I could be a hatchet job by Rolling Stone.

But if the aritcle is a true reflection of the general's thoughts, then he well knows what happened to McArthur. As such, he may be sacrifacing his carrer for the greater good. Considering that the ROE's are so stupid, he might want to go on record as being completely at odds with the administration before the poop hits the fan.

Perhaps this is nothing more than a gaff, an inadvertent telling of the truth. But as you stated, it is more likely that the General is telling the truth out of frustration, and is setting up the conditions necessary to tell more of the truth. One can only imagine the insane restrictions Obama has placed on our troops through their commanders.

Gen. McChrystal is not stupid. I vote for the "Greater good" theory.

all offficers of his rank understand completely the position they are in, this reporter was following him for weeks not an hour, so it wasnt an inadvertant brain fart moment, a general is a disciplined man he made a descision for some reason we are not privy to that he was going to go the mccarther route.

One doesn't rise to McChrystal's position in the Army without being both very smart and very savvy politically. The filtering process is brutal. And NO subordinate staff puke would dare to say some of the things reported unless it had been quietly encouraged by the commander.

Since Afghanistan is shaping up to be a major disaster, I suspect that this is McChrystal's way of getting out with his reputation more or less intact. By stating the true (and obvious) characteristics of Obama and the insane clown posse of leftists around him in such an insubordinate way, McChrystal guarenteed that he will be long gone when we are treated to the spectacle of American troops leaving on the last helicopter (again due to Democrat betrayal).

The really clever part is probably that Eikenberry may well have been right all along: no reasonable number of troops would ever make Afghanistan a working state. So McChrystal used those objections as part of his way out of the situation.

Eric Bates, the editor of Rolling Stone, claims that all of the quotes used were on the record and that McChrystal had an opportunity to review the piece and did not object. He knowingly pulled the pin on this grenade.

Wow.

I'd rather have McChrystal's at my back than Obama...

I agree with iconoclast that this is McChrystal getting out with his reputation intact. However, I disagree that the last American troops will be leaving due to Democrat betrayal. It is an unwinnable war, regardless of which party occupies the White House or the majority on either side of the Capitol.

Besides the impossiblity of conquering Afghanistan, we have no business propping up one Islamist regime against another, just because we perceive the one we support to be more favorable to us. I find it offensive that American soliders, many of whom are Christians, are risking and losing their lives for the sake of a government that has made Christianity illegal. Conversion is punishable by death (which Abdul Rahman narrowly avoided due to overwhelming international pressure, even though he had been a Christian for 16 years). Less than a month ago, two Christian aid groups were suspended by the Karzai regime on the suspicion that they were sharing their faith.

I'd like to see the last helicopter out of Kabul sooner rather than later.