Gen. McChrystal's troubles began with fact checks by Rolling Stone for an upcoming article that angered Obama and culminated in the general's loss of his command of the Afghanistan war.
McChrystal's team knew it had a problem on its hands last Thursday, when fact checkers for Rolling Stone magazine sent in questions for an upcoming cover story.
Did the Afghanistan commander's inner circle really refer to itself as “Team America"? read one question that landed on the desk of McChrystal's press aide, Duncan Boothby.
It was hardly the most explosive revelation in the piece, but it served as an early warning that McChrystal's decision to allow generous access might have backfired.
By Monday, an advance copy of the article was in the hands of a press aide for President Obama, setting in motion a chain of events that culminated less than 48 hours later with McChrystal's ouster and Obama seeking to reassert control over a military leadership that appeared disdainful of civilian authorities.
The article caught the White House wholly unprepared. “There was no forewarning," a senior administration official said in an interview. “It was like, 'Holy ----!' ”
Vice President Joe Biden was flying home from Chicago aboard Air Force Two on Monday when McChrystal called to apologize. But Biden didn't know what the general was talking about he had no inkling that the article existed.
Soon enough he would learn the reason for the call. Aides scrambled to get him a copy of the story, in which one McChrystal aide derisively referred to Biden as “Bite Me."
As an executive, Obama has little tolerance for what he calls “unforced errors" mistakes that are entirely preventable. In that regard, McChrystal's team had committed an unforced error on a major scale and at the most inauspicious time.
The White House is struggling with an unending oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and an unemployment rate hovering near 10%. Now Obama was confronted by a challenge to a cherished constitutional principle: civilian control of the military.
In a series of interviews Wednesday, several senior administration officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the topic recounted the rapid-fire events stemming from a profile in a rock and politics magazine that led to the ouster of America's top battlefield general.
Obama first saw the article Monday. White House press aide Tommy Vietor had quickly printed out copies and walked them around the West Wing.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs headed to the bottom level of the White House residence, where about 8 p.m. he handed a copy to the president. Obama read a chunk of it, growing visibly more angry as he moved down the page.
Obama isn't a screamer. How does he show anger?
You would know it if you saw it.
Robert Gibbs
