McChrystal, Staff Disparage Team Obama
Updated at 1:00 p.m. ET
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was summoned to Washington Tuesday and has spent the day apologizing for disparaging comments published in a Rolling Stone article about the contentious relationship between him, his staff and the Obama White House.
One of the general's assistants has already resigned in the wake of the article.
Below are some of the quotes that led to McChrystal being "ordered to appear" at a White House meeting on Afghanistan Wednesday, as a senior Obama aide told CBS News Correspondent Peter Maer.
On President Obama:
After Mr. Obama's was sworn into office, McChrystal felt the new president looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" while meeting with a dozen senior military officials in a Pentagon room known as the Tank, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Following McChrystal's first one-on-one meeting with the president, an aide said the general left disappointed.
"It was a 10-minute photo op," the adviser said. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his [expletive] war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."
McChrystal termed the president's three-month review of the U.S. military situation in Afghanistan before deciding to send more troops a "painful" time.
"I was selling an unsellable position."
On Vice President Joe Biden:
Last fall, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy Biden advocated in Afghanistan as "shortsighted," adding that it would lead to creating "Chaos-istan" in the country.
In the piece, McChrystal and his staff' openly mock the vice president:
"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal said. "Who's that?"
"Biden?" said a top aide. "Did you say: Bite Me?"
On Jim Jones, the U.S. national security adviser and a retired four-star general:
A McChrystal aide calls Jones a "clown" who is "stuck in 1985" - an apparent reference to Jones' experience in the Cold War.
On Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan:
"Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," McChrystal said with a groan while checking his BlackBerry. "I don't even want to open it." According to the piece, the general didn't bother "to conceal his annoyance" after reading the diplomat's greeting out loud and returning the device to his pocket.
"The Boss says he's like a wounded animal," one of the general's staff members told said. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous. He's a brilliant guy, but he just comes in, pulls on a lever, whatever he can grasp onto."
On U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry:
In January, The New York Times published an article about the contents of a classified cable Eikenberry wrote that criticized McChrystal's strategy.
"I like Karl, I've known him for years, but they'd never said anything like that to us before," McChrystal said, letting the Rolling Stone writer know he felt "betrayed" by the leak. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.'"
On Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
Clinton stood out as one of the few people in the article McChrystal's team liked. "Hillary had Stan's back during the strategic review," an adviser told the Rolling Stone writer. "She said, 'If Stan wants it, give him what he needs.'"
On Members of Congress:
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were pointed out as politicians McChrystal's team didn't like when an aide told the writer they "turn up, have a meeting with (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai, criticize him at the airport press conference, then get back for the Sunday talk shows. Frankly, it's not very helpful."
More McChrystal Coverage
McChrystal Ordered to W.H. to Explain Critique
The McChrystal Fallout
General McChrystal Clearly in Four-Star Trouble
Gates: McChrystal Made a "Significant Mistake"
Hamid Karzai Backs McChrystal amid Uproar
McCain, Lieberman, Graham: McChrystal Comments Inappropriate
McChrystal Apologizes for Critical Remarks
McChrystal on "60 Minutes"
McChrystal on the Challenges in Afghanistan
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was summoned to Washington Tuesday and has spent the day apologizing for disparaging comments published in a Rolling Stone article about the contentious relationship between him, his staff and the Obama White House.
One of the general's assistants has already resigned in the wake of the article.
Below are some of the quotes that led to McChrystal being "ordered to appear" at a White House meeting on Afghanistan Wednesday, as a senior Obama aide told CBS News Correspondent Peter Maer.
On President Obama:
After Mr. Obama's was sworn into office, McChrystal felt the new president looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" while meeting with a dozen senior military officials in a Pentagon room known as the Tank, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Following McChrystal's first one-on-one meeting with the president, an aide said the general left disappointed.
"It was a 10-minute photo op," the adviser said. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his [expletive] war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."
McChrystal termed the president's three-month review of the U.S. military situation in Afghanistan before deciding to send more troops a "painful" time.
"I was selling an unsellable position."
On Vice President Joe Biden:
Last fall, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy Biden advocated in Afghanistan as "shortsighted," adding that it would lead to creating "Chaos-istan" in the country.
In the piece, McChrystal and his staff' openly mock the vice president:
"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal said. "Who's that?"
"Biden?" said a top aide. "Did you say: Bite Me?"
On Jim Jones, the U.S. national security adviser and a retired four-star general:
A McChrystal aide calls Jones a "clown" who is "stuck in 1985" - an apparent reference to Jones' experience in the Cold War.
On Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan:
"Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," McChrystal said with a groan while checking his BlackBerry. "I don't even want to open it." According to the piece, the general didn't bother "to conceal his annoyance" after reading the diplomat's greeting out loud and returning the device to his pocket.
"The Boss says he's like a wounded animal," one of the general's staff members told said. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous. He's a brilliant guy, but he just comes in, pulls on a lever, whatever he can grasp onto."
On U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry:
In January, The New York Times published an article about the contents of a classified cable Eikenberry wrote that criticized McChrystal's strategy.
"I like Karl, I've known him for years, but they'd never said anything like that to us before," McChrystal said, letting the Rolling Stone writer know he felt "betrayed" by the leak. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.'"
On Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
Clinton stood out as one of the few people in the article McChrystal's team liked. "Hillary had Stan's back during the strategic review," an adviser told the Rolling Stone writer. "She said, 'If Stan wants it, give him what he needs.'"
On Members of Congress:
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were pointed out as politicians McChrystal's team didn't like when an aide told the writer they "turn up, have a meeting with (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai, criticize him at the airport press conference, then get back for the Sunday talk shows. Frankly, it's not very helpful."
More McChrystal Coverage
McChrystal Ordered to W.H. to Explain Critique
The McChrystal Fallout
General McChrystal Clearly in Four-Star Trouble
Gates: McChrystal Made a "Significant Mistake"
Hamid Karzai Backs McChrystal amid Uproar
McCain, Lieberman, Graham: McChrystal Comments Inappropriate
McChrystal Apologizes for Critical Remarks
McChrystal on "60 Minutes"
McChrystal on the Challenges in Afghanistan
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He broke no law, there is no law about speaking out about you superiors. Particularly about Obama and his crowd because they have shown they are NOT SUPERIOR, THEY ARE POLITICAL HACKS!
You are loudly wrong about this. I work for the government and we are strongly briefed about not speaking trash about our President. I happen to like Obama, so it's okay, but during the last administration, it was hard not to dislike and want to bash W...but I managed because I like my job.
I would like to get Bin Laden killed but he became bulletproof when we left Afg. and went to Iraq. We should probably just get out. We could send all the resources of our country trillions of dollars and thousands of lives and not make a difference in the Mid East.
They have been fighting over religious views for thousands of years. We are not going to change their minds no matter how many we kill.
And Dont give the the "lets turn the desert into a field of glass" BS.
I also blame General McCrystal staff who actually spoke such trash to the Rolling Stone. Since when does the military speak off record. Never if they are smart because they are putting our military in the war zone in danger and promoting disharmony in those who are putting their life on the line everyday. I for one want them to come home safely and in one piece. My Vietnam husband did not and died but he never disrespected another Officier.
Listen and listen closely. This is the order of Command in the Military and be thankful that General McCrystal was not court marshalled. In the war theater men have been executed on the spot in the past for disrespect.
Section 88 of the Uniform Military Code of Justice says that any officer who uses "contemptuous words" against the president, vice president, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, or certain other officials "shall be punished as a court-martial directs."
This are the rules, you in your little minds can't change the rules to suit your own perspectives. What do you want calamity?
our communist/maoist leader is taking his next steps to fulfill his dreams of tyrannical power.
remove ultra-patriotic spartan-like generals.
create his own protective civilian military taking an oath of total devotion to obama.
grant amnesty to illegals.
eliminate term limits for the office of president.
ah-so: the leader has total tyrannical power for the next 30+ years!!
nov. 2, 2010 is the most important election in our history.
we have onE last chance to make progress in removing the communists/maoists on nov. 2, 2010 or we are toast!!
nov. 2, 2010 is our last chance!!!
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
Gen. McChrystal is a product of the toxic environment created by Tea Bagger extremists who have a no-holds barred campaign to delegitimize President Obama's administration with a vitriolic campaign of devaluation, denigration, vilification and nullification.
These Tea Baggers have carried partisan politics to its illogical conclusion. They created an environment where a 4-Star General felt it was Ok to violate every cannon of military discipline and the time-honored constitutional underpinnings of this democracy ? the precepts and principles of which he, Gen. McChrystal, not only swore to uphold, but fought for and defended along with countless others for decades.
In a real sense, General McChrystal is a victim of this Tea Bagger extremist illness afflicting the nation. So, while we blame McChrystal for a total breakdown of discipline and chain of command, we must see this travesty for what it truly is: the bitter fruits of Sarah Palin, John McCain, Scott Brown, Rush Limbaugh, Mario Rubio, Glenn Beck, and others who, everyday, sow toxic seeds of intolerance and disregard for the lives of their opponents. Along with these Tea Bagger extremists, we must also blame the House and Senate Republican leadership who, by their deafening silence and disciplined unreasonableness, continue to fan the flames, cuddle up to the extremists, and nurture a dangerously toxic political environment unworthy of civilized and intelligent humanity.
Yes, Gen. McChrystal got carried away with the excesses of Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, Mario Rubio and others. In so doing, he ruined a great career. Unfortunately, this lesson will most certainly escape most of our Tea Bagger Republican friends who profit significantly from this extremism.
If I was openly disrespectful of my company's owners in a trade paper, I'd be cleaning out my desk, and I don't have the UCMJ dictating my behavior, just my common sense.
Politicians dance around trying to stay out of trouble, fearing for their re-election prospects. If a politician gets replaced by the voters, he/she loses a job, and endures the humiliation of the voters saying "you failed us", or, at least, "we like your opponent better." A politician can fail, and, as long as the voters don't catch on to it, they can go on with life and forget all about it. It may cost the taxpayers billions, or even trillions of dollars, but, with the right spin master carefully feeding the right information to the press, no one will ever notice and life will continue. Whatever happens, it will never really be a big deal.
A General, on the other hand, is responsible for the lives of his soldiers. Something goes wrong, soldiers die. Something goes wrong, soldiers come back home with arms and legs missing, and terrible injuries that politicians and their families will never have to endure. But the General has to endure it, because HE WAS A SOLDIER HIMSELF once, and he feels his soldiers' pain. If a General fails, a mission doesn't get completed, or a battle, or, even a war is lost. It's about life and death, safety for the people back home who depend on you to succeed, and, ultimately, the ethics of war, which are very murky at best.
It sounds like what General McCrystal needed from our Washington politicians he did not get. Instead, the politicians sought to get what they wanted, namely photo-ops, good press, and votes, from the war, and from General McCrystal. The entire time, General McCrystal bore the burden of his responsibility to his soldiers, and to the American People. General McCrystal ignored politics and focused on life and death, REAL success and REAL failure. Obama, like many presidents before him, danced around the Rose Garden trying to look good. General McCrystal, like many Generals before him, went from one camp to the next, trying to bolster the fading morale of his troops.
Obama should have listened to McCrystal and tried to grow from his criticism. Instead, he fired McCrystal. What a waste of excellent talent. He viewed his General as someone who could damage his image, and he got rid of the man, without regard for how his actions would affect the outcome of the war.
Oh when, oh when will a qualified candidate run for President again? Oh when, oh when will we, the American People, elect him into office? Oh when, oh when will we find a political candidate who actually cares about our country more than about his political future? Obama, like his predacessor, is a failed president. I voted for him, but, now, if he offered me his letter of resignation, I would accept it, the same way he accepted General McCrystal's.