Oy, this is not good.
According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.
The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid.
Gen James Jones, the national security adviser, yesterday did little to allay the impression the meeting had been awkward.
Asked if the president had told the general to tone down his remarks, he told CBS: “I wasn’t there so I can’t answer that question. But it was an opportunity for them to get to know each other a little bit better. I am sure they exchanged direct views.”
An adviser to the administration said: “People aren’t sure whether McChrystal is being naïve or an upstart. To my mind he doesn’t seem ready for this Washington hard-ball and is just speaking his mind too plainly.”
In London, Gen McChrystal, who heads the 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan as well as the 100,000 Nato forces, flatly rejected proposals to switch to a strategy more reliant on drone missile strikes and special forces operations against al-Qaeda.
He told the Institute of International and Strategic Studies that the formula, which is favoured by Vice-President Joe Biden, would lead to “Chaos-istan”.
When asked whether he would support it, he said: “The short answer is: No.”
He went on to say: “Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support
via Barack Obama furious at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan – Telegraph.
I’m with Jimmie over at the Sundries Shack; If I were serving in the Military right now and I were in the Afghan Theater. I would be just a wee bit worried.
GrayHawk over at Mudville Gazette says:
Seriously, I can think of several alternatives to General McChrystal’s plan for carrying out the administration’s Afghan strategy, but certainly none I’d want my name associated with in any way, shape, or form. In D.C., no one in the administration (or the Pentagon) is willing to have their name associated with any alternative plan, but apparently many are willing to whisper to reporters that there is one and Biden thinks it’s great.
Just something to think about.
Oh Yeah,this is not going to end well, at all. Kind of like watching a train wreak. You hate to look; but curiosity just will not let you look away.
My Prediction: General McChrystal will tell ol’ big ears Bambi, to puff a damn root and will resign, which will leave the President and his staff twisting in the wind; let THEM be responsible for one of the biggest screw ups, since Vietnam. I mean, seriously, would you want this whole debacle on your shoulders, and have on your conscience the lives of all those men; because the President is more interested in making himself look good; than he is actually interested in being the commander in chief? I think not.
Others Covering: JustOneMinute, American Spectator, And So it Goes in Shreveport, protein wisdom, Flopping Aces and Weasel Zippers (Via Memeorandum)