By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 23, 2010 15:25:30 EDT
President Obama relieved of command the four-star general who has led the war in Afghanistan for the past 12 months, ending a rare public schism between military and civilian authorities.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal will leave his post and day-to-day control over the war effort there will be handled by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, Obama said in remarks at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
“This is a change in personnel but it is not a change in policy,” Obama said.
The White House summoned McChrystal from Afghanistan Tuesday after publication of an article in Rolling Stone magazine that features him and his staff members disparaging White House officials.
Obama said McChrystal displayed “conduct [that] does not meet the standards that should be set by a commanding general. It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system”
It is important to show that the same rules apply to “the newly enlisted private and to the general officer who commands him,” Obama said.
Obama said he did not accept McChrystal’s resignation based on any disagreement in policy or “out of any sense of personal insult.”
“Stan McChrystal has always showed great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully,” Obama said.
Obama made several gracious comments about McChrystal, but also signaled that his career may be over. The president said the nation should be grateful for McChrystal’s “remarkable career in uniform.”
McChrystal left the White House abruptly Wednesday morning after a half-hour meeting with the president and before a scheduled war strategy session. The general was seen climbing into a van outside the White House shortly after 10 a.m.
Obama reportedly convened a war strategy session in the Situation Room about an hour later, apparently without McChrystal.
McChrystal later issued a statement saying he resigned out of “a desire to see the mission succeed.”
“I strongly support the president’s strategy in Afghanistan,” McChrystal said.
In the magazine article, McChrystal did not criticize Obama himself, but he was quoted mocking Vice President Joe Biden. McChrystal called the period last fall when the president was deciding whether to approve more troops “painful” and said Obama appeared ready to hand him an “unsellable” position.
Sources told the Rolling Stone reporter that McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” during a meeting with military brass last year.
McChrystal told Rolling Stone that he was “betrayed” by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner in Afghanistan. He accused Eikenberry of raising doubts about Afghan President Hamid Karzai only to give himself cover in case the U.S. effort failed. “Now, if we fail, they can say ‘I told you so,’” McChrystal told the magazine.
The political meltdown between the president and his wartime general was the most intense public spat between civilian and military leaders since President Harry Truman stripped Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command more than a half-century ago after disagreements over Korean War strategy. MacArthur wanted to expand the Korean War into China.
Some military observers wondered whether McChrystal’s comments in the magazine amounted to a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 88, which forbids “any commissioned officer” from uttering “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President” and other high-level officials.
For service members, the episode seemed to pit the urgent needs of the Afghanistan mission against the long-term integrity of military discipline and the chain of command.
“Yes, the comments made by his staff were inappropriate and should not be tolerated, but the war in Afghanistan is at a key point right now and the United States cannot afford to lose him. Can anyone think of anyone else more qualified to run the war in Afghanistan?” said Army Spc. Matthew McBride at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in an e-mail to Military Times.
Marine Sgt. James Day supported Obama’s decision.
“Gen. McChrystal … has shown a history of bad decisions as a general including the cover-up of the true cause of death of Pat Tillman. At least he was given another chance after that and he failed to clean up his act,” Day wrote in an e-mail to Military Times. “I was punished for writing a letter to the editor and didn’t get a second chance. Freedom of speech does not apply to the Army. Should be the same for generals as for other ranks.”
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dan Buckler said McChrystal’s mistake was in violating what many people call “the Washington Post rule.”
“I’m a Navy officer and we vent to each other all the time about politicians,” Buckler said. “But we follow the “don’t-end-up-on-the-Washington-Post rule.”
