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President Barack Obama announced Wednesday he has accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the wake of a Rolling Stone article in which he slams the president and an aide dismisses his boss's dinner with a French minister as "fucking gay." Obama has nominated Gen. David Petraeus to take over as U.S. Forces Afghanistan commander.
Time magazine reported Tuesday that McChrystal had offered to resign in the wake of the scandal. He met with the president for less than 30 minutes Wednesday morning at the White House.
"General McChrystal remaining in his post was entirely up to the President and Sec. Gates," Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director Aubrey Sarvis said in a statement. "The question that was on the table has been answered by the general's resignation. This outcome is probably best under the circumstances."
According to an excerpt from the article, cited by Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic,when freelance writer Michael Hastings asked the aide who McChrystal was meeting for dinner, the aide replied, "Some French minister. It's fucking gay."
The article, titled "The Runaway General," is scheduled to appear in Rolling Stone later this week. It already has generated considerable controversy and some calls for McChrystal, 55, to resign, including in an opinion from Jonathan Capehart at The Washington Post.
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In the piece, according to sources, McChrystal describes his first meeting with the president as disappointing, and he says Obama arrived unprepared. The general also jabs at other high-profile players, including Vice President Biden; special envoy Richard Holbrooke; Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan; and national security adviser Jim Jones, whom McChrystal calls a "clown."
Petraeus, currently serving as the head of the U.S. Central Command, said in March that he's worked with CIA officers "who were known to be gay and one who's known to be lesbian."
"After the 10 seconds of awareness wore off, the focus was on the professional attributes," he told CNN's Fareed Zakaria, adding that he believes "don't ask, don't tell" is "something that can be worked through, frankly."
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