BREAKING: McChrystal Fires Aide
Fox News is reporting that McChrystal just fired the Aide who set up the Rolling Stone interview.
Pathetic.
This is a classic case of stepping on your dick and immediately picking up a mark time.
This should be training fodder for every officer attending the Command and General Staff College.
Don’t give interviews to Rolling Stone for any reason.
Don’t openly insult the person who determines your career.
Don’t accuse one guy of polishing up his position for history books when it appears you are doing the same thing.
It is never appropriate for a General Officer to divulge who he voted for.
A groveling apology to men you consider lesser isn’t very General-like.
Firing an aide for simply arranging the platform for your career suicide is pathetic.
And most important. Don’t piss off the omnipotent Michael Yon who no doubt orchestrated this entire fiasco as punishment for not embracing his awesomeness.
I personally hate saying this because I have known Stan McChrystal for a long time and he is an enormously respected man in the Special Ops community but this was a swirling series of unforced errors that has left him totally impotent on either side of the debate.
I don’t know if Obama will fire McChrystal or not but he should.
Category: Politics
Would Patreus be able to relieve him or does that come from higher up.
Unbelieveable that Mac would allow himself to be in this position…very sloppy, and entirely of his own making…
Patreaus could as the Unified Commander but that would do nothing to bolster Obama. The President will have to do it himself if he wants his Harry Truman moment.
Assuming General McChrystal resigns/is relieved, who would want to take his place? He screwed the pooch on this big time, but it seems like whomever accepts that assignment is not going to get the support they need to win.
I’m sorry. What was this ‘leader’ thinking? And then firing an aide because an interview was set up.
Give me a break LT GEN McChrystal!
You screwed the pooch, not your aide.
You made a mistake and ran your mouth. Own up to it.
Trent, he has four stars, not three.
In any case, firing the aide is like closing the barn door after all the horses have run out.
If Yon did somehow engineer this, that would be, IMO, the final nail in his coffin.
I think COB6 was joking about the Yon part, but you know that guy is loving this whole sorted affair.
McChrystal was wrong. That’s not even debateable.
But what really — I mean REALLY — pisses me off is the fact that it took FOUR MONTHS for the Obama Administration to respond to his request for troops back on August 2009.
Now, McChrystal makes some stupid remarks in Rolling Stone and the White House reacts within HOURS!
And then they demands to meet with him the next day!
Guess we know where their goddamn priorities lie.
Unfortunately McChrystal has opened himself up to the “going native” theory and he will be branded by the administration as some kind of traitor.
That’s how this crew in the WHite House works.
We know that the comments made by all are stingingly accurate and maybe fodder for a good read later on…after retirement…but not to be made to a rag like Rolling Stone.
How this will be interpreted by other nations already at the feeding trough of Anti-American sentiment is predictable and embarrassing.
I am sorry to hear this has happened and that a respected General, through his own actions, will be the new whipping boy for Obama. Breaks my heart.
My apologies OS54. I was listening to a radio show that described him as that. I will adjust accordingly.
Regardless, he needs to go.
And here in Oregon, they are ignoring this story. Of course, they ran with the Shinseki story regarding troop levels needed back before the Iraq war began. He was a whistle blower, McChrystal apparently is just a back stabber.
Trent; you have to remember who is in charge to know whether the person is a whistleblower or backstabber. Bush= whislteblower; Obama= backstabber.
McChrystal stepped on this one all on his own.
Article 88, Uniform Code of Military Justice:
“Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
McChrystal should resign, even if it costs him a star on his retirement check; then he can speak his mind freely to counter-balance the many former flag officers the libs like to parade about.
I see the administration using this as an opportunity to make big changes in our warfighting ability in Afghanistan, all the while sullying McChrystal’s name and reputation.
All in all, this doesn’t bode well for our interests in the region.
Mind you, McChrystal didn’t say the worst stuff directly to the reporter. Most of it was overheard by the ‘aide’ and delivered to the reporter on a platter. The big dumbass in this mess wasn’t McChrystal, but the aide, who either:
A. Is a big dumbass for blabbing to a reporter about the inner workings of a command staff.
B. Was gunning for his boss, for whatever reason.
I am thinking its probably a combo of the both, but mostly that McChrystals poor command climate caused some dissension in the ranks.
[…] McChrystal fired the aide who set up the Rolling Stone interview. Eh, what? Now, I have never served in the military, but I […]
4 stars…
20+ years…
no Viet Nam to be sent to…
say goo ni gravy…
Bad aide, you let me do stupid stuff at my direction! BOHICA!
McChrystal for President!
I wonder how long it will take Yon to add TAH to his list of “milkooks”….