Tag Archive: Stanley McChrystal

  1. McChrystal appears on ‘The Daily Show’

    1 Comment

    General Stanley McChrystal stepped into Jon Stewart’s line of fire tonight on “The Daily Show,” making the televised appearance to promote his new memoir, “My Share of the Task: A Memoir.”

    From the onset, McChrystal — who is also a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and will teach the popular “Leadership” seminar this spring — traded jokes with Stewart before moving on to larger discussions, including gun control.

    “Sir, you served for many years in our armed forces heroically … but I don’t want to minimize the fact that I’m doing the show tonight with a cold,” Stewart began with a laugh. “I’ll let the audience decide who’s the real hero tonight.”

    Stewart then played a clip of Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R), who explained in the clip that assault weapons should not be banned because of the equally “massive number” of people that are killed by hammers. When asked for his opinion on gun control, McChrystal explained that he supported limiting access to certain types of guns.

    “If you’ve been on the battlefield you’ve probably carried an M4 Carbine … it does terrible damage. It’s supposed to,” McChrystal explained. “I don’t want them on our streets. I don’t want them in our schools. I think we need to have a very serious look at why we would even consider having guns like that out there.”

    McChrystal served as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan until his resignation in 2010, when a Rolling Stone magazine article published critical comments he and his staff made about the Obama administration. McChrystal is also a guest lecturer for the popular course, “Gateway to Global Affairs,” a class that I took last semester — McChrystal was pretty laid-back, as far as four-star military commanders go, but he did make sure no one dared to show up late. (Once, he once made a lesson out of one unfortunately tardy girl in front of the 100-person lecture.)

  2. Stanley McChrystal releases memoir

    1 Comment

    On Monday, four-star general and Yale lecturer Stanley McChrystal released his long-awaited memoir “My Share of the Task: A Memoir,” which discusses for the first time McChrystal’s resignation in 2010.

    McChrystal, who lost his job as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after deriding the Obama administration in an article for the Rolling Stone, currently serves as a senior fellow for Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs. In his memoir, McChrystal calls the comments against the Obama administration published in the Rolling Stone “unacceptable,” though he spends only one and a half pages on the incident that ended his 34-year military career.

    “Regardless of how I judged the story for fairness or accuracy, responsibility was mine,” McChrystal writes in his memoir.

    In the memoir, McChrystal discusses the “deficit of trust” between the White House and the Department of Defense that arose from tensions over strategic planning in Afghanistan. McChrystal also briefly touches upon the controversy surrounding the alleged cover-up of friendly fire incident that killed Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

    In 2004, McChrystal approved a Silver Star for Tillman, citing bravery in the face of “devastating enemy fire,” though it was later revealed that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, not enemy fire. McChrystal writes that he alerted his superiors of these findings, who still decided to bestow the star on Tillman’s family. The Pentagon later cleared McChrystal of any wrongdoing.

    Since coming to Yale in 2010 following his resignation, McChrystal has co-taught the “Gateway to Global Affairs” course in the fall and a graduate-level seminar on “Leadership” in the spring. Last year, “Leadership” garnered more than 250 applications for 20 spots.

    McChrystal will give a lecture entitled “History, Leadership, and Personal Experience: From the Post-Vietnam Army to Today” in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall on Jan. 23.