by Paul Johnson
This is a man who lives up to the myth.
I met General Stanley McChrystal a couple of weeks ago while I was waiting for some drama in the main trauma centre here at Kandahar Airfield, then run by Canadians.
McChrystal turned up unexpectedly, with an entourage befitting the top commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and possibly the most famous U.S. general right now. He shook hands with a couple of the Canadian medical techs there, thanked them, and then deftly dodged my attempt to get him on camera when his staff told me they'd do it on the way out, told me to wait where I was, then left out a side door.
ISAF Commander General Stanley A. McChrystal, 55, sits in a helicopter after a lengthy conference meeting with military officials at the forward operating base (FOB) Walton, outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Photo by Paula Bronstein, Getty Images.
"He's one tough boy," says a friend in Washington, D.C., a retired Special Forces officer who worked with McChrystal at the Pentagon. "You could whack him in the chest with a shovel and all you'd hear is a hollow clank."
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I can confirm his handshake is somewhat vice like, and yes, he has the physique that matches that of a man rumoured to eat just one meal a day, and sleep only four hours a night – in his office. And while that may sound a bit extreme for most of us, it's a lifestyle many of our soldiers deployed in Afghanistan may start emulating soon. Yes, it's the "McChrystal Diet."
Already, the hardcore general has cancelled many popular entertainment and music functions at the sprawling Kandahar Airfield. Bored and weary soldiers used to line up for a karaoke contest Saturday nights at the airfield's popular boardwalk. Sure, it seemed kind of strange to see a military version of American Idol taking place not 20 miles from where Mullah Omar started up the Taliban, but the soldiers seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"Salsa Night" has also been cancelled, and the base is now thick with rumours McChrystal may shut down the entire boardwalk. It's a particularly disturbing prospect for the thousands of soldiers who've come to love Tim Hortons, and may go back to their home countries pestering baristas for Double Doubles.
McChrystal reportedly thinks the "campground" style events taking place at Kandahar Airfield are taking their edge off the fight. They may also be a slap in the face to the soldiers who spend their entire deployments at the rugged Forward Operating Bases. Those rugged outposts have no karaoke, Salsa Night, or Double Doubles, but plenty of danger. This may be the kind of thinking inspired by a single meal a day.
McChrystal, you may know, is still awaiting U.S. President Barack Obama's decision on whether to give him 30,000 to 40,000 more troops for Afghanistan. It's a decision that may have a profound effect on Canada's outcome in and around Kandahar City. He's also ordered NATO troops in Afghanistan to adopt a classic counterinsurgency strategy of living with the local civilians and protecting them, instead of focusing on search and destroy missions against the Taliban. Many of Canada's frontline combat soldiers are now living in "platoon houses" in villages, getting to know the locals by name, and learning through osmosis the patterns of daily life here.
U.S. Military commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal arrives for a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Bratislava. Photo by Petr Josek, Reuters.
Lately, the gaunt General McChrystal seems to have a pretty good track record, running the Special Forces operation in Iraq that tracked down and killed insurgent leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and coordinating the Iraqi surge that saw a precipitous decline in violence there.
But will the McChrystal Diet work in Afghanistan?
The Pashtuns in southern Afghanistan are culturally very different from the Arabs of Iraq. They've known fighting longer, and arguably, have suffered much more. The geography is different, and a lot of Western armies are starting to show signs of battle fatigue.
But McChrystal's track record isn't all medals. He was implicated in the scandal surrounding the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL player turned patriotic soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. McChrystal was one of those blamed for making it look like Tillman died in a courageous firefight, and while I haven't seen it yet, I've been told Jon Krakauer's new book on Tillman exposes more of the coverup.
As I leave Afghanistan for the third time and plot my next trip, I wonder what the situation will be like. Is a new star general like McChrystal what it takes to finally bring the war against the Taliban to a tipping point? Is his Spartan outlook what is needed to energize troops here? And how will this change Canada's role?
Who knows how anyone will look a few months into a diet?
Paul is a Global National correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and has been reporting for us from Afghanistan the past several weeks.
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