Stanley A. McChrystal Quotes
The challenge that we faced with the arrival of the Obama administration is, they didn't really have time to build trust before they had to make big, difficult decisions.
McChrystal, Stanley. Interview by David Martin. CBS News, 2013.
He was referring to the President of Egypt in the midst of the Egyptian soft revolution of 2011. Wisner had been asked by the President to tell the corrupt and dictatorial President of Egypt to step down quickly. A few days later, Wisner gave a speech calling for the 30 year Egyptian dictator to finish out his term so he could “steer the changes”. He claimed that he was not speaking for the administration in this speech but it was a personal view. However, the speech created much world confusion as to what the US administration policy actually was. The quotation illustrates one of the problems of conducting diplomacy in a free democracy. A president asks a citizen to represent him; he does, and then turns around and undercuts the very position he was supposed to take. In many counties such an disloyal act would be considered treason but in America there is nothing the administration could do about it, other than to say that the Munich speech was contrary to US policy.
_0_PostageStamp_47x47.jpg "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen gives an interview to John Dickerson during the CBS news program Face the Nation in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2009. During the interview, Mullen discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea's recent missile tests and his recent visit to Russia. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy/Released)"){kind=small}
She was referring to the Administration of George W. Bush who had justified his Iraq War policies on intelligence claims that were false. The initial war effort was very successful, but the occupation was very poorly managed and there were many American and allied casualties—the stream on fire. Bush apologists claim that the President had been given faulty information by the CIA and he had no intention of misleading the American people.
He was arguing that normal Constitutional limitations should not apply to the President in wartime.
Stanley Allen McChrystal is a retired United States Army general best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the mid-2000s. His last assignment was as Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, United States Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A). He previously served as Director, Joint Staff from August 2008 to June 2009 and as Commander of JSOC from 2003 to 2008, where he was credited with the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but also criticized for his alleged role in the cover-up of the Pat Tillman friendly fire incident. McChrystal was reportedly known for saying what other military leaders were thinking but were afraid to say; this was one of the reasons cited for his appointment to lead all forces in Afghanistan. He held the post from June 15, 2009 to June 23, 2010.
