Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been a military man his entire adult life, says Ellen Knickmeyer in The Daily Beast. But now that long chapter has come to an abrupt halt: McChrystal decided to retire shortly after President Obama relieved him of his command in Afghanistan for making disparaging comments to Rolling Stone about other members of Obama's national security team. Now, at 55, McChrystal, must wrestle with the "toughest question of a battlefield commander cut off in the prime of his career: What next?" The general's friends say it's anybody's guess, but don't expect the "humble" McChrystal to lash out at Obama, and don't expect to see him on TV. Here, an excerpt:
"While blogs are prophesying everything from book tours to the cable-TV talk circuit to Senate runs for the fired Afghan commander, longtime friends and aides of McChrystal say they expect the gaunt four-star general to take the more MacArthurian route — and fade away....
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"'I cannot imagine a scenario where he would be a pundit or write some sort of tell-all book or other sort of grand-standing,' says the officer close to McChrystal. 'It's simply not a part of his nature. Nor is it something I can imagine him ever being comfortable with.' The general, this officer says, is “one of the most humble men I’ve ever worked for."
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