Tag: Rolling Stone

The very tip-top of the New York Times’ front page today is occupied by this flaming headline…

McChrystal Is Summoned to Washington Over Remarks

An angry President Obama summoned his top commander in Afghanistan to Washington on Tuesday after a magazine article portrayed the general and his staff as openly contemptuous of some senior members of the Obama administration.

The author of the article — Michael Hastings, a freelance journalist — appears to have been granted intimate access to General McChrystal’s inner circle. Most of the comments seem to have been uttered during unguarded moments, in places like bars and restaurants where the general and his aides gathered to unwind.

A McChrystal aide is quoted saying of Mr. Holbrooke: “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to be fired, so that makes him dangerous.”

The article also describes a conversation in which General McChrystal and an aide talk about Mr. Biden. “Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” General McChrystal jokes.

“Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say ‘Bite me?’ ”

In a parallel universe, where Planet Earth is inhabited by intelligent life-forms, Obama would say…

“Soldiers have been grousing about higher-ups for at least 5000 years, and only a shit-head of a reporter like Michael Hastings would repeat what soldiers say among themselves off-duty in a bar, and only a shitty “life-style” magazine like Rolling Stone would print it.”

But on our stupid branch of the multi-universe, on Planet Stupid, where shit-heads rule…

This story is a very big deal.

(And if you think I’m a cheerleader for McChrystal, read this.)

General Stanley McChrystal, who runs things in Afghanistan for the US Military,  gave a rather candid and heartfelt interview to Rolling Stone magazine.

“The Runaway General” has a few issues with some of his civilian colleagues….  like the Ambassador Eikenberry.

So far his special assistant Duncan Boothby has submitted his resignation (aka “fired”) and McChrystal has been summoned to a meeting tommorrow at the White House.

And he’s apologized.  McChrystal:  “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgement and should never have happened.”

President Hamid Karzai is praising him, saying he’s the best general ever,  and his spokesperson is saying he hopes he stays.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

This week’s development comes as criminal investigators are said to be examining allegations that Afghan security firms have been extorting as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars and then funneling the spoils to warlords and the Taliban, according to a U.S. military document. The payments are intended to ensure safe passage through dangerous areas they control.

The payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan.

The mind behind it will never be the same.

The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine

Only one face, of the tens of thousands, radically changed by their experiance in a War Of Choice, Choice by those who don’t fight them, not Absolutely The Last Resort! In Wars Of Choice most start questioning the Why? of their being ordered there, Survival becomes the ‘Nobel Cause’, theirs and those around them, and Survival comes with Deep Costs! Once having normal trained minds, absorbing more knowledge and experiances, the Nightmares of Death and Destruction take over, haughting many for the rest of their lives!