Nah Pat. An officer who becomes a 4 star with the lives of troops in his hands does not have a trace of colossal stupidity in his being.
Whatever the reason for the General and experienced staff to diss all the civilian leadership with a reporter on hand to take it all down, you can rule out stupidity and faulty judgment.
People never realize that in order to rise in the ranks, you have to actually kill people and figure out more efficient ways of doing it. To say the least about strategy. Instead, they see our troops as a bunch of brainless jocks.