General McChrystal made a mistake. The mistake wasn't to relieve his frustrations amongst his advisors. After almost a year of serving in a remote place, cut-off from his friends and family back home, his coworkers became his close friends, his family. They joked, they talked, they vented frustrations, they spent 18+ hours a day together. They welcomed the reporter into their family, and forgot who he was.
Unfortunately reporters are disgusting, filthy, unethical people that will do whatever, or say whatever, it takes to create a story. Not all of them of course, some of them are more interested in reporting the truth then anything else. But some, like this reporter, are more interested in putting the most inflammatory spin on the story then reporting what was actually happening. Anything that increases circulation or ratings is ideal.
This happened several years ago as well. A reporter was embedded with a battalion of infantry Marines. He followed them from combat situation to combat situation and became a part of the family. Then he captured a video of a Marine shooting an insurgent who was recently captured and appeared to be unarmed. He released the video, attempting to frame it in a context other then which it occurred. He wrote an accompanying article about the possibility of war crimes being committed by American troops. What the reporter did not bother to explain were the circumstances in which the shooting occurred. A somewhat common technique amongst the insurgents was to keep a grenade hidden on their body, and if they were captured or injured, wait until someone got close and detonate the grenade. The platoon that the reporter was with had lost a man earlier that same day to an insurgent using that tactic. The Marine in the video was injured in the explosion. The platoon had been fighting for days with very little sleep. So it's easy to understand why they might be a little jumpy. And it's understandable that he might shoot someone who appeared to be unarmed. But regardless of the context in which the situation occurred, the reporter smelled a Pulitzer and didn't hesitate to betray the people who so willingly accepted him into their little family.
That is the way it is when you are deployed. You spend all day and all night with the same people. You become a family, and you talk about everything together. And there are people above you who are good leaders that you like, good leaders that you don't like, bad leaders that you like, and bad leaders that you don't like. You complain about them all because at one point or another they will all do something that you don't like. So you go to your little family and complain, knowing that your complaints won't go any farther then that, because you're family.
And this is where General McChrystal made his mistake. He forgot the reporter was there and spoke freely in front of him. Everyone complains about their bosses. It's pretty typical behavior. And I understand the need to keep military discipline. Believe it or not, you can do both. Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean that you won't listen to them. Some of the comments that the General made were actually quite interesting, and some things should probably be investigated further instead of bringing condemnation on his head.
Unfortunately, now the politicians are involved. Let your Generals win your wars, and let the politicians play politics. When the two become intertwined, things start to get ugly. General McChrystal has the trust of the Afghans. They like him, and that means more over there then anything else. If they don't like you, they won't work with you. If they like you, they'll go to the ends of the earth for you. The General has made some huge improvements to focus the troops on the mission, like getting rid of the Pizza Huts and other fast food restaurants on many of the larger bases. He has the experience, knowledge, and dedication to get things done over there if we let him. But now the politicians, many who have never even gotten close to a war, are saying that we should fire him. And what will probably end up happening is the General will be told to submit his resignation and the President will accept because the President isn't man enough to either fire him, or admit that he needs this General to win the war. There comes a point where you need to admit that you don't know what you're doing, and the President has long passed that. He needs to take a step back, give the General everything he needs instead of treating it like a negotiation, and let the man win the war that should have been won years ago.
