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I’m waiting to hear that either the AP or Rolling Stone misquoted Gen. McChrystal and his staff here, because openly insulting Adm. Eikenberry and disrespecting the vice president and Amb. Holbrooke is uncharacteristically bush-league. From the AP write-up of a forthcoming Rolling Stone piece on McChrystal that I have not read:
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.”‘
OK, fine, you feel that way. Why in the world tell that to a reporter? What effect can that possibly have except to needlessly damage the relationship with Eikenberry?
That should be one impressive clarification…
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McChrystal was also criticized for his role in the aftermath of the 2004 death by friendly fire of Ranger and former professional football player Pat Tillman. Within a day of Tillman’s death, McChrystal was notified that Tillman was a victim of fratricide. Shortly thereafter, McChrystal was put in charge of paperwork to award Tillman a posthumous Silver Star for valor. On April 28, 2004, six days after Tillman’s death, McChrystal approved a final draft of the Silver Star recommendation and submitted it to the acting Secretary of the Army, even though the medal recommendation deliberately omitted any mention of friendly fire, included the phrase “in the line of devastating enemy fire,” and was accompanied by fabricated witness statements. On April 29, McChrystal sent an urgent memo warning White House speechwriters not to quote the medal recommendation in any statements they wrote for President Bush because it “might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death become public.” McChrystal was one of eight officers recommended for discipline by a subsequent Pentagon investigation but the Army declined to take action against him
I would say it’s actually not ok if they feel that way. For the leadership and aides of the worlds most powerful army to feel contempt for civilian leaderships, and feel it deeply enough to let loose to a reporter, is troubling to me at least.