US commander sacked over Obama attack

THE top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, has been sacked as after making critical comments regarding the Barack Obama administration.

Mr Obama took the extraordinary step following a showdown at the White House yesterday afternoon. After an Oval Office meeting Gen McChrystal offered his resignation and Mr Obama accepted it.

A British general will take charge of the 140,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan until a replacement is appointed.

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Lt Gen Sir Nick Parker, whose son Harry, a captain in 4th Battalion, the Rifles, lost his legs in a Taliban roadside bomb last year, will run the post at the Kabul headquarters of the international mission until US General David Petraeus is formally installed as the new commander.

Mr Obama made the announcement in a televised address in which he praised Gen McChrystal's service and said the decision had not been an easy one. But he said the comments the general made in a magazine interview had failed to "meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general".

He later insisted: "I don't make this decision based on any difference in policy with Gen McChrystal, nor on any personal insult" and added US policy in Afghanistan would not be affected.

Gen McChrystal's departure comes after he made critical and mocking comments in the profile piece for Rolling Stone magazine.

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While he refrained from criticising Mr Obama directly in the article, titled The Runaway General, he referred to the period last autumn in which the President was considering deploying more troops to the region as "painful" and said Mr Obama had given him an "unsellable" position.

Elsewhere in the article, due to be published today. Gen McChrystal said he was "betrayed" by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry – the man who the White House had chosen to be his diplomatic partner in Afghanistan. The general also pretended not to recognise the name of the US Vice President Joe Biden – a move taken as disrespect by many commentators.

Gen McChrystal has served in the US military for more than three decades and had served as overall commander of Nato operations in Afghanistan for just over a year. He quickly apologised for his remarks but it was not enough to save his job.

The incident has already been compared with 1951 when then president Harry Truman stripped General Douglas MacArthur of his command during the conflict in Korea. MacArthur had openly flouted the Truman administration's policy of limited war during the Korean conflict, and Truman fired his popular general rather than allow MacArthur to resign.

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Afghan president Hamid Karzai had earlier expressed his confidence in Gen McChrystal and senior Afghan officials claimed that removing him would disrupt operations in the country.

The upheaval came as the Ministry of Defence confirmed the death of a Royal Marine from 40 Commando during a fire-fight with insurgent Afghan forces in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Tuesday.

It followed the death of a Royal Marine in an explosion in Afghanistan on Monday, named as Paul Warren, 23, from Leyland, in Lancashire.

Better not upset the boss: Page 13.

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