GEN STANLEY McChrystal, the overall commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, has struck a severe blow to US credibility there, and to his own career, by deriding top US officials in an article due to appear in Rolling Stonemagazine this Friday.
Gen McChrystal telephoned vice-president Joe Biden and others early yesterday to apologise for disparaging remarks made by himself and aides in the article entitled “Runaway General”. He has been summoned to the White House today to explain himself.
The incident shines a harsh light on the disarray over Afghan policy within the Obama administration and will strain Gen McChrystal’s already tense relationship with President Obama.
Copies of the article, which was reported and written over two months by Michael Hastings, a freelance reporter who has also worked for the Washington Post, were leaked early yesterday.
In an exchange between Hastings, Gen McChrystal and a top adviser, the general said to the reporter: “Are you asking about Vice-president Biden? Who’s that?” – “Biden? Did you say: Bite Me?” the adviser interjected.
The vice-president lost a contest of wills with Gen McChrystal last year. While Mr Biden called for fewer troops and expanded use of drones to assassinate extremists, Gen McChrystal demanded tens of thousands more troops to live among Afghans and help them to build their country. Now US casualties are rising and Gen McChrystal admits the vaunted Marja offensive is a “bleeding ulcer”.
Gen McChrystal had enraged Mr Obama by telling an audience in London last autumn that Mr Biden’s proposal was “short-sighted” and would lead to “Chaos-istan”. Then a confidential memo by the general concluding the US faced “mission failure” if it did not deploy 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan was leaked. The White House viewed the leak as an attempt to force its hand. President Obama nonetheless gave Gen McChrystal almost all the extra troops he wanted.
One McChrystal aide called Gen Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, a “clown” who remains “stuck in 1985”.
McChrystal and his entourage also criticised Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal,” a member of McChrystal’s team told Hastings.
“Holbrooke keeps hearing rumours that he’s going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous.” The reporter witnessed Gen McChrystal receiving an e-mail from Mr Holbrooke on his BlackBerry. “Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,” the general groaned. “I don’t even want to open it.” Gen McChrystal read the e-mail out loud to his staff, then shoved the BlackBerry back into his pocket. “Make sure you don’t get any of that on your leg,” a staff member joked, referring to Holbrooke’s message.
Gen McChrystal has also clashed with Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador to Kabul, who was his predecessor as commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan. In January, a cable from Mr Eikenberry warning of the folly of US strategy was leaked to the New York Times. Gen McChrystal told Hastings he felt "betrayed" by the cable.
"Here's one that covers his flank for the history books," Gen McChrystal said of Mr Eikenberry. "Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so'." The Rolling Stonearticle marks the end of Gen McChrystal's honeymoon with US media. Newsweekhad called him a "Jedi commander". A CBS 60 Minutestelevision profile marvelled at his regimen of sleeping four hours per night, running seven miles and eating only one meal each day.
Commentators yesterday likened Gen McChrystal to Capt Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, or to Gen Douglas MacArthur defying President Harry Truman at the height of the Korean war.
Gen McChrystal extended his “sincerest apology” in a statement issued yesterday morning, saying the profile was “a mistake reflecting poor judgment and it should have never happened”. His civilian press aide, Duncan Boothby, reportedly resigned.
Gen McChrystal was also mentioned in a US congressional report issued late on Monday entitled Warlord, Inc., Extortion and Corruption Along the US Supply Chain in Afghanistan. The report describes the US military's $2.16 billion contract with Afghan contractors to distribute food, water, fuel and ammunition to 200 US bases in Afghanistan as a giant protection racket.
One trucking programme manager estimated that up to $2 million a week in US government funds is paid to the very insurgents the US is fighting, as protection money to grant safe passage to convoys. Gen McChrystal has praised the system as promoting local entrepreneurship, even though it is virtually unsupervised and violates US law and Pentagon regulations.