US Afghan chief summoned to Washington to explain himself
Source: Agencies |
June 23, 2010, Wednesday
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THE top United States commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues, administration officials said yesterday.
General Stanley McChrystal, who publicly apologized yesterday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person today rather than over a secure video teleconference, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. He will be expected to explain his comments to Obama and top Pentagon officials, these officials said.
Obama has the authority to fire McChrystal. His predecessor, General David McKiernan, was sacked on grounds that the military needed "new thinking and new approaches" in Afghanistan.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has told McChrystal of his "deep disappointment" over the article, a spokesman said.
The article in this week's Rolling Stone depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outer with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.
The interview describes McChrystal, 55, as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan effort in May 2009. Last fall, though, Obama told off McChrystal for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.
"I found that time painful," McChrystal said in the article, on newsstands Friday. "I was selling an unsellable position."
Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.
In Kabul yesterday, McChrystal issued a statement saying: "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."
"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
Mullen talked with McChrystal about the article on Monday night, said Mullen's spokesman, Captain John Kirby. In a 10-minute conversation, the chairman "expressed his deep disappointment in the piece and the comments" in it, Kirby said.
General Stanley McChrystal, who publicly apologized yesterday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person today rather than over a secure video teleconference, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. He will be expected to explain his comments to Obama and top Pentagon officials, these officials said.
Obama has the authority to fire McChrystal. His predecessor, General David McKiernan, was sacked on grounds that the military needed "new thinking and new approaches" in Afghanistan.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has told McChrystal of his "deep disappointment" over the article, a spokesman said.
The article in this week's Rolling Stone depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outer with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.
The interview describes McChrystal, 55, as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan effort in May 2009. Last fall, though, Obama told off McChrystal for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.
"I found that time painful," McChrystal said in the article, on newsstands Friday. "I was selling an unsellable position."
Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.
In Kabul yesterday, McChrystal issued a statement saying: "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."
"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
Mullen talked with McChrystal about the article on Monday night, said Mullen's spokesman, Captain John Kirby. In a 10-minute conversation, the chairman "expressed his deep disappointment in the piece and the comments" in it, Kirby said.
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