General McChrystal: ‘Unfortunate Deficit of Trust Between the Military and the White House’
McChrystal writes in his memoir, “My Share of the Task,” there was an “unfortunate deficit of trust” between the military and a White House wary of being dragged into a Vietnam-like quagmire.
“This must be a really big deal, not having trust between the commander in the field and the commander in chief,” said Martin.
“It’s a challenge. While I think the relationships were positive and I think the relationships were professional, they had not yet grown into the kind of trust that allows you to make extraordinarily difficult decisions, often under time pressures.”
Then Rolling Stone published “The Runaway General,” depicting McChrystal and his closest aides trash-talking their civilian leaders.
“I was awakened about, I think it was two in the morning,” McChrystal said, “and I was told there was a problem, that the Rolling Stone article was about to come out and it was bad. . . . I was completely surprised.”
McChrystal and his wife Annie had been celebrating their 33rd anniversary while on a trip to Paris to brief French officials on Afghanistan. They had invited the Rolling Stone reporter, Michael Hastings, to join them for late night drinks with McChrystal’s staff.
Annie recalled, “That evening when Stan and I were getting ready for bed, I said to him, ‘Wow, I am so glad the reporter saw that evening and got to see what I saw, was just this amazing group of men who have been serving together for so many years and in this fight for so many years, and that kind of connection that they all had to each other.”
But the anonymous quotes attributed to McChrystal’s staff were devastating, including one about a meeting with President Obama: “The boss was pretty disappointed.”
“My whole life, I’d expected that I could get killed in war,” McChrystal said. “In my wildest dreams I never once thought I could be accused of anything approaching disloyalty or disrespect” (via CBS News)
Wild Thing’s comment…………
Well I will say it….I totally disrespect every breath Obama takes, every part of his agenda to destroy our country.
McChrystal was an Obama supporter in 2008.
Here is an honorable man who took responsibility for the actions of his subordinates. A male with no honor doesn’t take responsibility but instead blames others.
The only reason I can possibly think of for Gen McChrystal to vote for obama is that there was something he knew about McCain that really bothered him. Of course I also wonder why a right minded military office would trust or confide in a Rolling Stone reporter.