Other bloggers are weighing in on the potential implications of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's Rolling Stone profile on his command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan; I just want to highlight one brief portion of the profile. In anticipation of McChrystal's confirmation hearings, his staff was concerned that he would be asked about abuses of Iraqi detainees at Camp Nama in Iraq, at a prison camp run by special forces who were under his command at the time. They were also concerned about his involvement with the cover-up of Cpl. Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire. The administration initially tried to say Tillman had been killed by the Taliban.
Of course, Congress wasn't interested in either of those things:
In May 2009, as McChrystal prepared for his confirmation hearings, his staff prepared him for hard questions about Camp Nama and the Tillman cover-up. But the scandals barely made a ripple in Congress, and McChrystal was soon on his way back to Kabul to run the war in Afghanistan.
In a post-Liz Cheney world, what's a few allegations of torture or cover-up? It's not like any of these things might be relevant to a commander whose strategy involves manipulating Afghan public opinion away from the insurgency rather than simply destroying it through unrestrained kinetic warfare.
Meanwhile, Ben Smith reports that Tillman's mother wrote to Congress and the administration hoping to block McChrystal's confirmation. Obviously, her pleas fell on mostly deaf and disinterested ears. Whatever McChrystal's problems now, the profile is a reminder of how Congress abdicated its responsibility to look closely at his record.
-- A. Serwer
