"McChrystal to Administration Official: 'I've Compromised the Mission'"

[Clio the Leo]

McChrystal to Administration Official: 'I've Compromised the Mission'
June 23, 2010 7:05 AM

During his round of phone calls to top officials of the Obama administration whom he and his team disparaged to a Rolling Stone reporter, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said, "I've compromised the mission," a senior administration source tells ABC News.

Whether he did so irrevocably is at the top of the agenda in his Oval Office meeting with President Obama this morning. The president will press him as to what he was thinking and whether he still has the ability to serve as commander of 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan after making remarks about the president and his national security team that the general could use to justifiably fire any of his underlings if they were made about him.

"He'll have to have some pretty good answers to some tough questions," a senior White House official tells ABC News.

McChrystal will have a legitimate opportunity to make his case to keep his job, officials said.

Officials described the reaction within the West Wing as immediate anger and certainly that McChrystal be fired, followed by a willingness to hear the counterargument given the importance of the war, its perilous state, the fact that the story revealed no policy disagreements, how closely tied McChrystal is with the current strategy, and the fact that Gen. David McKiernan was dismissed from the same job last Summer.

But if McChrystal by his own admission has compromised the mission, where does that leave him?

- Jake Tapper

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/06/mcchrystal-to-administration-official-ive-compromised-the-mission.html

[bluethruandthru]

1. I think he wanted to "compromise the mission"

Now he can get out and leave this entire mess of a "war" to someone else!

[vaberella]

4. I thought I was the only one to get this. Isn't there a sense of sabotage when it comes to this?

Like, more and more and more lately; and I realize I might be subscribing to conspiracy theories--but when I hear about leaks from highly ranked WH aids, people from the Pentagon letting shit out of the bag to the point where Gates is getting to fire people, Salazar mucking up and allowing MMS to fuck shit up some more, and military men going rogue----->I sincerely get the sense Obama is in a den of wolves, like a slew of enemies who want him to fail and fail miserably. Don't get me wrong, he's managed to thwart some of their actions but still. Especially when it comes to the media and their secret sources---there seems to be a goal in media as well to pit Dems against Dems or progressives against progressives---to later be told it was misinformation. I just get this feeling because it's been happening more and more regularly and revolved around similar issues.

[Clio the Leo]

6. Nope, there are quite a few on our side of the spectrum who apparently think...

... McChrystal is smarter than the President.

Love ya Vabs, but I think this notion is a steaming pile of BS. What's being implied is that McChrystal is risking the lives of American servicemen and women for his own pride. He may be a jerk but that's a bit much.

[vaberella]

7. True...just seems more than coincidence when it's in lieu of so many other stuff. n/t

[zipplewrath]

8. Sabotage is probably the wrong word

I do suspect there was some attempt here to try to "game" the situation using the article. Some strange idea that they could move public opinion in the direction of extending the commitment in Afghanistan in their favor. McCrystal's own explanations about his troubles exposed that he couldn't get things done fast enough, his own troops weren't particularly "on board" with what he was trying to do, and the civilian authorities involved didn't agree one bit.

It is telling how quickly the civilian press agent quit. I wonder if he wasn't the one who "sold" the General on the idea of doing this. But whatever "this" was, it was executed badly at best, and a foolish idea at worst. The public isn't particularly supportive of this war and this didn't help.

[onpatrol98]

16. I wondered about this..

Is this his way of seeing disaster ahead and simply wanting out?

[vaberella]

2. What kind of Goddamned news is this?! McChrystal STFU until we deal with shit.

I shouldn't be hearing anything by WH aids on this cat. Ugh...well at this point, if he says this, he's out by my estimation.

[Thrill]

3. This guy can see there is no winning this war

Get the fuck out as soon as you can Obama. McCrystal just doesn't want to be over there anymore.

[vaberella]

5. Yup...and sadly he was pushing for an endless one. n/t

[indepat]

10. Is McCrystal trying to get fired so he can run for public office, like the presidency?

Then he could claim the incumbent is weak on terrorism and weak on national defense etc. et al. Hopefully not, for only a measly fucker-head would compromise national security for partisan politics or partisan gain. Hopefully BHO has/will come to grips with the reality that most high-ranking officers are RWers and all RWers have a warped agenda that is not what this republic's agenda should be. But, hell, BHO surely already knows this sordid fact. It is scary indeed when a large majority of a nation's top military officers are so brain-washed or brain-dead to eat up enough warped ideology to be RWers. I would invoke God to help us, but since virtually nothing this nation does under a RW agenda would be pleasing to a just God, I shan't invoke the almighty to save us from these RW iniquities. :P

[Thrill]

11. No he's trying to get out. Because he no he can't win over there

.

[indepat]

12. Never could win over there, no more than the Ruskies could win over there: there can absolutely be

no good outcome. :P

[saltpoint]

9. If those are McChrystal's own words, they are the most damning of

any of the things his senior staff said.

It suggests that more is known than has been revealed, possibly involving strategy, as opposed to just flippant and dismissive remarks about the White House.

[AllyCat]

13. This whole mission was a compromise from the beginning. This idiot

should lose his job, and probably be court-martialed. However, he'll get "tough questions" instead. To which he will answer, "I don't remember" and "I don't recall" just like his corporate masters do. Then he'll get back to killing innocent people in Afghanistan.

I'm sick of these schmucks.

[avaistheone1]

14. No kidding Sherlock!!

[Phx_Dem]

15. Then he definitely should go.

[otohara]

17. Not So Smart After All

Bye, bye to the anorexic General, good ridden.