President Obama has summoned Gen. Stanley McChrystal to the White House to explain biting and unflattering remarks he made to a freelance writer. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Obama: Gen. showed 'poor judgment'

President Barack Obama declared Gen. Stanley McChrystal guilty of “poor judgment” Tuesday but said he won’t make a decision on the commander’s fate until he talks with him first.

McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was summoned to Washington today for a face-to-face meeting with the president tomorrow – a meeting where he’ll have to explain why he and his aides made disparaging remarks Vice President Joe Biden, special envoy Richard Holbrooke, ambassador Karl Eikenberry and others in the presence of a reporter for Rolling Stone.


“Gen. McChrystal is on his way here, and I am going to meet with him. Secretary Gates will meet with him as well,” Obama said Tuesday evening. “I think it's clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed poor judgment, but I also want to talk to him directly before I make any final decisions."

Asked earlier in the day whether McChrystal’s job is on the line, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that “everything is on the table.”

McChrystal apologized for the article Tuesday morning.

“It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened,” McChrystal said. “Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard. I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war, and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome.”

But the apology wasn’t enough to counter a flood of criticism from Washington – including harsh words from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

"I read with concern the profile piece on Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the upcoming edition of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine," Gates said in a statement. "I believe that Gen. McChrystal made a significant mistake and exercised poor judgment in this case. We are fighting a war against al Qaeda and its extremist allies, who directly threaten the United States, Afghanistan, and our friends and allies around the world.

"Our troops and coalition partners are making extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our security, and our singular focus must be on supporting them and succeeding in Afghanistan without such distractions. Gen. McChrystal has apologized to me and is similarly reaching out to others named in this article to apologize to them as well. I have recalled Gen. McChrystal to Washington to discuss this in person."

McChrystal has been instructed to fly from Kabul to Washington to attend Obama’s regular monthly security team meeting tomorrow at the White House.

An administration official said McChrystal was asked to attend in person rather than by secure video teleconference to “explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes about his colleagues in the piece.”

Both Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with McChrystal about the Rolling Stone piece. A spokesman for Mullen said Mullen had called McChyrstal to express “his deep disappointment with the article and with the comments expressed therein.”

McChrystal and his top aides appeared to let their guard down during a series of interviews and visits with Michael Hastings, a freelance writer for the magazine Rolling Stone.

The article, titled “ The Runaway General,” appears in the magazine later this week. It contains a number of jabs by McChrystal and his staff aimed not only at the president but also at Vice President Joe Biden, special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Karl Eikenberry, the ambassador to Afghanistan, and others.

McChrystal described his first meeting with Obama as disappointing and said that Obama was unprepared for the meeting.

National Security Adviser Jim Jones is described by a McChrystal aide as a “clown” stuck in 1985.

Others aides joked about Biden’s last name as sounding like “Bite me.”

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) called McChrystal the latest in a list of “reckless, renegade generals who haven’t seemed to understand that their role is to implement policy, not design [it].”

And Ret. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey declared on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that McChrystal “should go” and is “fatally impaired in his effectiveness.”

“Anyone who understands the challenges of supreme command, particularly in a war where the home front is as important as the battlefront, knows McChrystal has to go,” American Enterprise Institute military expert Tom Donnelly told POLITICO. But Donnelly said the White House has to share the blame for tensions with top Afghanistan military commander over what he argues is the still unresolved question whether the U.S. is committed to win in Afghanistan or is more committed to getting out.

“A self-confident commander-in-chief would not tolerate this kind of loose lippery,” Donnelly, a former House Armed Services Committee staffer, said.

“All of this train wreck has been coming round the bend for a long time now,” Donnelly continued. “And the fundamental problem is the indecision of the president. … Is this White House committed to get out, or to win the war? I don’t know the answer to the question.”

“McChrystal has to go. Period,” a former Bush-era NSC official said. “The situation is just like [former Adm.] Fox Fallon, but this is the second time,” he said, referring to the fact that McChrystal has been rebuked by the White House for giving a speech to a London think tank last fall during the administration Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review in which he said the U.S. would lose the war if he didn’t get the extra troops he was requesting.

Some analysts who know McChrystal well argue that while the remarks are a problem, it would be a bigger one to lose him at such a critical time in the war.

“He made a big mistake, but he is a fantastic general, and not only that but a modest man who is respectful of others,” says Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings.

“That makes these comments even more uncharacteristic and unfortunate," he said. "We need him, and Ambassador Eikenberry, for this effort, and I am confident knowing both men well that they can put these issues behind them for the greater good.”

McChrystal, an expert on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, has long been considered uniquely qualified to lead in Afghanistan. But he is not known for being media savvy.

His top civilian communications official, Duncan Boothby, resigned Tuesday, according to one official close to McChrystal.

Boothby is well known in Kabul and Washington and has a reputation for helping tell McChrystal’s story and the story of the strategy in Afghanistan. His aggressive outreach efforts were seen by many to be appropriate at a time when the public is either ambivalent or wary of the war.

Boothby worked for Adm. Greg Smith, a two-star, the highest public affairs officer ever in a war zone. Smith accepted Boothby’s resignation after reaction emerged to the article, according to the official.

The McChrystal controversy comes amid an intensified debate in Washington about the way ahead in Afghanistan. Although the strategy of sending an additional 30,000 troops is not yet fully underway – all the troops aren’t on the ground yet – new questions have been raised about the effectiveness of Obama's strategy.

Gates had begun to work to change the tone of the debate, saying in recent days that it will take a bit more time to determine if the strategy is working.

The former Bush NSC official said that “possible replacements that will get thrown around include” Marine Corps. Gen. Jim Mattis, who was recently passed over to head the Marine Corps, Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, outgoing top U.S. Iraq commander Gen. Ray Odierno, McChrystal’s current deputy Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, or Deputy Centcom commander Lt. Gen. David Allen.

“When General McChrystal called me this morning, I emphasized that my concern is our policy in Afghanistan and what it will take to be successful there,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday. “I respect General McChrystal as a soldier and always have.”

“It would be a grave mistake to allow this unfolding news drama to distract anyone from the mission at hand,” Kerry continued. “Now is not the time for Washington to be sidetracked by chatter. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and give the President and his national security team the space to decide what is in the best interest of our mission, and to have their face-to-face discussion tomorrow without a premature Washington feeding frenzy.”

“I am troubled by Gen. McChrystal’s reported comments, which are inappropriate and also demonstrate an uncharacteristic lack of discipline on his part,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “However, it is very significant that, while the reported comments reflect personality differences, they do not reflect differences in policy on prosecuting the war. Personality differences can negatively impact the successful implementation of policy, and that must be avoided. Our troops and our nation surely deserve that.”

“Obama is in a difficult situation,” a former senior Democratic official said. “If he doesn’t do it [fire McChrystal], this is a powerful signal within the military and within his own government and to Republicans and at large and to allies and to enemies. And if he fires him, there will undoubtedly be criticism from some Republicans, but he has to assert that ‘I am the commander in chief.’ The person who should be handling this is Gates – and Gates has got to stand up.”

Laura Rozen contributed to this report.