Washington – President Barack Obama Wednesday fired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of the war in Afghanistan.
Obama turned to Army Gen. David Petraeus to command the war. Petraeus, who led the Iraq war in 2007 and 2008, is now commander of the U.S. Central Command.
Obama met earlier in the Oval Office with the 55-year-old general, ordered back to Washington after release of a magazine article in which McChrystal and his aides ridiculed many members of the Obama administration’s war council, including Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser James Jones and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.
McChrystal left the White House after the brief meeting, which lasted less than half an hour.
McChrystal, who was recalled from Afghanistan for the meeting, met first with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, then began his meeting with Obama at 9:51 a.m. About 30 minutes later, the general left the White House.
McChrystal had been scheduled to participate in person in a midday meeting on Afghanistan-Pakistan policy with Obama and top administration officials, including some of those whom he and his staff had insulted. As that closed-door meeting started, White House aides wouldn’t say whether the general would be in the room after all. He usually participates in the weekly meeting by video teleconference
The mood among McChrystal’s supporters at the Pentagon was despondent as he walked out of the White House, especially given the relatively short length of his meeting with the president. Some began questioning whether the military can succeed in Afghanistan without McChrystal. Many military leaders were convinced that the general is irreplaceable and one of the armed forces’ best counterinsurgency experts.
“We are screwed,” one military officer, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the highly sensitive nature of the developments, said as he watched images of McChrystal leaving the White House. “We are so screwed.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy