memoirs

General McChrystal Blames Himself for the Rolling Stone Article That Ended His Career

Stanley McChrystal.

In his new memoir, General Stanley McChrystal mostly owns up to the contents of the Rolling Stone article that led to his 2010 resignation from his post as the top military commander in Afghanistan. In a chapter chronicling the fallout from journalist Michael Hastings’s piece, which featured McChrystal mocking Joe Biden and other Obama administration figures, McChrystal writes, “Regardless of how I judged the story for fairness or accuracy, responsibility was mine.”

However, he did throw in a carefully worded jab at Hastings, as well. “By nature I tended to trust people and was typically open and transparent. But such transparency would go astray when others saw us out of context or when I gave trust to those few who were unworthy of it.” McChrystal goes on to say that he was surprised by the tone of the article, which portrays him as an arrogant, middle finger-flipping “Runaway General.” According to the New York Times, the general was under the impression that Hastings was writing about the “camaraderie among the American, British, French and Afghan officers.” Unfortunately for McChrystal, subjects like that start to seem a lot less interesting to journalists once they hop on board a bus full of mouthy military staffers.

McChrystal Blames Self for Rolling Stone Story