Stanley McChrystal apologises for Rolling Stone article
US commander in Afghanistan says sorry for magazine profile in which he criticises Barack Obama and ambassador to Kabul

Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 June 2010 10.53 BST

President Barack Obama meets General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, late last year. Photograph: Pete Souza/White House/AP
General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of all Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, has issued a pre-emptive apology for criticising Barack Obama's administration in a magazine profile due to be published later this week.

McChrystal told Rolling Stone magazine that said he felt "betrayed" by the US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry. One of his aides revealed that McChrystal was "disappointed" by his first meeting with an unprepared Obama.

Today, McChrystal issued a statement offering his "sincerest apology" for the comments and the profile. "It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened," he said.

The statement adds: "Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honour and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard."

According to the article, due to be published on Friday, although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two didn't get on from the start. And Obama felt McChrystal was too outspoken last autumn when he called for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.

"I found that time painful," McChrystal admitted in the article. "I was selling an unsellable position."

Obama agreed to deploy an extra 30,000 US troops but only after months of dithering that many in the military found frustrating. The troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, setting what strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.

McChrystal's statement said: "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."

The profile, headlined The Runaway General, emerged from several weeks of interviews and travel with McChrystal's tight circle of aides.

Describing Obama's first White House meeting as a "photo-op", one aide told the magazine: "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. The boss was pretty disappointed."

The article lists administration figures said to back McChrystal, including defence secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

But the vice-president, Joe Biden, heads a list of those against him. The article quotes members of McChrystal's team making jokes about Biden. "Biden? Did you say: Bite me?" an aide said. Another McChrystal aide reportedly called the White House national security adviser, Jim Jones, a "clown" who was "stuck in 1985".

The article claims McChrystal has seized control of the war "by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House".

Biden initially opposed McChrystal's proposal for additional forces last year, favouring a narrower counterterrorism strategy.

A leaked internal document revealed that Eikenberry shared those doubts about the additional troops. In it, Eikenberry said the Afghan president Hamid Karzai was not a reliable partner for the counterinsurgency strategy.

In the Rolling Stone article, McChrystal said he felt "betrayed" and accused the ambassador of blaming others.

"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.'"

Some of the strongest criticism was reserved for Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The boss says he's like a wounded animal," a member of the general's team is quoted as saying. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumours that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous."

Top allied commander apologizes for magazine profile

Network News

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 22, 2010; 5:55 AM
KABUL -- The top U.S. general in Afghanistan apologized Tuesday for a magazine article that portrays him and his staff as flippant and dismissive of top Obama administration officials involved in Afghanistan policy.

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The profile in Rolling Stone magazine, titled the "Runaway General," is certain to increase tension between the White House and Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

It also raises fresh questions about the judgment and leadership style of the commander Obama appointed last year in an effort to turn around a worsening conflict.

McChrystal and some of his senior advisors are quoted criticizing top administration officials, at times in starkly derisive terms. An anonymous McChrystal aide is quoted calling national security adviser James Jones a "clown."

Referring to Richard Holbrooke, Obama's senior envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, one McChrystal aide is quoted saying: "The Boss says he's like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous."

On one occasion, McChrystal appears to react with exasperation when he receives an e-mail from Holbrooke, saying, "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke. I don't even want to read it."



U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, a retired three-star general, isn't spared. Referring to a leaked cable from Eikenberry that expressed concerns about the trustworthiness of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, McChrystal is quoted as having said: "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.'"

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said she had no immediate comment on the piece.

The magazine hits newsstands Friday. The Washington Post received an advance copy from the profile's author, Michael Hastings, a freelance journalist who has written for the Post.

"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile," McChrystal said in a statement issued Tuesday morning. "It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and it should have never happened."

The timing of the piece could hardly be worse. Amid a flurry of bad news in Afghanistan and a sharp rise in NATO casualties, U.S. lawmakers and senior officials from NATO allied countries are asking increasingly sharp questions about the U.S.-led war strategy.

Dutch and Canadian troops are scheduled to pull out within the next year. And the White House has said it will start drawing down U.S. forces next July.

The magazine story shows that McChrystal is also facing criticism from some of his own troops who have grown frustrated with new rules that force commanders be extraordinarily judicious in using lethal force.

In his statement, McChrystal says he has "enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team."

"Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity," the general said. "What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard."

Magazine profile captures unguarded moments of top general, staff
An article in Rolling Stone portrays U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, as dismissive of Vice President Joe Biden and some administration officials.


Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has apologized for the article in Rolling Stone. (Humayoun Shiab, EPA / June 22, 2010)

By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times
June 22, 2010

Reporting from Washington — In a new magazine profile, the top commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and his advisors appear to ridicule Vice President Joe Biden and are portrayed as dismissive of civilian oversight of the war.

The article, in Rolling Stone, said McChrystal's staff frequently derided top civilian leaders, including special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry.

The detailed report on the top command in Afghanistan could worsen tensions with the White House, which in the past has felt boxed in by military commanders anxious to get more troops for the war. The article said that only Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received good reviews from McChrystal's inner circle.

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McChrystal is reported as visibly exasperated by e-mails he receives from Holbrooke, appointed by President Obama to oversee developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," the article quotes McChrystal as saying after receiving one message. "I don't even want to open it."

The article's author, former Newsweek writer Michael Hastings, said that McChrystal and his staff, while preparing for a question-and-answer session in Paris, imagined ways of dismissing Biden "with a good one-liner."

"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal said, according to the article, trying out a possible answer. "Who's that?"

In a speech last summer, just as a White House strategy review was beginning, McChrystal appeared to criticize Biden's argument in favor of fewer troops. Obama later dressed down McChrystal for his comments and for the implied criticism of Biden. The Rolling Stone report does not specify whether McChrystal was again criticizing Biden or possibly poking fun at his own difficulties last year.

Late Monday, McChrystal issued an apology for the Rolling Stone article. "It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened," he said in a statement.

julian.barnes@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Top general in Afghan war: US envoy betrayed me
By ANNE GEARAN (AP) – 14 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The top American commander in Afghanistan is complaining that he was "betrayed" by the U.S. ambassador during discussions of sending more troops to fight the war.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal is quoted in the upcoming edition of "Rolling Stone" magazine as saying that Ambassador Karl Eikenberry (EYE-kin-berry) blindsided him last year with harsh criticism in a leaked internal document of the war strategy and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
In a profile due out Friday, McChrystal says the criticism was Eikenberry's way of protecting himself should the war go wrong.
There was no immediate response from Eikenberry. Testifying alongside McChrystal in December, Eikenberry told Congress that he has confidence in Karzai and the war plan.

McChrystal Apologizes for Remarks in Magazine

Luke Sharrett/The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, was on his way back to Washington on Tuesday after a magazine article portrayed him and his staff as openly contemptuous of some senior members of the Obama administration, the United States ambassador to Afghanistan and senior European officials.

The article, which appears in the July 8-22 edition of Rolling Stone, shows General McChrystal or his aides talking in sharply derisive terms about Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an unnamed minister in the French government. One of Gen. McChrystal’s aides is quoted as referring to the national security adviser, James L Jones, as a “clown.”

The piece, entitled “The Runaway General,” also quotes aides as saying General McChrystal was “pretty disappointed” by an Oval Office meeting with President Obama, and that he found the president “uncomfortable and intimidated” during a Pentagon meeting with General McChrystal and several other generals.

The article does not portray any serious policy differences with Mr. Obama, who chose General McChrystal to take charge a major escalation of American troops and materiel, in hopes of reversing the deteriorating situation here.

Still, the piece seems destined to raise questions about General McChrystal’s judgment, and to spark debate over the wisdom of Mr. Obama’s strategy, at a time when violence in the country is rising sharply and when several central planks of the strategy appear stalled. Two important American allies, the Dutch and Canadians, have announced plans to pull their combat troops from the country.

Aides said General McChrystal was on his way to Washington, but it was unclear whether he was headed there on a previously scheduled trip or whether he had been summoned by the White House.

In a statement, General McChrystal apologized for his remarks.

“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile,” he said. “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard.”

It continues:

“I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome.”

The article’s author, Michael Hastings, a free-lance journalist, appears to have been granted intimate access to General McChrystal’s inner circle. Most of the comments appear to have been uttered during unguarded moments, in places like bars and restaurants, where the general and his aides gathered to unwind. The piece is due out Friday.

About Richard Holbrooke, Mr. Obama’s special envoy to the region, an aide to General McChrystal is quoted as saying “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to be fired, so that makes him dangerous.”

On another occasion, General McChrystal is shown reacting with exasperation when he receives an email from Mr. Holbrooke. “Oh not another email from Holbrooke. I don’t even want to open it.”

The piece describes a conversation in which General McChrystal and an aide talk about Vice President Biden. Mr. Biden is known to have opposed the decision to escalate the war, preferring instead a slimmed-down plan that focusing on containing terrorism.

“Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” General McChrystal jokes.

“Biden?” suggests a top advisor, “Did you say “Bite me?”

General McChrystal is also quoted as uttering disdainful remarks about Mr. Eikenberry, the ambassador, with whom he has had sharp disagreements over the war. Last year, Mr. Eikenberry sent confidential cables to Washington opposing Mr. Obama’s decision to send more troops.

“He’s one that covers his flanks for the history books,” General McChrystal is quoted as saying. “Now, if we fail, they can say, ’I told you so.”

The piece also describes a meeting in which a soldier vents his frustration over General McChrystal’s tightening of the rules over the use of air strikes to kill insurgents. In the article, the soldier tells General McChrystal that he is endangering their lives by forcing them to be too restrained.

Pfc. Jared Pautsch is quoted as telling the general, We should just drop a bomb on the place, using an expletive. “What are we doing here?”

Fired within 24 hours

June 22, 2010, 11:20 AM
Excerpts From Rolling Stone’s McChrystal Profile
By ROBERT MACKEY


In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday morning, Eric Bates, Rolling Stone’s editor, discussed a profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Updated | 11:55 a.m. As my colleague Dexter Filkins reports, “An angry President Obama summoned his top commander in Afghanistan to Washington on Tuesday after a magazine article portrayed the general and his staff as openly contemptuous of some senior members of the Obama administration.”

The article that has reportedly enraged the president is “The Runaway General,” from an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. The article in now on Rolling stone’s Web site. Earlier on Tuesday, scanned copies of the article by Michael Hastings, a reporter who covered the war in Iraq for Newsweek and once worked for Gawker, were uploaded to the Web earlier on Tuesday. Below are some of the more damaging excerpts.

While Mr. Hastings was unlikely to have been responsible for the language the editors chose for the introduction to his article, the words that appear directly below its headline are unlikely to have gone down well in Mr. Obama’s office. The text reads:

Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.
The article begins with an anecdote about General McChrystal’s complaining to an aide about having to attend a dinner with NATO Allies in Paris in April.

“The dinner comes with the position, sir,” says his chief of staff, Col. Charlie Flynn.
McChrystal turns sharply in his chair. “Hey, Charlie,” he asks, “does this come with the position?” McChrystal gives him the middle finger. [...]

“I’d rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner,” McChrystal says. He pauses a beat. “Unfortunately,” he adds, “no one in this room could do it.”
While preparing to speak at the dinner, the general reportedly joked with an aide that if he was asked about Vice President Joe Biden’s thoughts on Afghan war strategy he might say, “Who’s that?” Mr. Hastings wrote that the aide had a different idea for a one-liner:

“Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say: Bite Me?”
In one of the most damning passages, Mr. Hastings wrote:

Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his [expletive] war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed.”
According to Mr. Hastings, the military team around the Pentagon’s top man in Afghanistan also resents the president’s national security adviser, James Jones, his envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, and two senior senators who were decorated for their service in Vietnam:

One aide calls Jim Jones, a retired four-star general and veteran of the Cold War, a “clown” who remains “stuck in 1985.” Politicians like McCain and Kerry, says another aide, “turn up, have a meeting with Karzai, criticize him at the airport press conference, then get back for the Sunday talk shows. Frankly, it’s not very helpful.” Only Hillary Clinton receives good reviews from McChrystal’s inner circle. “Hillary had Stan’s back during the strategic review,” says an adviser. “She said, ‘If Stan wants it, give him what he needs.’

McChrystal reserves special skepticism for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating the Taliban. “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal,” says a member of the general’s team. “Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous.”
Andy Barr of Politico notes that the article was no surprise to General McChrystal:

Rolling Stone’s executive editor on Tuesday said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal did not raise any objections to a new article that repeatedly quotes him criticizing the administration.

Eric Bates, the magazine’s editor, said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that McChrystal saw the piece prior to its publication as part of Rolling Stone’s standard fact-checking process — and that the general did not object to or dispute any of the reporting.

Asked if McChrystal pushed back on the story, Bates responded: “No, absolutely not.”

Con Coughlin
Con Coughlin, the Telegraph's executive foreign editor, is a world-renowned expert on the Middle East and Islamic terrorism. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books. His new book, Khomeini's Ghost, is published by Macmillan.

I confidently predict Obama will sack General Stanley McChrystal for his Rolling Stone outburst

Oh dear, I fear General Stanley McChrystal will be making a one-day trip to Washington after U.S. President Barack Obama summoned him to Washington to explain his less-than-flattering remarks about the Obama administration that are due to appear in this week’s edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
In the interview Gen McChrystal, the Spartan commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan who survives on one meal and four hours sleep a day (he also jogs eight miles), says he felt “betrayed” by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. Ambassador to Kabul, while his senior aides were openly disparaging about Mr Obama and his senior White House officials
Gen McChrystal has already apologised for the remarks, but that has not saved him from Mr Obama’s rage. There are still many misguided souls in this world who still believe that the American president is fundamentally a nice guy, who doesn’t get involved in petty political in-fighting.
Well, they are about to have a rude awakening. You don’t get to be elected President of the United States simply for a being a nice guy. You need to be a ruthless, political opportunist, and Mr Obama has these qualities in abundance, as Gen McChrystal is about to discover first hand.
The Obama administration gave serious consideration to dismissing McChrystal last autumn after his outspoken comments at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, in which he openly called on the Obama White House to back his surge strategy for Afghanistan.
Mr Obama thought better of sacking him then, but the hapless American general has now given Mr Obama all the ammunition he needs to fire him. Which is why I rate the chances of Gen McChrystal surviving his latest showdown with Mr Obama as zero.
But while Mr Obama has every reason to rid himself of his troublesome general, he may yet come to regret it. McChrystal is no ordinary general. He is the architect and leader of the military surge strategy that has been devised to bring stability to Afghanistan, and to defeat once and for all the terrorist threat posed by the Taliban and its allies. As yesterday’s confession by Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad demonstrates, the Taliban, whether they are based in Afghanistan or Pakistan, still have the ability to wreak havoc in the West so long as the threat the pose remains.
But without Gen McChrystal running the show in Kabul, serious questions arise about just how successful this surge strategy is going to be. The vast majority of Nato’s military officers, diplomats, politicians and officials have signed up to the McChrystal strategy. But will they demonstrate the same loyalty if their charismatic leader is no longer there to see the job through?

White House Questions McChrystal's Judgment, Maturity
June 22, 2010 1:23 PM

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal may eat only one meal a day, but he better be ready for a big helping of crow tomorrow when he comes to the White House Situation Room.

"The purpose of calling him here is to see what in the world he was thinking," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at today's briefing, referring to the Rolling Stone story featuring the general and his aides bashing President Obama, Vice President Biden and others.


The president was "angry," after he read the Rolling Stone story, Gibbs said, calling the story "an enormous mistake in judgment."

"The magnitude and graveness of this mistake are profound," Gibbs said.

Asked about a passage in the story where a McChrystal aide describes the general as having been "pretty disappointed" after his first meeting with President Obama because the president "didn't seem very engaged," Gibbs said McChrystal will "have his attention tomorrow."

Gibbs just said parents of the more than 90,000 US troops in Afghaniatan need to be confident that the command structure -- meaning McChrystal -- is "capable and mature enough" for this mission.

Could McChrystal be fired?

"All options are on the table," Gibbs said, though the president believes the general should be given a chance to explain himself. Gibbs declined to say whether the general's job is safe, saying the public would know more after the meeting.

What is the president angriest about?

"We're distracting from an enormously important mission," Gib
June 22, 2010 1:23 PM

McChrystal’s Fate in Limbo as He Prepares to Meet Obama

Doug Mills/The New York Times
What to Do With the ‘Runaway General’?

WASHINGTON — President Obama will confront the fate of his top commander in Afghanistan Wednesday after a firestorm over remarks the general and members of his staff made that were contemptuous of senior administration officials.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has prepared a letter of resignation, though President Obama had not made up his mind whether to accept it when they meet Wednesday morning.

“I think it’s clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed poor judgment,” Mr. Obama said after a cabinet meeting Tuesday. “But I also want to make sure I talk to him directly before I make final judgment.”

In an article in Rolling Stone magazine, General McChrystal and his aides spoke critically of nearly every member of the president’s national security team, saying President Obama appeared “uncomfortable and intimidated” during his first meeting with the general, and dismissing Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as “Bite Me.”

The firestorm was fueled by increasing doubts — even in the military — that Afghanistan can be won and by crumbling public support for the nine-year war as American casualties rise. And the remarks also laid bare the disarray and enmity in a foreign policy team that is struggling with the war.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the general’s biggest supporter, released a statement criticizing General McChrystal for “a significant mistake” while Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was described by a senior aide as “deeply disappointed” by the comments.

Whether or not General McChrystal remains at the helm of the Afghan war effort, Mr. Obama will try to use Wednesday’s meeting to urge his fractious Afghanistan staff to pull together, said his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. The president, Mr. Gibbs said, will say that “it is time for everyone involved to put away their petty disagreements, put aside egos and get to the job at hand.”

But that may be easier said than done. At a time when violence in Afghanistan is sharply rising and several central planks of the president’s strategy to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” the Taliban and Al Qaeda have stalled, many of the president’s top advisers have continued to criticize one another to reporters and international allies alike, usually in private conversations, and almost always off the record.

“Yes, we do hear them disparage each other,” said a senior European diplomat who works closely with the United States on Afghanistan strategy. “It’s never good to hear that.”

Bruce O. Riedel, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution who helped the administration formulate its initial Afghan policy, added, “This flap shows once again that his team is not pulling together, but is engaging in backbiting.”

The many Afghanistan team conflicts include complaints from the American ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, about Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who has been portrayed by some as disruptive and whose relationship with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan chilled last year after difficult meetings following the August election. For his part, Ambassador Eikenberry has had his own tensions with the mercurial Mr. Karzai.

In one episode that dramatized the building animosities, Gen. James L. Jones, the national security adviser, wrote to Ambassador Eikenberry in February, sympathizing with his complaints about a visit Mr. Holbrooke had recently made to Afghanistan. In the note, which went out over unsecure channels, officials said, General Jones soothed the ambassador by suggesting that Mr. Holbrooke would soon be removed from his job.

The Jones note prompted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain to Mr. Obama, and her support for Mr. Holbrooke has kept him in his job. In the article, which was posted on the magazine’s Web site on Tuesday, one of General McChrystal’s aides is quoted as referring to General Jones as a “clown.”

The infighting has been made more severe by the increasingly perilous situation on the ground. Violence in Afghanistan is on the rise. The mission to pacify Marja and Kandahar is far off track. And the effort to create a viable Afghan government is increasingly in doubt because of widespread corruption. Criticism is mounting on Capitol Hill, even among the president’s backers, and many allies have announced that they are looking for the exit, with others expected to do the same in the coming months.

As the administration struggles to manage its relationship with Mr. Karzai, General McChrystal has proved to be the one American official most able to successfully deal with him on a daily basis. Beyond that, Mr. Obama’s war strategy is in many ways a McChrystal strategy. The general devised the plan, which called for thousands of extra troops to fight the insurgency and, perhaps more important, create a sense of security for the Afghan people.

There has been vigorous debate within the administration about how to proceed in Afghanistan, but General McChrystal and his aides did not overtly criticize administration policy.

Rather, the differences were personal, and publicly aired. One administration official described Mr. Obama as being particularly furious at a McChrystal aide’s characterization of him as not seeming “very engaged” during their first White House meeting.

Over all, the magazine article depicted General McChrystal at the head of a small circle of aides engaged in almost locker-room trash talk as they discussed foreign policy, the French, their allegiance to each other and their own concerns about course of the war. The civilian communications adviser who set up the interview, Duncan Boothby, has resigned.

Even though many advisers fear changing commanders at this stage of the war, there was speculation at the Pentagon and the White House about who could replace General McChrystal.

Potential successors were thought to include Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of the NATO military corps headquarters in Kabul, which manages the day-to-day fight in Afghanistan. General Rodriguez is a confidant of General McChrystal and previously served as a senior military assistant to Mr. Gates. Another possibility is Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, in charge of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, who has extensive experience in the Islamic world.

Another potential successor is Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, currently commander of the military’s Joint Forces Command. General Mattis is a respected war-fighter with experience in counterinsurgency missions. Some have even suggested Gen. David H. Petraeus, who leads the United States Central Command and General McChrystal’s boss and mentor, could take over the Afghan mission himself.

As the president considers his options, he must also face his own struggles with the military. By all accounts, he felt that his commanders tried to manipulate him into going along with their Afghan strategy, through leaks to the press and public comments.

The military leadership, meanwhile, continues to be frustrated by what it sees as an unrealistic deadline for completing the mission. Some have also complained that a president distracted by a health care overhaul, a flagging economy and an oil spill has not been a forceful advocate for rallying the public behind the war.

The author of the Rolling Stone article — Michael Hastings, a freelance journalist — appears to have been granted intimate access to General McChrystal’s inner circle. Most of the comments seem to have been uttered during unguarded moments, in places like bars and restaurants where the general and his aides gathered to unwind.

A McChrystal aide is quoted saying of Mr. Holbrooke: “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to be fired, so that makes him dangerous.” On another occasion, General McChrystal is described as reacting with exasperation when he receives an e-mail message from Mr. Holbrooke. “Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke. I don’t even want to open it.”

The article also describes a conversation in which General McChrystal and an aide talk about Mr. Biden, who is known to have opposed the decision to escalate the war. “Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” General McChrystal jokes.

“Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say ‘Bite me?’ ”

Military officers interviewed on Tuesday noted that while the general’s statements could be viewed as inexcusable and disrespectful, he never indicated a decision not to carry out Mr. Obama’s orders or fulfill the president’s strategy.

That distinction may be too subtle in the current phase of poisoned relations between the White House and the military, but it is significant to military officers. For example, when Adm. William J. Fallon, then in charge of the Central Command, was forced into early retirement in March 2008, it was because his statements to Esquire magazine were viewed as directly at odds with White House policy on Iran.

White House officials sought to play down the infighting within the administration’s Afghanistan team, though one senior aide expressed dismay at what he described as “an undisciplined, jocular culture” that called into question whether General McChrystal and his advisers were able to execute an operation “charged with leading 150,000 in a war that is pretty serious.”

Still, said Denis McDonough, the National Security Council chief of staff and one of the president’s closest aides, “the challenge isn’t that we’re all on each other’s holiday card lists.”

“The challenge is to make sure that we’re all advancing the national interest by staying on the offense against Al Qaeda,” he said.