* McChrystal Blue

Old Blue Eyes

McChrystal to teach graduate-level seminar


By Nora Caplan-Bricker
Staff Reporter
The Yale Daily News
Published Monday, August 16, 2010

Retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal, dismissed in June from his post in Afghanistan, is coming to teach at Yale this school year.

McChrystal, who was relieved of his duty after he and his staff insulted top White House officials in a Rolling Stone magazine article, served in the military for 34 years and was chosen to command U.S. Forces in Afghanistan because of his expertise in counterinsurgency strategy. He will teach a graduate-level seminar in leadership to students studying international relations. Jim Levinsohn, director of the new Jackson Institute for Global Affairs,...

#1 By JP 12:32p.m. on August 16, 2010

Barf!

#2 By ExStr8 1:02p.m. on August 16, 2010

Wow! You think McChrystal is gonna 'fess up about his role in the distortion of the cause(s) of Pat Tillman's death?



Perhaps he and Tony Blair could lead a seminar on dissembling...

#3 By Yale11 1:12p.m. on August 16, 2010

He is a retired four-star General, not a five star.

#4 By A Journalistic Prophylactic on the Pentagon 1:28p.m. on August 16, 2010

I'm all for this appointment. Seriously.



While Obama was correct in dismissing him for defying ["disrespecting"] civilian control of the military, the General, through "Rolling Stone," performed a service to the public in letting us know how haphazard and uncoordinated civilian control of military policy really is.



This cost him his neck and caused Defense Secretary Gates to install a journalistic profylactic on the Pentagon. But Truth was served.



If a Prime Minister who walked lock-step with President Bush in invading Iraq and sending thousands of young men and women to their deaths can teach THEOLOGY at Yale, then a General whose greatest offense was hanging-out the White House's dirty international underwear in public, ought to be able to teach International Leadership at Yale. Of course, he may have signed a prior-agreement not to speak in public on certain issues if he retired with full pomp and honor (which he did). If so, his value at Yale may be pre-gagged.



Just wondering about Yale and other famous resignees.

Was Nixon invited by Yale to teach on Tragic Flaws?

Or how about The Duke of Windsor? Was he invited to teach on Romantic Love(or Fashion)?

Helen Thomas on Middle Eastern Affairs?

And of course, General Mac Arthur. What would he have taught (besides Style)?

Nuclear Border Control in the Third World?



PK
M. Div.'80


#5 By y11 2:30p.m. on August 16, 2010

Awesome. Haters gonna hate, but this is sick.

#6 By Boola '66 2:31p.m. on August 16, 2010

A real coup for Yale. I'd rather Gen. McChrystal was still in uniform and Afghanistan, of course.

#7 By Anonymous 2:59p.m. on August 16, 2010

The man does know leadership better than most as well as being pretty experienced with international relations. He's also played a clear and high-level role in some of the most important conflicts in recent memory.

How is this anything but a great opportunity for students at Yale to learn from someone worth learning from?

#8 By Rush to Judgement 3:13p.m. on August 16, 2010
I wonder if he realizes that he's entering an area more hostile to the US military and it's members than Afghanistan ever could be? What could he possibly think he'll gain from lecturing at Joe Stalin U ? Just the first four comments should be enough to realize he's done before he ever get's to open his mouth.

#9 By Bull Dog 4:12p.m. on August 16, 2010

OK Yalies, in the spirit of academic freedom, don't let Gen. McCrystal off the hook in asking the tough questions in his class. Questions that a sycophantic and star-struck press and government establishment may not feel the need to ask.

Questions on media relations, truth being the first casualty of war, etc.

#10 By Y'12 4:12p.m. on August 16, 2010

Absolutely awesome.

#11 By Mike 4:36p.m. on August 16, 2010

I am quite confident that the good General can more than take care of himself. As noted before, he does have the advantage of experience, as opposed to theory.

#12 By @ #8 4:44p.m. on August 16, 2010
Given the choice between someone shooting their mouth off at me or shooting their AK at me, I'll take someone shooting their mouth off at me any day of the week. I imagine he'll be just fine.

#13 By Done? 5:00p.m. on August 16, 2010 @ 8

"Done"? Not at all. I am serious when I think he will make a valuable contribution to campus debate. But you can't expect that he will be seen in a vacuum. His role as Petraeus's second-in-command in Iraq and his cavalier, macho comments to Rolling Stone won't evaporate simply because he has a Yale lectureship.

PK



#14 By Recent Alum 7:14p.m. on August 16, 2010

Nice to see a true patriot will be teaching at Yale. The double standard shown by the Left in their criticisms of McChrystal is astounding. The man would be seen as a hero by the media, Hollywood and most of the Yale community if he had made similar comments to Rolling Stone during the Bush Presidency.

#15 By @ #14 12:44a.m. on August 17, 2010

Very well said, and very accurate

#16 By @ 14 7:58a.m. on August 17, 2010

Agreed, but I hope that those who criticize are the right are considered just as patriotic.

#17 By George 10:23a.m. on August 17, 2010

A true American hero who has devoted his career to defending freedom. Yale should be congratulated on this appointment.

#18 By Wag 11:09a.m. on August 17, 2010

No one can say that Yale's choices aren't controversial. Keeps life interesting...
Who is next? Abedinijad?

#19 By Carwygyd 11:43a.m. on August 17, 2010

Just wait till he makes the same comments about Richard Levin in the Rumpus.

#20 By ???? 1:29p.m. on August 17, 2010

This is Bizzare. Are they attempting to bribe the unemployed anti-obama, right wing, puppet with a job ? Yale does not need people like this. I think Obama should be given work at Yale.

#21 By ???? 1:31p.m. on August 17, 2010

The man is an anti-obama, self admitted homophobe and we want this guy at Yale ? He needs to reach out more to the GLBTPQ community first.

#22 By @#20, 21 6:35p.m. on August 17, 2010

I'm going to guess you're not a Yalie, so maybe you shouldn't use "we."


#23 By @ #21 6:51p.m. on August 17, 2010

I truly hope you're kidding.

He isn't hear to teach about liberal policies. Or sexual issues. He's coming to teach leadership and international relations, which he has a great deal of experience in.

Yale evidently needs more people like this, if only to expose people like you to the reality that someone can be a good man able to teach people many things while not holding exactly the same beliefs you hold.

#24 By b74 1:28p.m. on August 18, 2010

I am very glad to here he is coming to Yale. He will be great for the students who have the good luck to get in his course.

He may also want to do the other side of the academic experience and take a course regarding primacy of civilian control over the military, and Handling the Press 101. :)
But yes, very glad he is coming.

#25 By j87 3:24p.m. on August 18, 2010

Yale even more than before adores having here people who have been in the headlines. John Negroponte, who was one of the architects of the massacre of peasants deemed left-wing by the U.S. administration, came to teach. Tony Blair showed up every couple of weeks to free-associate on "faith and politics." Etc. If Pinochet were still alive, he would be a logical person to appear in New Haven to participate in the "Grand Strategy" seminar. It is all very sad.

#26 By h99 4:09p.m. on August 18, 2010

Perhaps Gen. McChrystal might invite the parents of the former NFL football player, Pat Tillman, who died in a "friendly fire" episode in Iraq, so he and they could discuss McChrystal's leadership strategy of dissembling and prevarication in trying to hide the cause of Tillman's death because the Army, and McChrystal, feared it would compromise then shaky public support for the Iraq war.

Leadership requires honesty and fortitude, and Gen. McChrystal's public evasions and cowardice in the Tillman death ought to make anyone wonder about his capacity to teach a graduate course on "leadership" at Yale or anywhere.

#27 By @26 6:51p.m. on August 18, 2010

Perhaps he should just teach a small seminar for senior administrators...

#28 By @ #26 8:41p.m. on August 18, 2010

I would have preferred the Army was honest in its original report on Tillman's death but to imply that invalidates his ability to effectively teach on leadership is a severe leap.

It could have been he was ordered to, and while he could have argued that was an unlawful order, it was a pretty inconsequential one compared to the fact that he has soldiers dying every day and a war to fight.

Or maybe his intention, though revealed to be flawed, was to spare the family the horror of friendly-fire taking Pat.

Or possibly he just calculated that, yes, the public opinion would wane sufficiently and that would jeopardize the mission, and consequently would leave many good people in harms way if that mission were prematurely aborted. Would that be so horrifying? On the one hand, emotional pain for the family, yet on the other, many lives at stake?

If you're looking for perfection in a leader, you're going to be looking for a long time.

#29 By Honesty? 8:53p.m. on August 18, 2010

@ # 26

"Leadership requires honesty and fortitude . . ."

Fortitude yes. Honesty---not so sure. Nixon could never have been elected if he campaigned on making friends with "communist China". (They've even made an opera about that!) Reagan almost the same----only "it was "communist USSR". Johnson could NEVER have been elected president to pass civil rights legislation; his ability to do so was made possible through his elevation-by-assassination. In a way, the civil rights laws were cloaked in the sheep's clothing of a memorial to JFK.

So my hunch is honesty is a dubious prerequisite for leadership.

Playing your cards close to your chest is a more liely prerequisite.

PK

#30 By @h99 9:04p.m. on August 18, 2010

Seems he'll do well at Yale, considering the public evasion and cowardice Yale has shown in regards to Muslim threats.

#31 By Harvard and Hauser 4:56p.m. on August 19, 2010

Hello, YDN? I know it's summer, but are you paying attention to the Marc Hauser scandal at Harvard? You would do well to look at his collaborations and do some digging closer to home.

#32 By THE AFGHANISTAN SONG 9:04p.m. on August 19, 2010

AFGHANISTAN!!! AFGHANISTAN!!!!!!

#33 By ? 10:07p.m. on August 20, 2010

What are his academic teaching credentials? I'm not saying he doesn't have any, I'm just wondering whether he's been through something similar to TA positions and the tenure track to learn the ropes of teaching to university students as opposed to military contexts.

#34 By JS McGuire 2:39a.m. on August 21, 2010

Have one of those bright students ask McChrystal about his roll in the Pat Tillman affair, unless of course that is too upsetting for everyone.

#35 By Harvard? 5:17p.m. on August 21, 2010

@ 31

Marc Huaser "science misconduct" at Harvard is right up there with Professor Bingham's Machu Picchu (sp?) misconduct at Yale---just 100 years apart.

PK

#36 By #36 6:38p.m. on August 24, 2010

Idiots on this board think that McCrystal was in charge of American policy rather than executing the policy and leading the military. The man in charge of policy is Obama, who the media and the communists at Yale blindly adore.

#37 By Walking the plank 8:50p.m. on August 24, 2010

@ 36:

The charming thing about McCrystal is that in his final incarnation he WASN'T blindly following the rhetoric of Obama (and certainly not of Biden or Holbrook). He was doing what all good revolutionaries do: subverting from within.

Too bad he outted himself in Rolling Stone. (Freud would have something to say about that.)

He had no choice but to walk the plank after that.

PK