McChrystal takes responsibility for career-ending article

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal uses a new memoir to accept responsibility for comments, published in a magazine article, that hammered the Obama administration’s handling of the war in Afghanistan and ultimately ended his career.

“Regardless of how I judged the story for fairness or accuracy, responsibility was mine,” the Associated Press reported Saturday, citing the memoir, which is set for release Monday.

{mosads}McChrystal was the head of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the summer of 2010 when Rolling Stone magazine published an article that quoted anonymous members of his staff criticizing Vice President Joe Biden and other White House officials over the war, particular McChrystal’s push to increase the number of troops in the embattled country.

McChrystal was quick to apologize, but that did little to put out the media wildfire that accompanied the comments. The general stepped down shortly afterwards.

In his memoir, “My Share of the Task,” McChrystal says the decision to resign was his alone.

“I called no one for advice,” he writes, according to the AP.

In accepting McChrystal’s resignation, Obama praised his “extraordinary dedication” to the country, but also emphasized that the Rolling Stone article revealed conduct that “does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general.”

“It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our Democratic system,” Obama said at the time, “and it erodes the trust that’s necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.”

McChrystal was replaced by Gen. David Petraeus, who suffered his own scandal last November when the news broke of his extramarital affair with his biographer. Petraeus, who was head of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, resigned shortly thereafter.