Over at The Atlantic, I throw rocks at the Obama administration for sacking General Stanley McChrystal. A snippet:
General Stanley McChrystal is the best in the world at what he does, so long as the world is not watching. As commander of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, he oversaw and engaged in missions that put bullets into thousands of terrorists, including Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As Michael Hastings reports in the now-infamous Rolling Stone profile that proved the general’s undoing, “He went out on dozens of nighttime raids during his time in Iraq, unprecedented for a top commander, and turned up on missions unannounced, with almost no entourage.” Hastings relates the sentiments of a British officer: “The fucking lads love Stan McChrystal. You’d be out in Somewhere, Iraq, and someone would take a knee beside you, and a corporal would be like ‘Who the fuck is that?’ And it’s fucking Stan McChrystal.”
Read the rest here. Send hate mail here.
For background, here is the Rolling Stone piece referenced.
On a different note, my last piece for The Atlantic was a profile of heroic war correspondent Michael Yon. I conducted a lot of interviews for that article and took a lot of heat for defending Yon, but in the end, he was right. That piece was the first (of any I’m aware) to suggest:
- McChrystal’s days were numbered.
- Petraeus would be the most likely successor.
- The ascent of James Mattis, who is now rumored to take over CENTCOM.
A few side-notes as well. The McChrystal piece was submitted seconds after the Petraeus announcement, so I mention him only in closing. I have nothing but respect for General Petraeus. He is the definition of an American hero, and will one day be mentioned in the same breath as Washington, Alexander, Agrippa, Napoleon, and Patton. By taking command of the war in Afghanistan, General Petraeus is taking a demotion, and I believe he is doing it out of loyalty to Stanley McChrystal. The nation owes General McChrystal a debt it can never fully repay. His achievements in Iraq are second to none, and his plan for Afghanistan is both humane and insightful. To see him go is a great loss to the Army and the war. It’s a sad day when warriors survive daily firefights only to be taken down by media firestorms.
Also: I’m not sure but I think I may have set a record for most uses of the word “fuck” in an Atlantic piece.
