McChrystal’s RS piece
WARNING. McChrystal, his cohort, and the author are macho shit-heads. This article – read too often – could cause brain damage.
‘How’d I get screwed into going to this dinner?” demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It’s a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He’s in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of Germany’s president and sparked both Canada and the Netherlands to announce the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, who have lost more than 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on him.
Marcilla Elizabeth Smith:
I’m no urologist, but judging by that article, I’d say Mr. McChrystal’s penis must be at *least* the size of a plantain.
23 June 2010, 8:55 am(Boer) Tom:
If they do end the Taliban, the next insurgency will learn from the Taliban. I’ve been reading about Mau Mau (amazing, actually, considering their level of technical expertise – see e.g. Edgerton’s work), and an estimate is given that it cost the British empire about 25k pound per Mau-Mau killed, despite the near-genocidal (anti-Kikuyu) violence of the colonial Kenyan regime.
23 June 2010, 12:29 pmGuy Montag:
Stan,
Thanks for your work on “The Tillman Files” and “Fog of Fame” series. I’m looking forward to seeing you speak your piece in “The Tillman Story” (Sundance documentery in theaters Aug 20th; I happened to read a review last night with favorable comments about your appearance in the film.
I’ve posted my own Tillman Files at my Feral Firefighter blog (yes, I know shameless allusion to your website). This week I’ve posted three new documents that may be of interest to you.
Yesterday, I finished putting together “The Emperor’s General” — President Obama and the Whitewash of General McChrystal’s Role in the Cover-Up of Pat Tillman’s Friendly-Fire Death”, coincidentally just before McChrystal’s Rolling Stone profile hit the news. A bit of sychronicity at work there.
Also, last week I posted a couple of other new documents:
“Barely a Footnote” — Superbowl XLIII and the NFL’s Betrayal of Pat Tillman
“That’s My Hero” — Pat Tillman, Rachel Corrie, and Yoni Netanyahu
All these docs are posted at http://www.feralfirefighter.blogspot.com
. . .
I’m flabbergasted that McChrystal might be fired over the remarks of his staff and himself. Heck, I’ve done worse at the fire station, referring to our former chief as “The Weasel”! In particular, I think McChrystal got a bad rap about his Biden comments. It’s obvious to me he was joking about possible responses to pestering questions by the media.
But, apparently his Tillman cover-up was OK with the powers-that-be and the media! He was given a pass by the Democratic Congress and President Obama for his role in torture at Camp Nama and his central role in the Army’s cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death.
I would like to see those involved in protecting McChrystal (eg. Congressman Waxman, Senator McCain, Senator Webb, Senator Levin, NYT Pentagon Reporter Thom Shanker, CNAS’s Andres Exum, etc.)suffer some public embarrassment for their part. But, I’m not holding my breath.
23 June 2010, 12:51 pmMichael Anderson:
Pretty serious propaganda piece. RS has been VERY Corpo since the early 70′s, so I’m not surprised that the Obama administration MIGHT be using it for agitprop (chuckle). I do like Matt Tiabbi, though—-the “Vampire Squid” metaphor is just too good.
SO, Petraeus the Bureaucrat is in now, according to this morning’s MSM. What next—-outright extermination of the Afghan populace (I’ve wondered why they haven’t done that in the first place—maybe it’s just been saved for the “Final Solution”)?? This whole fracas, coinciding with the Times Square bomber’s statements, and the “fabulous” untapped mineral wealth in Afghanistan piece, strikes me as a prelude to a massive escalation. And the torture goes on, under the radar again.
23 June 2010, 2:39 pmWinston Warfield:
The McChrystal tempest reveals so much about this culture’s social pathology. It’s essence is that image maintenance trumps reality every time, and that subservience to authority is the highest value. Weren’t these hallmarks of another time and place called the Third Reich? McChrystal, by any measure a macho, murderous psychopath on par with the Nazi’s own Claus Barbi, was given a pass for his torture-murder concentration camp at Camp Nama, and got away with the cover-up of the Tillman friendly-fire fiasco. Yet all he has to do is publicly diss the POTUS, and his head is handed to him. Must maintain the image of “civilian control” at all costs, even though it’s all a mirage in any case. The military creeping coup has already happened, for years now, and right under our noses.
24 June 2010, 12:30 pmSam:
Gives one an idea of how detached from reality McChrystal truly is. Or was, at least (current events may have brought his ego back down to earth, somewhat.) When you spend all day telling other people what to do, it’s probably easy to forget you’re not in charge.
Clearly, it never even occurred to him that participating in this feature might be risky. If it had, he and his minions might have at least shown a little restraint in bearing their true colors in front of a reporter. Was he hoping to show the world what a cocksure & righteous rock n’ roll general he was by appearing in Rolling Stone?
Something tells me the words “They can’t win this war without me” were floating around somewhere in the back of good ‘ol Stanley’s skull while he was shooting his mouth off, on the record.
Erase the “…without me”, and you have a true statement.
25 June 2010, 4:09 ampeggy:
I wonder if the RS folks knew what they were doing – i.e. if they knew that their interview of McC would lead to his firing. If both RS and McC knew, it was a brilliant collusion. Not that I approve . . .
26 June 2010, 11:46 pmKeith:
If both RS and McC knew, it was a brilliant collusion. (Of course, what else was it?)
Not that I approve . . .(Uh, so…)
4 July 2010, 2:53 pmKim Sky:
Perhaps Petraeus intends to run for the U.S. presidency
“West’s Afghan Debacle: Commander Dismissed As War Deaths Reach Record Level” by Rick Rozoff*
http://www.voltairenet.org/article166071.html
Excerpt:
With mid-term congressional elections in early November and Obama’s presumed reelection bid two years later, Petraeus’ appointment may have a distinctly political dimension. Either simply an effort to put a new face on a disastrous affair [Afghanistan] or to signal a shift in war tactics. But if meant to boost the election prospects of Democratic candidates this year and Obama in 2012, the White House may get more than it bargained for.
A graduate of the West Point Military Academy like McChrystal, Petraeus has been the subject of rumours – for at least three years – that he intends to run for the U.S. presidency, and in fact has been deftly positioning himself for just that eventuality.
5 July 2010, 1:14 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
Evidently there are plenty of reasons why the USA’s White House and the USA’s Pentagon don’t want the American Mainstream Media to think about ( or spend time reporting from ! ) Afghanistan. McChrystal this, McChrystal that ; McChrystal is only one aspect of a failed foreign policy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/08/afghanistan-catastrophe-chilcot
If the Obama Administration truly wanted what’s best for the members of the USA’s military then why’s it still got them in Afghanistan, MORE ThAN EiGHT YEARS LATER ; why’s it still got them in Iraq, more than SEVEN years later ? Why ?
Timothy R. Anderson
10 July 2010, 1:49 pmtochigi:
Brian Cloughley has an excellent essay on the Counterpunch website about the appointment of Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis to be the new commander of US Central Command, and related matters (McChrystal, Tillman, Taguba).
Psychotic Morons: “It’s Fun to Shoot Some People”
25 July 2010, 12:11 amhttp://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley07232010.html
Curt:
McChrystal taking a job at Yale looks pretty darn suspcious to me.
16 August 2010, 2:46 pmIt seems to me that he will be working as a talent scout there for clever psycopaths. Of course you did not here it from me.
Timothy R. Anderson:
Please name the month/year and the speaker’s name:
” I believe in supporting a strategy that will work. Not work for some immediate political situation, but work for the good of the Iraqi people .”
Hi there. I’m putting this on the McChrystal entry because I think McChrystal’s media-blitz is a symptom (did I spell it right ?) of a bigger disease.
It’s November 2010. There are still articles like this one in my local newspaper ////// ( to be continued …… )
24 November 2010, 3:59 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
It’s November 2010. There are still articles like this one in my local newspaper, but unfortunately the ” regular” news from Iraq and Afghanistan has fallen on
mostly deaf ears.
And I realize that it has taken me a while to get to my point.
It’s November 2010. Not November 2003, or Nov. 2004, etc. etc. Persons, mainly men, such as Secretary Of Defense Gates should be fired by now. McChrystal and
Clinton and Gates and Mullen and Morell and them should be fired by now.
” Rapid-fire bombings and mortar strikes killed 76 persons and wounded more
than 200 persons across Baghdad, Iraq’s neighborhoods Tuesday ( Tuesday,
November 2, 2010 ).”
—— source : The Fresno ( California ) Bee newspaper, November 3, 2010.
page B -1.
Oh, and the answers to the “good of the Iraqi people ” quote ?
June 2006. Then-President George W. Bush.
Timothy R. Anderson
24 November 2010, 5:15 pm