General Stanley McChrystal has never been in combat !
From the article:
“He’s lanky, smart, tough, a sneaky stealth soldier,” said a retired officer. “He’s got all the special-ops attributes, plus an intellect.” Much of his 33-year career remains classified, including his command of a Green Beret team in 1979 and 1980, several tours in the elite Rangers and service in the Gulf war of 1991.Looks to me like he has indeed been in combat.Resisting senior officers’ advice that his career would prosper if he got a desk job, he insisted on staying in the field. However, he had seen little combat in his early years: “I missed Panama and Grenada and it bothered me. You always wonder how you’ll do.”
Those two operations were characterised by America’s post-Vietnam “force protection” mentality of using massive firepower and minimising US deaths. A similar approach governed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, where the riskier jobs were undertaken by US special forces. These became McChrystal’s hunting grounds during 2003, when he was appointed head of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) — a unit whose existence the Pentagon refused to acknowledge for years. It oversaw the clandestine Delta Force and the navy Seals. Although based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, McChrystal was said to be fond of accompanying his men on commando raids. “I won’t claim I was ever any great help on the missions,” he said, adding that his reason for going was to understand the challenges faced. “I’ve never shot anyone,” he claimed. Yet, according to Newsweek last week, “he has been a very effective killer”.
It was McChrystal, according to former CIA officials, who in 2005 pushed for a secret joint operation in the tribal region of Pakistan, aimed at capturing or killing Ayman alZawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy. It was cancelled at the last minute by Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as being too dangerous and based on unreliable intelligence.
However, McChrystal succeeded in an operation against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq. Jordanian agents identified Zarqawi’s clerical adviser, who was tracked to the terrorist’s hideout near Baqubah, north of Baghdad. After several weeks’ observation, the hut was destroyed in an F-16 airstrike. McChrystal, who reportedly made an eyes-on identification of Zarqawi’s body, was personally congratulated by President George W Bush in a telephone call. It was his second coup, after the capture by JSOC forces of Saddam in December 2003.
McChrystal was known as Rumsfeld’s man and a favourite of Dick Cheney,