the runaway general Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House By Michael hastings
McChrystal works aboard a C-130 between visits to the battlefield in March.
90 | Rolling Stone | rollingstone.com July 8-22, 2010 July 8-22, 2010 rollingstone.com | Rolling Stone | 91 RUNAWAY GENERAL ow’d i get screwed into going I’m up there, that’s the problem,” he says. troops to not only destroy the enemy, but leading critic of counterinsurgency who offensive that began in February to re- Then, unable to help themselves, he and to live among the civilian population and attended West Point with McChrystal. take the southern town of Marja – con- to this dinner?” demands Gen. Stan- his staff imagine the general dismissing slowly rebuild, or build from scratch, an- “The idea that we are going to spend a tinues to drag on, prompting McChrystal ley McChrystal. It’s a Thursday night the vice president with a good one-liner. other nation’s government – a process trillion dollars to reshape the culture of himself to refer to it as a “bleeding ulcer.” “Are you asking about Vice President that even its staunchest advocates admit the Islamic world is utter nonsense.” In June, Afghanistan officially outpaced in mid-April, and the commander of Biden?” McChrystal says with a laugh. requires years, if not decades, to achieve. In the end, however, McChrystal got Vietnam as the longest war in American “Who’s that?” The theory essentially rebrands the mil- almost exactly what he wanted. On history – and Obama has quietly begun all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghani- “Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did itary, expanding its authority (and its December 1st, in a speech at West Point, to back away from the deadline he set for ‘ you say: Bite Me?” funding) to encompass the diplomat- the president laid out all the reasons withdrawing U.S. troops in July of next stanh is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westmin- ic and political sides of warfare: Think why fighting the war in Afghanistan is year. The president finds himself stuck ster in Paris. He’s in France to sell his new war strategy to hen barack obama the Green Berets as an armed Peace a bad idea: It’s expensive; we’re in an in something even more insane than our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that entered the Oval Office, Corps. In 2006, after Gen. David Petra- economic crisis; a decade-long commit- a quagmire: a quagmire he knowingly he immediately set out eus beta-tested the theory walked into, even though it’s we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year to deliver on his most during his “surge” in Iraq, precisely the kind of gigan- ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property important campaign it quickly gained a hardcore tic, mind-numbing, multi- wpromise on foreign policy: to refocus following of think-tankers, generational nation-build- of the United States. Opposition to the war has already the war in Afghanistan on what led us journalists, military officers ing project he explicitly said to invade in the first place. “I want the and civilian officials. Nick- he didn’t want. toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation of American people to understand,” he an- named “COINdinistas” for Even those who support Germany’s president and sparked both “We have two KIAs, but that hasn’t nounced in March 2009. “We have a clear their cultish zeal, this in- McChrystal and his strat- Canada and the Netherlands to announce been confirmed,” Flynn says. and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle fluential cadre believed the egy of counterinsurgen- the withdrawal of their 4,500 troops. McChrystal takes a final look around and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and doctrine would be the per- cy know that whatever the McChrystal is in Paris to keep the French, the suite. At 55, he is gaunt and lean, not Afghanistan.” He ordered another 21,000 fect solution for Afghani- general manages to accom- who have lost more than 40 soldiers in unlike an older version of Christian Bale troops to Kabul, the largest increase since stan. All they needed was plish in Afghanistan, it’s Afghanistan, from going all wobbly on in Rescue Dawn. His slate-blue eyes have the war began in 2001. Taking the advice a general with enough cha- Obama meeting going to look more like Viet- him. the unsettling ability to drill down when of both the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs risma and political savvy to with McChrystal nam than Desert Storm. “The dinner comes with the position, they lock on you. If you’ve fucked up or of Staff, he also fired Gen. David Mc- implement it. aboard Air Force “It’s not going to look like a One last October, sir,” says his chief of staff, Col. Charlie disappointed him, they can destroy your Kiernan – then the U.S. and NATO com- As McChrystal leaned win, smell like a win or taste after the general Flynn. soul without the need for him to raise mander in Afghanistan – and replaced on Obama to ramp up the dissed Joe Biden like a win,” says Maj. Gen. McChrystal turns sharply in his chair. his voice. him with a man he didn’t know and had war, he did it with the same Bill Mayville, who serves “Hey, Charlie,” he asks, “does this come “I’d rather have my ass kicked by a met only briefly: Gen. Stanley McChrys- fearlessness he used to as chief of operations for with the position?” roomful of people than go out to this din- tal. It was the first time a top general had track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out McChrystal. “This is going to end in an McChrystal gives him the middle ner,” McChrystal says. been relieved from duty during wartime how your enemy operates, be faster and argument.” finger. He pauses a beat. in more than 50 years, since Harry Tru- more ruthless than everybody else, then The general stands and looks around “Unfortunately,” he adds, “no one in man fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur at take the fuckers out. After arriving in the general’s he night after his the suite that his traveling staff of 10 has this room could do it.” the height of the Korean War. Afghanistan last June, the general con- speech in Paris, McChrystal converted into a full-scale operations cen- With that, he’s out the door. Even though he had voted for Obama, ducted his own policy review, ordered team makes and his staff head to Kitty ter. The tables are crowded with silver “Who’s he going to dinner with?” I ask McChrystal and his new commander in up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. O’Shea’s, an Irish pub cater- Panasonic Toughbooks, and blue cables one of his aides. chief failed from the outset to connect. The now-infamous report was leaked to jokes about ing to tourists, around the crisscross the hotel’s thick carpet, hooked “Some French minister,” the aide tells The general first encountered Obama the press, and its conclusion was dire: If tcorner from the hotel. His wife, Annie, up to satellite dishes to provide encrypt- me. “It’s fucking gay.” a week after he took office, when the we didn’t send another 40,000 troops the VP. “biden?” has joined him for a rare visit: Since the ed phone and e-mail communications. The next morning, McChrystal and his president met with a dozen senior mili- – swelling the number of U.S. forces in laughs a toP Iraq War began in 2003, she has seen her Dressed in off-the-rack civilian casual – team gather to prepare for a speech he is tary officials in a room at the Pentagon Afghanistan by nearly half – we were in husband less than 30 days a year. Though blue tie, button-down shirt, dress slacks giving at the École Militaire, a French known as the Tank. According to sourc- danger of “mission failure.” The White aide. “did you it is his and Annie’s 33rd wedding anni- – McChrystal is way out of his comfort military academy. The general prides es familiar with the meeting, McChrys- House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, versary, McChrystal has invited his inner zone. Paris, as one of his advisers says, is himself on being sharper and ballsi- tal thought Obama looked “uncomfort- was trying to bully Obama, opening him say: bite me?” circle along for dinner and drinks at the the “most anti-McChrystal city you can er than anyone else, but his brashness able and intimidated” by the roomful of up to charges of being weak on national “least Gucci” place his staff could find. His imagine.” The general hates fancy res- comes with a price: Although McChrys- military brass. Their first one-on-one security unless he did what the general ment would sap American power; Al wife isn’t surprised. “He once took me to taurants, rejecting any place with can- tal has been in charge of the war for only meeting took place in the Oval Office four wanted. It was Obama versus the Penta- Qaeda has shifted its base of operations a Jack in the Box when I was dressed in dles on the tables as too “Gucci.” He pre- a year, in that short time he has man- months later, after McChrystal got the gon, and the Pentagon was determined to to Pakistan. Then, without ever using formalwear,” she says with a laugh. fers Bud Light Lime (his favorite beer) to aged to piss off almost everyone with a Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much kick the president’s ass. the words “victory” or “win,” Obama an- The general’s staff is a handpicked col- Bordeaux, Talladega Nights (his favor- stake in the conflict. Last fall, during the better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” Last fall, with his top general call- nounced that he would send an addition- lection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, ite movie) to Jean-Luc Godard. Besides, question-and-answer session following a says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama ing for more troops, Obama launched a al 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, almost political operators and outright mani- ato. thisato. page: pete souza/the white house
the public eye has never been a place speech he gave in London, McChrystal clearly didn’t know anything about him, N three-month review to re-evaluate the as many as McChrystal had requested. acs. There’s a former head of British Spe-
where McChrystal felt comfortable: Be- dismissed the counterterrorism strate- who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going ald/ strategy in Afghanistan. “I found that The president had thrown his weight, cial Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan fore President Obama put him in charge gy being advocated by Vice President Joe to run his fucking war, but he didn’t time painful,” McChrystal tells me in one however hesitantly, behind the counter- Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two of the war in Afghanistan, he spent five Biden as “shortsighted,” saying it would seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty of several lengthy interviews. “I was sell- insurgency crowd. fighter pilots and at least two dozen com- years running the Pentagon’s most secre- lead to a state of “Chaos-istan.” The re- disappointed.” ing an unsellable position.” For the gen- Today, as McChrystal gears up for an bat veterans and counterinsurgency ex-
tive black ops. marks earned him a smackdown from From the start, McChrystal was de- lass Mark o’doN eral, it was a crash course in Beltway pol- offensive in southern Afghanistan, the perts. They jokingly refer to themselves “What’s the update on the Kandahar the president himself, who summoned the termined to place his personal stamp on itics – a battle that pitted him against prospects for any kind of success look as Team America, taking the name from bombing?” McChrystal asks Flynn. The general to a terse private meeting aboard Afghanistan, to use it as a laboratory for experienced Washington insiders like bleak. In June, the death toll for U.S. the South Park-esque sendup of military fficer 1st c city has been rocked by two massive car Air Force One. The message to McChrys- a controversial military strategy known Vice President Biden, who argued that a troops passed 1,000, and the number of cluelessness, and they pride themselves bombs in the past day alone, calling into tal seemed clear: Shut the fuck up, and as counterinsurgency. COIN, as the theo- etty o prolonged counterinsurgency campaign IEDs has doubled. Spending hundreds on their can-do attitude and their disdain question the general’s assurances that he keep a lower profile. ry is known, is the new gospel of the Pen- in Afghanistan would plunge America of billions of dollars on the fifth- poorest for authority. After arriving in Kabul last . Navy p
can wrest it from the Taliban. Now, flipping through printout cards tagon brass, a doctrine that attempts to u.s into a military quagmire without weak- country on earth has failed to win over summer, Team America set about chang- of his speech in Paris, McChrystal won- square the military’s preference for high- ening international terrorist networks. the civilian population, whose attitude ing the culture of the International Se- Writer Michael Hastings has ders aloud what Biden question he might tech violence with the demands of fight- “The entire COIN strategy is a fraud per- toward U.S. troops ranges from intense- curity Assistance Force, as the NATO- reported from Iraq and Afghanistan for get today, and how he should respond. “I ing protracted wars in failed states. COIN petuated on the American people,” says ly wary to openly hostile. The biggest mil- led mission is known. (U.S. soldiers had
two years. This is his first story for RS. never know what’s going to pop out until calls for sending huge numbers of ground spread:previous Douglas Macgregor, a retired colonel and itary operation of the year – a ferocious taken to deriding ISAF as short for “I
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He’s a brilliant guy, but he just comes in, and since Karzai is not considered cred- before whipping a fastball down the pulls on a lever, whatever he can grasp ible by his own people, McChrystal has middle. onto. But this is COIN, and you can’t just worked hard to make him so. Over the McChrystal entered West Point in have someone yanking on shit.” past few months, he has accompanied the 1972, when the U.S. military was close At one point on his trip to Paris, Mc- president on more than 10 trips around to its all-time low in popularity. His class Chrystal checks his BlackBerry. “Oh, the country, standing beside him at polit- was the last to graduate before the acad- not another e-mail from Holbrooke,” he ical meetings, or shuras, in Kandahar. In emy started to admit women. The “ Prison groans. “I don’t even want to open it.” He February, the day before the doomed of- on the Hudson,” as it was known then, clicks on the message and reads the salu- fensive in Marja, McChrystal even drove was a potent mix of testosterone, hooli- tation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry over to the president’s palace to get him to ganism and reactionary patriotism. Ca- back in his pocket, not bothering to con- sign off on what would be the largest mil- dets repeatedly trashed the mess hall in ceal his annoyance. itary operation of the year. Karzai’s staff, food fights, and birthdays were celebrat- “Make sure you don’t get any of that however, insisted that the president was ed with a tradition called “rat fucking,” on your leg,” an aide jokes, referring to sleeping off a cold and could not be dis- which often left the birthday boy outside the e-mail. turbed. After several hours of haggling, in the snow or mud, covered in shaving McChrystal finally enlisted the aid of cream. “It was pretty out of control,” says y far the most crucial Afghanistan’s defense minister, who per- Lt. Gen. David Barno, a classmate who – and strained – relationship suaded Karzai’s people to wake the pres- went on to serve as the top commander is between McChrystal and ident from his nap. in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. The Eikenberry, the U.S. ambas- This is one of the central flaws with class, filled with what Barno calls “huge sador. According to those close McChrystal’s counterinsurgency strat- talent” and “wild-eyed teenagers with a bto the two men, Eikenberry – a retired strong sense of idealism,” also produced three-star general who served in Afghan- Gen. Ray Odierno, the current command- istan in 2002 and 2005 – can’t stand that er of U.S. forces in Iraq. his former subordinate is now calling the The son of a general, McChrystal was shots. He’s also furious that McChrystal, mcchrystal also a ringleader of the campus dissi- backed by NATO’s allies, refused to put dents – a dual role that taught him how Eikenberry in the pivotal role of vice- isn’t just in to thrive in a rigid, top-down environ- roy in Afghanistan, which would have charge on the ment while thumbing his nose at author- made him the diplomatic equivalent of ity every chance he got. He accumulat- the general. The job instead went to Brit- battlefield: ed more than 100 hours of demerits for ish Ambassador Mark Sedwill – a move drinking, partying and insubordination that effectively increased McChrystal’s he also calls – a record that his classmates boasted made him a “century man.” One class- McChrystal visits an outpost in influence over diplomacy by shutting out the diPlomatic April. The outcome of the war, a powerful rival. “In reality, that position mate, who asked not to be named, recalls concedes a top adviser, “is not needs to be filled by an American for it to shots. finding McChrystal passed out in the going to look like a win.” have weight,” says a U.S. official familiar shower after downing a case of beer he with the negotiations. had hidden under the sink. The trouble- The relationship was further strained egy: The need to build a credible gov- making almost got him kicked out, and Suck at Fighting” or “In Sandals and Flip- McChrystal steps away from the cir- ports McChrystal. “The military cannot in January, when a classified cable that ernment puts us at the mercy of whatev- he spent hours subjected to forced march- Flops.”) McChrystal banned alcohol on cle, observing his team. “All these men,” by itself create governance reform.” Eikenberry wrote was leaked to The New er tin-pot leader we’ve backed – a danger es in the Area, a paved courtyard where base, kicked out Burger King and other he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d Part of the problem is structural: The York Times. The cable was as scathing as that Eikenberry explicitly warned about unruly cadets were disciplined. “I’d come symbols of American excess, expand- die for me.” Defense Department budget exceeds it was prescient. The ambassador offered in his cable. Even Team McChrystal pri- visit, and I’d end up spending most of my ed the morning briefing to include thou- The assembled men may look and $600 billion a year, while the State De- a brutal critique of McChrystal’s strate- vately acknowledges that Karzai is a less- time in the library, while Stan was in the sands of officers and refashioned the com- sound like a bunch of combat veterans partment receives only $50 billion. But gy, dismissed President Hamid Karzai as than-ideal partner. “He’s been locked up Area,” recalls Annie, who began dating mand center into a Situational Awareness letting off steam, but in fact this tight-knit part of the problem is personal: In pri- “not an adequate strategic partner,” and in his palace the past year,” laments one McChrystal in 1973. Room, a free-flowing information hub group represents the most powerful force vate, Team McChrystal likes to talk shit cast doubt on whether the counterinsur- of the general’s top advisers. At times, McChrystal wound up ranking 298 out modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s shaping U.S. policy in Afghanistan. While about many of Obama’s top people on the gency plan would be “sufficient” to deal Karzai himself has actively undermined of a class of 855, a serious underachieve- offices in New York. He also set a manic McChrystal and his men are in indisput- diplomatic side. One aide calls Jim Jones, with Al Qaeda. “We will become more McChrystal’s desire to put him in charge. ment for a man widely regarded as bril- pace for his staff, becoming legendary able command of all military aspects of a retired four-star general and veteran deeply engaged here with no way to ex- During a recent visit to Walter Reed liant. His most compelling work was ex- for sleeping four hours a night, running the war, there is no equivalent position on of the Cold War, a “clown” who remains tricate ourselves,” Eikenberry warned, Army Medical Center, Karzai met three tracurricular: As managing editor of The seven miles each morning, and eating the diplomatic or political side. Instead, “stuck in 1985.” Politicians like McCain “short of allowing the country to descend U.S. soldiers who had been wounded in Pointer, the West Point literary magazine, one meal a day. (In the month I spend an assortment of administration play- and Kerry, says another aide, “turn up, again into lawlessness and chaos.” Uruzgan province. “General,” he called McChrystal wrote seven short stories that around the general, I witness him eat- ers compete over the Afghan portfolio: have a meeting with Karzai, criticize him McChrystal and his team were blind- out to McChrystal, “I didn’t even know eerily foreshadow many of the issues he ing only once.) It’s a kind of superhuman U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Spe- at the airport press conference, then get sided by the cable. “I like Karl, I’ve we were fighting in Uruzgan!” would confront in his career. In one tale, narrative that has built up around him, cial Representative to Afghanistan Rich- back for the Sunday talk shows. Frankly, known him for years, but they’d never a fictional officer complains about the -dif a staple in almost every media profile, as ard Holbrooke, National Security Advisor it’s not very helpful.” Only Hillary Clinton said anything like that to us before,” says rowing up as a military ficulty of training foreign troops to fight; if the ability to go without sleep and food Jim Jones and Secretary of State Hillary receives good reviews from McChrystal’s McChrystal, who adds that he felt “be- brat, McChrystal exhibited in another, a 19-year-old soldier kills a translates into the possibility of a man Clinton, not to mention 40 or so other co- inner circle. “Hillary had Stan’s back dur- trayed” by the leak. “Here’s one that cov- the mixture of brilliance and boy he mistakes for a terrorist. In “Brink- single- handedly winning the war. alition ambassadors and a host of talking ing the strategic review,” says an adviser. ers his flank for the history books. Now if cockiness that would follow man’s Note,” a piece of suspense fiction, By midnight at Kitty O’Shea’s, much heads who try to insert themselves into “She said, ‘If Stan wants it, give him what we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’ ” him throughout his career. the unnamed narrator appears to be try- of Team America is completely shitfaced. the mess, from John Kerry to John Mc- he needs.’ ” The most striking example of McChrys- gHis father fought in Korea and Vietnam, ing to stop a plot to assassinate the pres- Two officers do an Irish jig mixed with Cain. This diplomatic incoherence has McChrystal reserves special skepti- tal’s usurpation of diplomatic policy is his retiring as a two-star general, and his ident. It turns out, however, that the nar- steps from a traditional Afghan wed- effectively allowed McChrystal’s team to cism for Holbrooke, the official in charge handling of Karzai. It is McChrystal, not four brothers all joined the armed ser- rator himself is the assassin, and he’s able ding dance, while McChrystal’s top ad- call the shots and hampered efforts to of reintegrating the Taliban. “The Boss diplomats like Eikenberry or Holbrooke, vices. Moving around to different bases, to infiltrate the White House: “The Pres- visers lock arms and sing a slurred song of build a stable and credible government in says he’s like a wounded animal,” says a who enjoys the best relationship with the McChrystal took solace in baseball, a ident strode in smiling. From the right their own invention. “Afghanistan!” they Afghanistan. “It jeopardizes the mission,” member of the general’s team. “Holbrooke man America is relying on to lead Af- sport in which he made no pretense of coat pocket of the raincoat I carried, I bellow. “Afghanistan!” They call it their says Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to ghanistan. The doctrine of counterinsur- hiding his superiority: In Little League, slowly drew forth my 32-caliber pistol. In Afghanistan song. Council on Foreign Relations who sup- get fired, so that makes him dangerous. gency requires a credible government, he would call out strikes to the crowd Brinkman’s failure, I had succeeded.”
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After graduation, 2nd Lt. Stanley Mc- After Cpl. Pat Tillman, the former- Tillman cover-up. But the scandals barely to confront such accusations from the Chrystal entered an Army that was all NFL-star-turned-Ranger, was acciden- made a ripple in Congress, and McChrys- troops directly. It was a typically bold but broken in the wake of Vietnam. “We tally killed by his own troops in Afghan- tal was soon on his way back to Kabul to team of rivals move by the general. Only two days ear- really felt we were a peacetime gener- istan in April 2004, McChrystal took an run the war in Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley McChrystal isn’t just fighting the Taliban – he’s lier, he had received an e-mail from Israel ation,” he recalls. “There was the Gulf active role in creating the impression that The media, to a large extent, have also waging political battles both at home and abroad Arroyo, a 25-year-old staff sergeant who War, but even that didn’t feel like that big Tillman had died at the hands of Taliban given McChrystal a pass on both contro- asked McChrystal to go on a mission with of a deal.” So McChrystal spent his ca- fighters. He signed off on a falsified rec- versies. Where Gen. Petraeus is kind of ALLIES ENEMIES his unit. “I am writing because it was reer where the action was: He enrolled ommendation for a Silver Star that sug- a dweeb, a teacher’s pet with a Ranger’s ROBERT GATES JOE BIDEN said you don’t care about the troops and in Special Forces school and became a gested Tillman had been killed by enemy tab, McChrystal is a snake-eating rebel, Nicknamed “Yoda” at the White The biggest opponent of have made it harder to defend ourselves,” regimental commander of the 3rd Rang- fire. (McChrystal would later claim he a “Jedi” commander, as Newsweek called House, the defense secretary McChrystal’s surge, the vice Arroyo wrote. didn’t read the recommendation close- engineered McChrystal’s hiring president argued for “CT-plus” er Battalion in 1986. It was a dangerous him. He didn’t care when his teenage son and is retooling the military for – fewer troops, more counter- Within hours, McChrystal responded position, even in peacetime – nearly two ly enough – a strange excuse for a com- came home with blue hair and a mohawk. more counterinsurgency fights. terrorism. Look for him to push personally: “I’m saddened by the accusa- dozen Rangers were killed in training ac- mander known for his laserlike attention He speaks his mind with a candor rare “He’s the mastermind,” says a Obama to stick to his timetable tion that I don’t care about soldiers, as it cidents during the Eighties. It was also an to minute details.) A week later, McChrys- for a high-ranking official. He asks for McChrystal staffer. for withdrawing troops in 2011. is something I suspect any soldier takes unorthodox career path: Most soldiers tal sent a memo up the chain of com- opinions, and seems genuinely interested 2 . Navy, both personally and professionally – at ADM. MIKE MULLEN GEN. JIM JONES mand, specifically warning that President who want to climb the ranks to gener- in the response. He gets briefings on his As chairman of the Joint Chiefs Obama’s national security least I do. But I know perceptions de- al don’t go into the Rangers. Displaying Bush should avoid mentioning the cause iPod and listens to books on tape. He car- of Staff, helped Gates push adviser; perceived by foes as pend upon your perspective at the time, a penchant for transforming systems he of Tillman’s death. “If the circumstances ries a custom-made set of nunchucks in Obama to hire McChrystal. A an inept bureaucratic infighter. and I respect that every soldier’s view is
considers outdated, McChrystal set out of Corporal Tillman’s death become pub- his convoy engraved with his name and had J. McNeeley, u.s big defender of the counter- In March, contradicted Obama his own.” Then he showed up at Arroyo’s to revolutionize the training regime for lic,” he wrote, it could cause “public em- four stars, and his itinerary often bears a insurgency doctrine, he has after a trip to Kabul, spark- outpost and went on a foot patrol with lass c the Rangers. He introduced mixed mar- barrassment” for the president. fresh quote from Bruce Lee. (“There are even recommended it as a way ing an outcry by Karzai. Team the troops – not some bullshit photo-op to fight drugs in Mexico. McChrystal wants to see him go. tial arts, required every soldier to quali- no limits. There are only plateaus, and you stroll through a market, but a real live op- fy with night-vision goggles on the rifle must not stay there, you must go beyond GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS RICHARD HOLBROOKE eration in a dangerous war zone. pecialist 1st c Wrote Army’s field manual Insiders say Obama’s envoy – a
range and forced troops to build up their them.”) He went out on dozens of night- N s Six weeks later, just before McChrys- endurance with weekly marches involv- c time raids during his time in Iraq, unprec- on counterinsurgency. As talented diplomat and notori- tal returned from Paris, the general re- m chrystal icatio CENTCOM commander, is letting ous jerk – has lousy relations
ing heavy backpacks. edented for a top commander, and turned uN ceived another e-mail from Arroyo. A McChrystal take center stage with Afghans and Pakistanis MM In the late 1990s, McChrystal shrewd- may haVe sold up on missions unannounced, with almost in Afghanistan. A defeat would alike. Why he’s staying: White 23-year-old corporal named Michael In- ly improved his inside game, spending a no entourage. “The fucking lads love Stan ruin his “win” in Iraq: “He’s House fears a “tell-all” more gram – one of the soldiers McChrystal year at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Gov- obama on McChrystal,” says a British officer who 1-0,” says a McChrystal insider. than his diplomatic blunders. had gone on patrol with – had been killed se; Mass co ernment and then at the Council on For- serves in Kabul. “You’d be out in Some- N by an IED a day earlier. It was the third eign Relations, where he co-authored a his strategy, where, Iraq, and someone would take a HILLARY CLINTON KARL EIKENBERRY man the 25-member platoon had lost in a The secretary of state has An ex-general who served two treatise on the merits and drawbacks of knee beside you, and a corporal would be year, and Arroyo was writing to see if the but his own backed McChrystal to the hilt, tours in Afghanistan, the U.S. humanitarian interventionism. But as he like ‘Who the fuck is that?’ And it’s fuck- even going against her own ambassador should be a major general would attend Ingram’s memori- ard/dept. of defe
moved up through the ranks, McChrys- ing Stan McChrystal.” . w ambassador, Karl Eikenberry. player. But his relations with al service. “He started to look up to you,” trooPs aren’t d tal relied on the skills he had learned as a It doesn’t hurt that McChrystal was Her get-tough stance is fueling McChrystal and Karzai haven’t Arroyo wrote. McChrystal said he would
troublemaking kid at West Point: know- buying it. also extremely successful as head of the obert talk that she might replace recovered since he slammed try to make it down to pay his respects as ing precisely how far he could go in a rigid Joint Special Operations Command, Gates as defense secretary. them both in a leaked memo. soon as possible. ages; r military hierarchy without getting tossed “The false narrative, which McChrys- the elite forces that carry out the gov- The night before the general is sched-
out. Being a highly intelligent badass, he tal clearly helped construct, diminished ernment’s darkest ops. During the Iraq etty iM uled to visit Sgt. Arroyo’s platoon for the /g
discovered, could take you far – especial- Pat’s true actions,” wrote Tillman’s moth- surge, his team killed and captured thou- afp way at headquarters. Then he’ll add, “I’m strictions on the use of air power and memorial, I arrive at Combat Outpost / ly in the political chaos that followed Sep- er, Mary, in her book Boots on the Ground sands of insurgents, including Abu Musab going to have to scold you in the morn- severely limited night raids. He regularly JFM to speak with the soldiers he had loeb tember 11th. “He was very focused,” says by Dusk. McChrystal got away with it, al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. ing for it, though.” In fact, the general fre- apologizes to Hamid Karzai when civil- gone on patrol with. JFM is a small en- Annie. “Even as a young officer he seemed she added, because he was the “golden “JSOC was a killing machine,” says Maj. quently finds himself apologizing for the ians are killed, and berates commanders campment, ringed by high blast walls to know what he wanted to do. I don’t boy” of Rumsfeld and Bush, who loved Gen. Mayville, his chief of operations. disastrous consequences of counterinsur- responsible for civilian deaths. “For a and guard towers. Almost all of the sol- think his personality has changed in all his willingness to get things done, even if McChrystal was also open to new ways gency. In the first four months of this year, while,” says one U.S. official, “the most diers here have been on repeated com- these years.” it included bending the rules or skipping of killing. He systematically mapped out NATO forces killed some 90 civilians, up dangerous place to be in Afghanistan bat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the chain of command. Nine days after terrorist networks, targeting specific in- 76 percent from the same period in 2009 was in front of McChrystal after a ‘civ and have seen some of the worst fighting y some accounts, mc- Tillman’s death, McChrystal was promot- surgents and hunting them down – often ouza/the white house; saul – a record that has created tremendous re- cas’ incident.” The ISAF command has of both wars. But they are especially an-
Chrystal’s career should have ed to major general. with the help of cyberfreaks traditionally ete s sentment among the very population that even discussed ways to make not killing gered by Ingram’s death. His command- been over at least two times by Two years later, in 2006, McChrystal shunned by the military. “The Boss would COIN theory is intent on winning over. into something you can win an award for: ers had repeatedly requested permission ages, 2; p
now. As Pentagon spokesman was tainted by a scandal involving de- find the 24-year-old kid with a nose ring, M In February, a Special Forces night raid There’s talk of creating a new medal for to tear down the house where Ingram was during the invasion of Iraq, tainee abuse and torture at Camp Nama with some fucking brilliant degree from ended in the deaths of two pregnant Af- “courageous restraint,” a buzzword that’s killed, noting that it was often used as a
bthe general seemed more like a White in Iraq. According to a report by Human MIT, sitting in the corner with 16 com- g/getty i ghan women and allegations of a cover- unlikely to gain much traction in the combat position by the Taliban. But due House mouthpiece than an up-and-com- Rights Watch, prisoners at the camp puter monitors humming,” says a Spe- up, and in April, protests erupted in Kan- gung-ho culture of the U.S. military. to McChrystal’s new restrictions to avoid
ing commander with a reputation for were subjected to a now-familiar litany cial Forces commando who worked with lex woN dahar after U.S. forces accidentally shot But however strategic they may be, upsetting civilians, the request had been
speaking his mind. When Defense Sec- of abuse: stress positions, being dragged McChrystal in Iraq and now serves on his se; a up a bus, killing five Afghans. “We’ve shot McChrystal’s new marching orders have denied. “These were abandoned houses,” N retary Donald Rumsfeld made his infa- naked through the mud. McChrystal staff in Kabul. “He’d say, ‘Hey – you fuck- an amazing number of people,” McChrys- caused an intense backlash among his fumes Staff Sgt. Kennith Hicks. “Nobody mous “stuff happens” remark during the was not disciplined in the scandal, even ing muscleheads couldn’t find lunch with- tal recently conceded. own troops. Being told to hold their fire, was coming back to live in them.” looting of Baghdad, McChrystal backed though an interrogator at the camp re- out help. You got to work together with soldiers complain, puts them in greater One soldier shows me the list of new these guys.’ ” danger. “Bottom line?” says a former Spe- regulations the platoon was given. “Pa- him up. A few days later, he echoed the ported seeing him inspect the prison mul- ard/dept. of defe espite the tragedies and . w
president’s Mission Accomplished gaffe tiple times. But the experience was so un- Even in his new role as America’s lead- d miscues, McChrystal has cial Forces operator who has spent years trol only in areas that you are reasonably by insisting that major combat opera- settling to McChrystal that he tried to ing evangelist for counterinsurgency, Mc- issued some of the strictest in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I would love certain that you will not have to defend tions in Iraq were over. But it was during prevent detainee operations from being Chrystal retains the deep-seated instincts obert directives to avoid civilian to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules yourselves with lethal force,” the laminat- his next stint – overseeing the military’s placed under his command in Afghani- of a terrorist hunter. To put pressure on casualties that the U.S. mili- of engagement put soldiers’ lives in even ed card reads. For a soldier who has trav- most elite units, including the Rangers, stan, viewing them as a “political swamp,” the Taliban, he has upped the number of tary has ever encountered in a war zone. greater danger. Every real soldier will tell eled halfway around the world to fight, top right: r
M d Navy Seals and Delta Force – that Mc- according to a U.S. official. In May 2009, Special Forces units in Afghanistan from It’s “insurgent math,” as he calls it – for you the same thing.” that’s like telling a cop he should only Chrystal took part in a cover-up that as McChrystal prepared for his confirma- four to 19. “You better be out there hitting every innocent person you kill, you create In March, McChrystal traveled to patrol in areas where he knows he won’t would have destroyed the career of a tion hearings, his staff prepared him for four or five targets tonight,” McChrystal 10 new enemies. He has ordered convoys Combat Outpost JFM – a small encamp- have to make arrests. “Does that make
lesser man. hard questions about Camp Nama and the will tell a Navy Seal he sees in the hall- fro clockwise to curtail their reckless driving, put re- ment on the outskirts of Kandahar – any fucking sense?” asks [Cont. on 120]
96 | Rolling Stone | rollingstone.com July 8-22, 2010 July 8-22, 2010 rollingstone.com | Rolling Stone | 97 EGDBDI>DC NDJGI>8@:IID RUNAWAY GENERAL insists, no longer has the ini- who doesn’t have a weapon is very cynical, politically,” says Iraq in 2006. “That’s the game Even proponents of counter- HE:8>6AEGDBDI>DCH! tiative – “but I don’t think we immediately assumed to be a Marc Sageman, a former CIA we’re in right now. What we insurgency are hard-pressed D;;:GH6C9C:LH [Cont. from 97] Pfc. Jared do, either.” It’s similar to the civilian. “That’s the way this case officer who has extensive need, for strategic purposes, to explain the new plan. “This Pautsch. “We should just drop talk he gave in Paris, but it’s not game is,” McChrystal says. “It’s experience in the region. “Af- is to create the perception that isn’t a classic operation,” says a a fucking bomb on this place. winning any hearts and minds complex. I can’t just decide: It’s ghanistan is not in our vital we didn’t get run off. The facts U.S. military official. “It’s not You sit and ask yourself: What among the soldiers. “This is the shirts and skins, and we’ll kill interest – there’s nothing for on the ground are not great, going to be Black Hawk Down. 7g^c\DjiNdjg are we doing here?” philosophical part that works all the shirts.” us there.” and are not going to become There aren’t going to be doors The rules handed out here with think tanks,” McChrystal As the discussion ends, Mc- In mid-May, two weeks after great in the near future.” kicked in.” Other U.S. officials >ccZg6gi^hi# are not what McChrystal in- tries to joke. “But it doesn’t get Chrystal seems to sense that visiting the troops in Kanda- But facts on the ground, as insist that doors are going to I]Z8VcdcEdlZgH]di tended – they’ve been distort- the same reception from infan- he hasn’t succeeded at easing har, McChrystal travels to the history has proven, offer lit- be kicked in, but that it’s going 6(&%%>HY^\^iVaXVbZgV]Vh ed as they passed through try companies.” the men’s anger. He makes one White House for a high- level tle deterrent to a military de- to be a kinder, gentler offensive VaacZlXgZVi^kZ[ZVijgZh!a^`Z the chain of command – but During the question-and- last-ditch effort to reach them, visit by Hamid Karzai. It is a termined to stay the course. than the disaster in Marja. EdhiZg:[[ZXiVcYXdadg[ja knowing that does nothing answer period, the frustra- acknowledging the death of triumphant moment for the Even those closest to Mc- “The Taliban have a jackboot HjeZgK^k^Y!hdndjÉaaValVnh to lessen the anger of troops tion boils over. The soldiers Cpl. Ingram. “There’s no way I general, one that demonstrates Chrystal know that the rising on the city,” says a military \Zii]ZbdhiVgi^hi^Xh]di# on the ground. “Fuck, when complain about not being al- can make that easier,” he tells he is very much in command – anti-war sentiment at home official. “We have to remove I]ZedlZg^hndjgh# I came over here and heard lowed to use lethal force, about them. “No way I can pretend both in Kabul and in Wash- doesn’t begin to reflect how them, but we have to do it in that McChrystal was it won’t hurt. No way I can ington. In the East Room, deeply fucked up things are a way that doesn’t alienate the in charge, I thought we tell you not to feel that. . . . which is packed with jour- in Afghanistan. “If Americans population.” When Vice Presi- would get our fucking I will tell you, you’re doing nalists and dignitaries, Pres- pulled back and started pay- dent Biden was briefed on the IDA:6GCBDG:
he tells them. The Taliban, he under the rules, any insurgent churches in Little Rock. “It’s all adviser to U.S. commanders in courtesy of west poi population. McChrystal in charge. A:6GCBDG:6Icdgidc#Xdb$YZcn
120 | Rolling Stone | rollingstone.com July 8-22, 2010 121
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