to accomplish in Afghanistan, it's going to look more like Vietnam than Desert Storm. "It's not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win," says Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville, who serves as chief of operations for McChrystal. "This is going to end in an argument."

At one point on his trip to Paris, McChrystal checks his BlackBerry. "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," he groans. "I don't even want to open it." He clicks on the message and reads the salutation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry back in his pocket, not bothering to conceal his annoyance. "Make sure you don't get any of that on your leg," an aide jokes, referring to the e-mail. >>> Marc Ambinder, Politics Editor, The Atlantic | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Runaway General: Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House
ROLLING STONE: 'How'd I get screwed into going to this dinner?" demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It's a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He's in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of Germany's president and sparked both Canada and the Netherlands to announce the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, who have lost more than 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on him.

"The dinner comes with the position, sir," says his chief of staff, Col. Charlie Flynn.

McChrystal turns sharply in his chair.

"Hey, Charlie," he asks, "does this come with the position?"
McChrystal gives him the middle finger.

The general stands and looks around the suite that his traveling staff of 10 has converted into a full-scale operations center. The tables are crowded with silver Panasonic Toughbooks, and blue cables crisscross the hotel's thick carpet, hooked up to satellite dishes to provide encrypted phone and e-mail communications. Dressed in off-the-rack civilian casual – blue tie, button-down shirt, dress slacks – McChrystal is way out of his comfort zone. Paris, as one of his advisers says, is the "most anti-McChrystal city you can imagine." The general hates fancy restaurants, rejecting any place with candles on the tables as too "Gucci." He prefers Bud Light Lime (his favorite beer) to Bordeaux, [sic] >>> Michael Hastings | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Related here

‘Angry’ Obama Could Sack McChrystal
General McChristal pictured with Karl Eikenberry, whom he criticised in the Rolling Stone article. Photo: The Times
THE TIMES: General Stanley McChrystal’s job as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan was hanging by a thread after he was recalled to Washington today for mocking senior figures in the Obama Administration.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, described General McChrystal’s outburst as a “significant mistake”, while the White House said that the President was “angry”, and a top Democrat in Congress called for the General’s removal.

In an explosive magazine profile, General McChrystal is quoted mocking Vice President Joe Biden, ridiculing Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region and saying he felt “betrayed” by his closest civilian colleague in Afghanistan, the US ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

Senior aides to General McChrystal also told Rolling Stone magazine that the general was “disappointed” by his first meeting with the President, calling it “a ten-minute photo op” with a Commander-in-Chief who “clearly didn’t know anything about him”. One aide also described the President’s National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones, as a “clown” stuck in “1985”.

Aides said the general had prevailed in the titanic battles over US policy in Afghanistan only “by keeping his eye on the real enemy — the wimps in the White House”. Read on and comment >>> Giles Whittell and Jerome Starkey | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Obama's Real McChrystal Problem: War Plan in Trouble
POLITICO: Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s MacArthur Moment was more than an embarrassment for the White House – it was a reminder of just how badly Barack Obama’s “good war” in Afghanistan is going.

The challenge facing Obama in responding to his loose-lipped Afghan commander has an obvious parallel in Harry Truman’s firing of Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War.

But it may actually be more comparable to a more chronic presidential leadership crisis — Abraham Lincoln’s dilemma during the Civil War, when vacillating public opinion, insubordination and strategic uncertainties forced Lincoln to repeatedly reshuffle his general staff.

“Afghanistan is a mess and it’s getting worse. To make matters worse, the president’s been dealing with internal squabbling on this for some time,” says Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan Washington think-tank, who has written extensively on Afghanistan. >>> Glenn Thrush | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gibbs: Firing McChrystal “On the Table”


Related article here

Stanley McChrystal Forced to Apologise Over White House Attack
General McChrystal at a press briefing with US ambassador Karl Eikenberry. Photo: The Times
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

Afghanistan: Stanley McChrystal Says Osama bin Laden Must Be Killed to Ensure al-Qaeda Defeat
THE TELEGRAPH: Osama bin Laden must be captured or killed if al-Qaeda is ever going to be defeated, the top US commander in Afghanistan has said.

Gen Stanley McChrystal said bin Laden had become an "iconic figure" among terrorists.

He said President Barack Obama's deployment of 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan meant success was possible.

But he said the mission was "undeniably difficult" and the next 18 months would be crucial.

"I don't think that we can finally defeat al Qaeda until he's captured or killed," Gen McChrystal told a Senate committee.

At the same time, he cautioned that killing or capturing the Saudi-born leader of the group that mounted the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States would not by itself dismantle al-Qaeda. >>> | Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Taliban Now Winning
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Warns of Rising Casualties

U.S. soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade take position next to Sari Ghundi village as they patrol near the Pakistani border in Afghanistan. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the commander offered a preview of the strategic assessment he is to deliver to Washington later this month, saying the troop shifts are designed to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation. The coming redeployments are the clearest manifestation to date of Gen. McChrystal's strategy for Afghanistan, which puts a premium on safeguarding the Afghan population rather than hunting down militants.

Gen. McChrystal said the Taliban are moving beyond their traditional strongholds in southern Afghanistan to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west.

The militants are mounting sophisticated attacks that combine roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily armed militants, causing significant numbers of U.S. fatalities, he said. July was the bloodiest month of the war for American and British forces, and 12 more American troops have already been killed in August.

"It's a very aggressive enemy right now," Gen. McChrystal said in the interview Saturday at his office in a fortified NATO compound in Kabul. "We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work." >>> Yochi J. Dreazen in Kabul and Peter Spiegel in Washington | Monday, August 10, 2009