WASHINGTON: The top US commander in Afghanistan was fighting for his job Tuesday after being summoned to Washington to explain his extraordinary complaints about President Barack Obama and his colleagues.
Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs pointedly declined to say Gen. Stanley McChrystal's job was safe. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the commander's comments were "distractions" to the war in Afghanistan.
McChrystal, who publicly apologized Tuesday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to appear at the White House on Wednesday. He will be expected to explain his comments to the president and Pentagon officials, officials said. Military leaders rarely challenge their commander in chief publicly and when they do, consequences tend to go beyond a scolding.
A top military official in Afghanistan told The Associated Press that McChrystal has not been told whether he will be allowed to keep his job. McChrystal spent Tuesday calling several of those mentioned in the article to apologize, officials said, including Gates and Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy to Pakistan.
Gates issued a statement saying McChrystal made "a significant mistake" and used poor judgment in his remarks to a magazine reporter.
Holbrooke's office said in a terse two-line statement that McChrystal had called him in Kabul "to apologize for this story and accept full responsibility for it." It said Holbrooke "values his close and productive relationship with Gen. McChrystal." A spokesman said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told McChrystal of his "deep disappointment" over the article.
But in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling McChrystal the "best commander" of the war. Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said Karzai hopes that Obama doesn't decide to replace him.
In the article, McChrystal complains that Obama handed him "an unsellable position" on the war, back when the commander was pressing for more troops than the administration was then prepared to send. "I found that time painful," he said.
McChrystal also said he was "betrayed" by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner in Afghanistan. He accused Eikenberry of raising doubts about the reliability of Karzai only to give himself cover in case the US effort failed.
"Here's one that covers his flank for the history books," McChrystal told the magazine. "Now, if we fail, they can say 'I told you so'."
Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan war in May 2009.
