Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone was granted intimate access to General Stanley McChrystal. During the time he spent with McChrystal and his aides, they scoffed at Vice President Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, and special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrook. McChrystal also did not speak too highly of Obama.
McChrystal and Obama failed from the outset to connect. The general first met Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with several senior military officials at the Pentagon. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass.
Aides of McChrystal are quoted as saying the General was “pretty disappointed” by a subsequent meeting with the president at the Oval Office – their first one-on-one meeting. An adviser to McChrystal said, “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his fucking war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed.”
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