Author of RS article: McChrystal and his aides were drinking on the road trip "the whole way."

[sabra]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/22/4544314-mcchrystals-pr-man-resigns-how-rolling-stone-got-more-access

<snip>

In addition, NBC spoke to Michael Hastings, the author of the Rolling Stone profile on McChrystal. He's in Afghanistan on an embed with the U.S. military now, and he's just learning the details about the impact his article is having.

Hastings says he stumbled onto unprecedented access with McChrystal. After McChrystal's press advisers accepted a request for the profile, Hastings joined McChrystal and his team in Paris. It was supposed to be a two-day visit, followed up with more time in Afghanistan.

The volcano in Iceland, however, changed those plans. As the ash disrupted air travel, Hastings ended up being "stuck" with McChrystal and his team for 10 days in Paris and Berlin. McChrystal had to get to Berlin by bus. Hastings says McChrystal and his aides were drinking on the road trip "the whole way."

"They let loose," he said. "I don't blame them; they have a hard job."

Hastings then traveled with McChrystal in Afghanistan for more time. What was supposed to be a two-day visit, turned into a month, in part due to disruptions of the volcano.

Hastings says McChrystal was very "candid" with him and knew their conversations were for reporting purposes. "Most of the time I had a tape recorder in his face or a notebook in my hand," he said.

Hastings says most of the critical comments, which are now causing a stir, were said in the first 24 hours or so. "It wasn't a case of charming him into anything," Hastings said.

[Justitia]

1. Another nugget: When he was at West Point, he wrote a story about assassinating the president.

I mean, you are a freaking officer candidate and they let slide your short story about assassinating the president??????

It was written in the first person.

See page 3 of the Rolling Stone article.

[tsuki]

2. Have you read the article?

http://markhalperin.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/r1109mcchrystal.pdf

McChrystal is totally out of control. He cannot control the mouths of his aides. There needs to be a lot of firing going on.

[dgibby]

4. He wasn't trying to control them.

According to Rolling Stone's editor, he was in the room with them when they were talking to the reporter (per an interview on CNN earlier today), and was commenting about things they were saying.

[tsuki]

8. It doesn't sound like he can. Staff that feel that free to talk, both

in front of McChrystal and behind his back, are out of control. Poor leadership, lines have been crossed.

[Hekate]

3. This should be Obama's Harry Truman moment: "General, you are fired."

x(

[msongs]

5. most people with "hard jobs" do not drink "the whole way" nt

[AngryAmish]

7. U.S. Grant never drank during the entire Civil War

wait...

[NNN0LHI]

9. Ulysses S. Grant: The Myth of His Drinking

http://faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant/alcohol.html

Famous people frequently go down in history fixed in people's minds as one dimensional caricatures consisting of a handful of traits or qualities. Frozen in time and the public imagination, these stereotypes are nearly impossible to dislodge from our nation's collective consciousness. Robert E. Lee and his fine manners and gallant bearing; President Abraham Lincoln and his kindly, but homely appearance and his love of crude humor; William Tecumseh Sherman, the devil himself, who destroyed the South in his infamous March to the Sea; and Ulysses S. Grant, "butcher," cigar smoker and alcoholic. Like most myths, these are easy stories to tell and allow the teller to encapsulate a person's life in a few sentences. Little or no concern is given to the core and the essence of these people who, by their greatness, changed the course of American history. Grant, like the others named, was a real person with human strengths and weaknesses. He made an incalculable contribution to the fate of the American Union and deserves better than to be described and remembered in such a limited context as "a person who consumed too much alcohol."

The following material is presented so that readers may gain some insight as to what several first-hand accounts have revealed about Grant and the drinking issue. Hopefully these quotes will help to replace in your mind the old stereotypical Grant with the real Grant, a man who had his weaknesses, who struggled against them and for the most part overcame them. On the whole, Grant was a decent, honorable man who has been the victim of rumor mongers and writers who irresponsibly perpetuate the myth that all Grant did was drink. Remember: drunks do not win wars; alcoholics are not elected President of the United States. Had Grant truly been either a drunk or an alcoholic, he would have been replaced early in the war; General Halleck, his superior, certainly looked for excuses to depose him. But Lincoln hung on. "I can't spare this man, he fights." And, in the end, Lincoln was proved right.

Our advice to you, the reader of snippets about Grant's life; the reader of full length biographies; the viewer who sees Grant portrayed in the media as a drunk; the conversationalist who can never think of anything else to say about Grant except, "Grant drank a lot, didn't he?" : BE SKEPTICAL. Do not jump to quick and easy conclusions about U. S. Grant and alcohol. There are no easy answers. We know Grant occasionally drank alcohol. We know a little had a dramatic effect on him. We know he would have been mortified if it were reported to his beloved Julia that he was seen drunk by other men. Depending upon their prejudices, Grant biographers emphasize or downplay the alcohol dilemma. Remember: writers are clever folk. They know how to paint the picture they want the reader to absorb, the impression they wish to make. A single sentence, a turn of a phrase, a few carefully placed value-laden words in a biography can turn Grant from a teetotaler to an occasional drinker to an alcoholic.

Many of the drinking stories come from battlefield politics. Jealous Northern generals who could find no other way to discredit this brilliant man who was delivering battlefield victories to President Lincoln, spread malicious rumors about Grant being drunk on the job. There were stories, there were innuendos, there were suppositions. But, in truth, there are NO RELIABLE witnesses of any drunkenness on the part of Grant during the Civil War.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Obama should fire him & his staff ala Truman

and btw this jerk banned alchohol from the bases in Afghanistan. I'd think his troops are the ones with the "hard job" and would deserve a beer on their down time!