August 4th, 2010
11:20 AM ET
10 years ago
Army investigating run-up to McChrystal magazine article
The Army is investigating the circumstances that led to the Rolling Stone magazine article that effectively ended the career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
(CNN) - The Army is investigating the circumstances that led to the Rolling Stone magazine article that effectively ended the career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the United States' former top commander in Afghanistan, an Army spokesman told CNN Wednesday.
"A four-star commander was relieved ultimately due to this article. We want to understand what happened here," Col. Tom Collins said.
McChrystal retired in June, shortly after the publication of the article that included examples of his staff mocking senior White House officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
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His career should have ended when he lied about Pat Tillman's death.
What happened was that General McChrystal didn't do what a good soldier does; he didn't keep his personal thoughts to himself. His was a position of extreme responsibility and it was up to him to follow his boss, the Commander-in-Chief, and to not let his soldiers know he had doubts. Or he should have quietly gone to President Obama and resigned due to his lack of belief in the President's leadership. But talking to the newspapers crossed the line. Reporters are not your friend.
Loose lips did the right thing by retiring. My husband spent 27 years in the military. There is NO room for any loose lip traitor. He should have been kicked out as a col. not a general. Sorry excuse for a god military man.
Rollingstone is a left wing rag that caters to weak minded people. No doubt the author double crossed the General.
I can save the Army a ton of investigation money . Here's what happened:
A general displayed enormous disrespect for his Commander in Chief.
What he said got written down, printed, and found its way onto the President's desk.
So, the choice is simple. Either appoint generals with the common sense not to bash the President, or don't let your generals talk to the media.
He did the right thing and should have receive UCMJ action as well ... If he condoned insubordation and openly participated well he knew what he was doing...
To me his retiring said I am guilty I have no defense for my piss poor actions and I could not control my subordinates or the situation in Afghanistan so I found away to bail.
Instead of focusing on how the story got published and who said what to whom, maybe the army should focus on respect for the commander in chief (whether democrat or republican) and focus on insubordination and disrespect for authority in its ranks. Especially when senior officers do not put a stop to this behaviour when they are in the same room.
Plain and simple, what happened was insubordination.
It's easy. He forgot the microphone was ON! Like I said in an earlier post on a different article, there is no such thing as "off the record" nor will there be until Professional Ethics becomes a required subject for all journalism majors.