Michael Hastings, author of the bombshell Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal. A day after it leaked out onto the Internet, Michael Hastings' bombshell Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal has done enough damage to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he is expected to resign over the derisive comments he made about President Obama and his senior advisers.

How many other 30-year-old journalists can say their reporting, (especially long-form magazine reporting) has made such an immediate impact on international affairs?

"I’m actually shocked by the response," hastings told Newsweek, where he used to work. "Because usually we end up ignoring Afghanistan, so I’m quite surprised it’s creating such a stir."

The McChrystal piece is arguably Hasting's biggest story to date. But it was preceded by an impressive portfolio.

In addition to writing a heart-wrenching memoir that was reviewed by George Packer in the The New York Times' Sunday Book Review, Hastings has also served as Newsweek's Baghdad correspondent, and his byline has appeared in the pages of GQ, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, The Daily Beast and various other publications, according to his bio on True/Slant, where he blogs primarily about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.