McChrystal: Service Did Not End Like I’d Imagined

From Kirit Radia:

"This has the potential to be awkward," General Stanley McChrystal said tonight at his retirement ceremony – his first public comments since he was fired by President Obama as the commander of troops in Afghanistan.

His 34-year-old Army career ended abruptly on a sweltering parade field at Fort McNair in Washington, DC just one month after he and his aides were quoted in a Rolling Stone article bashing senior members of the administration's leadership, including the president himself.

Though tonight's ceremony contained the usual pomp and circumstance reserved for a four-star general, it marked the unceremonious end for a military leader hailed as a visionary savior of the war in Afghanistan just months ago when President Obama rolled out a new war strategy based in large part on McChrystal's recommendations.

"My service did not end as I'd imagined," he conceded, addressing his inglorious termination directly.

"There are misconceptions about the loyalty and service of some dedicated professionals that will likely take some time, but I will be corrected," McChrystal added. He also mentioned unfulfilled commitments to comrades and missions left incomplete by his sudden departure.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates praised McChrystal, who previously led the special operations teams in Iraq that killed al-Qaeda-in-Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 2006.

"Over the past decade, arguably no single American has inflicted more fear, more loss of freedom and more loss of life on our country's most vicious and violent enemies than Stan McChrystal," Gates said.

At the start of the ceremony McChrystal appeared relaxed, flashing a wide grin as he walked to the review stand with Secretary of State Robert Gates and Army Chief of Staff General George Casey. He even cracked a joke about his termination.

"I have stories on all of you, photos of many, and I know a Rolling Stone reporter," he joked to his colleagues.

McChrystal said he was approaching the future with hope, not sadness. He spent much of his speech praising his wife, Annie.

"She's here, like she's always been there when it matters," he told the audience of VIPs, colleagues, friends, and family.

McChrystal joked about moving back in with her after spending so many years deployed. He said his attempts to schedule regular family video teleconferences, the type he held frequently while in the military, via Skype have been unsuccessful. The same goes for the "tactical guidance" he's issued his family: one meal a day and morning physical training, his famous daily regime.

In a tongue-in-cheek assessment likely similar to ones he read and drafted about insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan during his career, McChrystal reported that since he's moved back in and tried to implement those changes at home his wife has begun stocking up on amonium nitrate fertilizer (commonly used in bombs) and seems uninterested in reintegration. He judged the situation as "serious" and "deteriorating" and told Secretary Gates he'd need at least 40,000 troops to take her on.