The Real General McChrystal Is Now Becoming Known

President Barack Obama meets with Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, aboard Air Force One in Copenhagen, Denmark on Oct. 2, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

McChrystal's Social Liberalism and the Integration of Gays in the Military -- The Atlantic

The fact, revealed in Rolling Stone, that Gen. Stanley McChrystal voted for President Obama may well have been a planted nugget designed to show how receptive McChrystal was to Obama's worldview. But several people who worked for, and continue to work for, Gen. McChrystal say that it's true. McChrystal told his subordinates about his ballot choice in November of 2008. More surprisingly, this choice did not surprise them. McChrystal was a hard core operator, aggressive as hell, a JSOC ninja -- but he was also a social liberal who tolerated, nay, welcomed gay people into his inner circle, who disdained Fox News, and who grew increasingly frustrated with his reputation as Dick Cheney's hired assassin.

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My Comment: Marc Ambinder focuses on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in this post, but his comments on General McChrystal confirms what I have been told (and what I have read) on his political/social leanings.

He is not a right wing/tea-party/social conservative in the military .... if anything .... he is the opposite. This is probably the reason why he felt comfortable with a reporter from Rolling Stone in his entourage (never a FOX news reporter), and why he (and his aides) said the things that they did. They believed they were with one their own .... and not a reporter who was going to publish what they were saying. As for his views on President Obama .... we now know that General McChrystal supported and voted for him in the Presidential election. With what has now happened, I suspect that his support for the President is no longer there.

On a side note, many in the media have been lamenting and commenting on the politicization of the military. They attention is focused on the right .... but after Ambinder's post what they (maybe) should do is focus on the left.