The tick-tock: How President Obama took command of the McChrystal situation

By MIKE ALLEN | 6/24/10

Vice President Joe Biden was the first top administration official to know about the Rolling Stone article.

He was flying back from Chicago after a campaign event when Gen. Stanley McChrystal called him on Air Force 2 around 5:30 p.m. to apologize for comments in the article. The vice president had no idea what he was talking about, so the call was brief, and Biden asked his aides to get a copy of the story.

Shortly before, Tommy Vietor, the assistant White House press secretary who handles national-security issues, had been e-mailed a PDF of the article by a colleague in the U.S. government. Vietor forwarded the PDF to a few officials who tried in vain to read the tiny type on their BlackBerries. So Vietor printed out a bunch of copies for the national-security inner circle. He walked one into Robert Gibbs’ office and handed him a copy, with key passages marked.

It would be a long night: Aides would still be in the West Wing at 10:30 p.m. and later. President Obama had already gone to the Residence on the second floor of the White House, and Gibbs walked a copy over around 8 p.m. Within an hour, top aides were talking about firing McChrystal. A senior administration official recalled yesterday during a briefing for reporters: “He read the first few paragraphs and decided that we should go to the Oval Office and get a bigger group of people. … He was angry.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38962.html

Interesting article about the sequence of events that culminated with McChrystal's firing.

:-)

I originally thought Obama might turn the other cheek. I was relieved by how strong and decisive he was at the announcement.

;-)

The minute I saw Petraeus come out with Obama I knew it was going to be OK. Obama's words were tone perfect. He came across as serious and a clear thinker. McChrystal comes across as a nut case. He got his face to face with the President, got his ass fired, and was out the door and out of public sight. The Obama team kept a tight lid on the situation and looked sane and calm.

All in all a terrific performance of a job well done under lots of pressure. Bravo, Obama!

Obama didn't have much of a choice. McChrystal and his aides were out of line and should have known better than to give an interview to Rolling Stones.

:)

And the country has to re-learn the lesson of civilian control of the military all over again. It's too bad, but I just guess it's always a possibility that a general will start thinking he knows better than the president...

It IS a positive article, but the unrec'ing crew is still going after it.

Unbelievable........

:eyes:


:D