Translated material
"Bite Me"
American general offended the White House
The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, American General Stanley McChrystal (pictured), was summoned to Washington for an explanation. The reason was critical statements by people from the military leader’s circle about the current US administration. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for President Barack Obama and his national security team,” the 55-year-old commander-in-chief said yesterday, adding that he offered them his “most sincere apologies” for “a mistake that reflected poor judgment that should never have been made.” there was to be." Obama appointed McChrystal to his current post in June 2009.The source of the scandal was a publication in the American magazine Rolling Stone, the issue of which will be published this Friday. In the spring, the publication’s journalist spent several weeks in Afghanistan, where he communicated with McChrystal’s closest aides. And those, including with reference to the chief, commented on his differences with the US administration. The article, "The General Who Got It," calls McChrystal a "lone wolf" who has "taken control of the war in Afghanistan" but "has his eyes on his real enemies: the weaklings in the White House."
These unworthy people do not include only the heads of the Pentagon and the State Department - Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton. The impressive list of “weaklings” is headed by US Vice President Joe Biden, who opposed McChrystal’s demand to increase US forces in Afghanistan. When asked by a journalist about the position of the vice president, the commander-in-chief responded with a question: “Biden? Who is this? “Biden? - McChrystal's assistant entered the conversation. - Maybe bite me? (play on words, in English “byte mi.” - Ed. ).”
McChrystal was also upset by his old friend, current ambassador and former US commander in Afghanistan, Karl Ikenberry. McChrystal's aides said the general "felt betrayed" when Ikenberry made public his own memo calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai an "unreliable partner" in implementing the new U.S. military strategy. "There's one here who's covering his flank for the history books," McChrystal said, referring to Ikenberry. “So if we fail, he will say that he warned us in advance.”
The general was also not pleased by President Obama, who at their first meeting last May in the White House “clearly knew little” about his future appointee to Afghanistan, although he already held an important post on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And the meeting itself was like a “ten-minute photo shoot for the press.” The general called the second, twenty-minute audience on board the presidential plane “painful” - then he “gave up a position that should not have been surrendered.” The fact is that all previous months McChrystal insisted on 40,000 reinforcements, and Obama then announced in December that he would send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and begin withdrawing US forces from this country in July 2011. The Commander-in-Chief did not agree, but took it under his thumb.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed “full confidence” in McChrystal and his Afghan strategy, noting that the upcoming publication “is just an article.” However, the Washington Post emphasized that her appearance "is likely to increase tension between the White House and McChrystal."