Obama ‘Furious’ Over Gen. McChrystal Speech

Working Relationship 'Not Great' as General Fights for Escalation

Friday’s 25 minute in-flight meeting between President Obama (just returning from what proved to be a failed last minute pitch for Chicago’s Olympics bid) and Gen. Stanley McChrystal was more than just the coincidental meeting officials tried to spin it as.

Rather officials say that President Obama was “furious” with the General following his pointed remarks at a London speech the day prior. At the speech, Gen. McChrystal mocked Vice President Biden’s call to scale back the objectives of the eight year long war, saying it would lead to “Chaos-istan” and insisting that he would never accept such a plan.

The meeting that followed was reportedly “awkward,” and experts say that the working relationship between the president and the commander of the Afghan War is “not great.”

Undaunted, however, General McChrystal is said to have spent much of their brief time together emphasizing the increasingly grim situation on the ground and pressing the president to make a decision on his call for additional troops.

The Obama Administration is reportedly unsure what to make of McChrystal, with one adviser saying “people aren’t sure whether McChrystal is being naive or an upstart.” Whatever the case, it is uncharacteristic for a US general to spend so much of his time publicly petitioning for his strategy and attacking the commander in chief for not endorsing it immediately.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.