WASHINGTON — President Obama got rid of bigmouthed Gen. Stanley McChrystal yesterday and immediately replaced the top commander in Afghanistan with one of the military’s most respected four-stars, Gen. David Petraeus.
Obama said he accepted McChrystal’s resignation with “considerable regret” at a private White House meeting yesterday — a day after the release of a bombshell magazine profile in which McChrystal trashed Obama’s top advisers.
Obama, speaking in the White House Rose Garden flanked by his security team and Petraeus, said he didn’t make his decision “out of any sense of personal insult” from McChrystal.
“But war is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or a president,” Obama said.
“And as difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security,” the president added. “The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard 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. And it erodes the trust that’s necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.”
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In the extraordinary Rolling Stone article released Monday night, a McChrystal aide referred to the decorated general’s first meeting with Obama as a “10-minute photo op” and said, “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was.”
Also coming in for ridicule were special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, National Security Adviser James Jones and Vice President Joe Biden — whom an aide crudely mocked as “Bite Me.”
“I welcome debate among my team, but I won’t tolerate division,” Obama said.
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In choosing Petraeus, who has overarching authority for the Mideast and Central Asia as head of US Central Command, Obama tapped the commander who deployed new counterinsurgency techniques in Iraq when the “surge” began in 2007. He’ll have to leave the Central Command post after his expected confirmation.
The day unfolded with high drama at the White House.
McChrystal entered the White House from a side gate yesterday morning, after being summoned from Afghanistan for his presidential powwow, which lasted 32 minutes.
At the meeting, McChrystal immediately tendered his resignation, and Obama accepted it “regretfully and sorrowfully,” two senior officials told Fox News.
But the White House kept the information under wraps as Obama began a second meeting on the security situation with top advisers, and McChrystal returned to his military home in DC.
Even while pushing him out the door, Obama graciously lauded McChrystal as “one of our finest soldiers.”
McChrystal issued a statement saying he resigned out of “a desire to see the mission succeed,” and added, “I strongly support the president’s strategy in Afghanistan.”
Obama was particularly irked by the contempt McChrystal showed in the article for US allies in Afghanistan — especially the French — illustrated in the story by McChrystal’s reluctance to meet a senior official in Paris, a dinner appointment one McChrystal aide called “gay,” Politico reported last night. The president worried about “the effect it would have on the allies.”
Obama’s swift move got mixed reactions from within the military, where strict adherence to a code is paramount but frustration with civilian leadership has always existed.
“Unlike President [Harry] Truman and Gen. [Douglas] MacArthur, there was no direct challenge of the president’s authority or constitutional responsibilities. Gen. McChrystal’s admittedly unprofessional and impertinent remarks clearly do not constitute the necessary broad grounds for dismissal,” said Kirk Lippold, who commanded the Navy destroyer USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000.
At Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Army Spc. Matthew McBride told the Military Times newspaper: “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.”
Marine Sgt. James Day, who supported Obama’s decision, wrote to the paper, “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.”