"Will McChrystal's intel staff survive his exit?" Jeff Stein

 "In the shock wave following Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s abrupt summons from Kabul, word raced through Washington’s special operations circles that his senior staff had been relieved of duty, too.

“They were told to pack a suitcase and get on that plane,” one veteran of McChrystal's staff said Wednesday. “They said ‘We’ll forward the rest of your belongings, your danger pay is done.’ ”

Chief among those said to be ordered out was Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, McChrystal’s intelligence chief, who authored a controversialdenunciation of U.S. spying efforts in Afghanistan early this year, and his brother, Charlie, an Army colonel who is the general’s chief of staff.

Charlie Flynn had a cameo role at the top of the infamous Rolling Stone piece that did his boss in."  Jeff Stein

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From personal experience I can say that it is not a good idea to keep someone else's followers on your staff when you take over..  pl 

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/will_mcchrystals_staff_survive.html?hpid=topnews

Comments

[Charles]

I expect a wholesale shakeup of the staff -- some need to go because they were as clueless as the Commander's big-mouthed exec (my namesake, unfortunately and choice for the source of most of the unattributed comments) others because they are tainted as part of the no-clue-crew.

The new boss will want his proven guys on the team.

[hotrod]

BG McMaster reportedly heading that way...

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/petraeus-buddy-mcmaster-headed-to-afghanistan/

[Patrick Lang]

Charles

I lost your comment on my unfairness to Israel and its spies and agents of influence.

Oh, yes, you also had something to say about my "defensiveness."

OK. pl

[Sidney O. Smith III]

As a civilian, I trust F.B. Ali’s insights on McCrystal. If I understand Gen. Ali correctly (and please correct me if I am wrong), McCrystal is a very good soldier that may have gotten in over his head.

IMO, no matter how great McCrystal and Team America’s evaluation of US strategy in AfPak, I just do not see how you can act like they did in the Rolling Stone’s magazine.

A civilian analogy. An attorney could prepare and submit the greatest appellate brief in the history of jurisprudence, but if said attorney then stands on the steps of the court house and either the attorney or an aid then tells a reporter, “If the judge doesn’t like our work, then he can bite me.”, then the bird has flown, not to mention laughter from coast to coast.

One gets the feeling that some of McCrystal’s aids were trying to “out Rolling Stone, the Rolling Stones.” Makes no sense to me.

I was raised that you can change society by working with traditions. Seems to me that you can dissent to our AfPak policy by showing it is does not properly honor the tradition of the US Army, the US Army uniform or the such. Then make your case. Out US Army, the Pentagon, perhaps.

[Sidney O. Smith III]

What is it going to take before the US Army leadership realizes that neoconservatives couldn’t care less about the US soldier or the US Army’s military traditions?

I can just imagine the Pentagon flying the Kagans to France for an ultra secret Team America mtg -- at an untold cost to the American taxpayer. And then Ms. Kagan advising, “Ok, my men, you remember the maxim from VN. To win, you must out G the Guerilla. To win in Paris -- one of my favorite cities -- we must out RS, the Rolling Stone magazine. Then you will move among the people like a fish through water! Guaranteed!”

What’s next? Is West Point going to name the Kagans, Mr. and Ms. Homecoming, 2010?

No wonder the civilian Paul Johnson found it so laughably easy to get into the head of Army’s football team. No wonder. It’s patently obvious. Just look at the scores. Wasn’t that much of a disparity of talent. I am surprised the Kagans did not advise West Point to drop Navy from the schedule and add Brandeis. Maybe they did…who knows. The neoconservative/OSP crowd is destroying every other tradition, may as well throw the Army-Navy game into the mix.

My point: if you are going to listen to civilians, at least choose the real deal. Paul Johnson, in his profession, is the real deal. (I wish I didn’t know that kind of info, but I do. )

http://tinyurl.com/3drahf

And the Kagans? What is their record?

What a great mystery it is that the Pentagon turned to the neoconservatives. Can’t help but believe that some of the Pentagon crowd sold out for the greenback at the expense of the green uniform and all it stands for.

[Patrick Lang]

Sid

No. A lot of them are just unimaginative people like "poppy" Bush who didn't get the "vision thing." There are a whole lot of "s" types in the officer corps. They learn new things slowly and are natural victims for "intellectuals" who are highly credentialed and are vouched for by the civilians at the top in
DoD. Once these officers learn something it takes a long time for them to unlearn it. The lack of imagination shows clearly in the doctrine development process which is set up to function by layer on layer of committees that grope their way slowly, slowly toward the "light." pl

[Sidney O. Smith III]

Col. Lang

Thank you for the insights. I have great respect for the M-B types you mentioned. If I understand correctly, all M-B types have strengths and weaknesses.

But it don’t take no Ph.D to know that the neoconservatives are complete fakes. I attended a college known for producing neoconservatives, not soldiers. The same crowd, in an earlier incarnation, cared nothing about the US Army in the past; they care nothing for the US Army today, except to exploit for their own interests

[The Twisted Genius]

PL said:

"A lot of them are just unimaginative people"

I couldn't agree with you more. The intelligence field is also plagued with such unimaginative dolts. The HUMINT collection field should be chock full of imaginative, innovative and intellectually curious risk takers. Instead, it is full of those who cannot think beyond an operational checklist and "the way we've always done things." Of course there are exceptions, but they prefer to stay in the field rather than climb the management dung heap. How the unimaginative dolts usually do better at achieving higher and higher management positions is beyond me. Perhaps they are far more clever than I realize.

[Patrick Lang]

TTG

Bob. I did not know you. pl

[Patrick Lang]

graywolf

What were Kennedy and Johnson? pl

[The Twisted Genius]

PL,

I was shanghaied into DHS during the great consolidation, I believe, after your time.