general mcchrystal s staff who deals with his press. i gave him i sort of indicated to him that it could be a rough couple days. but i didn t expect it was going to be as rough as it turned out to be for them. i would disagree with ari just saying i m pretty happy with the policies they have and hope they continue them. larry: all right, pete, what do you make of it? vets for freedom, iraqi war veteran. pete, what s your read? his comments were not he wasn t insubordinate. it was unfortunate what his staff said. at the end of the day, he s a war hero. he s a great general. it s great to see petraeus is taking the helm. the guy who was the architect of the iraq surge. the biggers question are the sentiments behind what he said. at the end of the day, he because expressing serious frustration about the support he was receiving from the white house, about the civilian leadership, in holbrooke, and eikenberry, and about this
about our strategy. nor do i make this decision out of any sense of personal insult. stan mcchrystal has always shown great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully. i ve got great admiration for him and for his long record of service in uniform. larry: joining us, ari fleisher, former white house spokesman. pete hesef is president of vets for freedom. he s an iraqi war veteran. peter barnhart is the author of theic russ syndrome, a history of american hubris. and john saltz returns, co-founder and chair of vets.org. he served as a captain during operation iraqi freedom. staying with us from kabul is rolling stone s michael hastings who wrote that bombshell article about general mcchrystal what will be
stan mcchrystal has always shown great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully. i ve got great admiration for him and for his long record of service in uniform. larry: joining us, ari fleisher, former white house spokesman for president george bush. pete hegseth is president of vets for freedom. he s an iraqi war veteran. peter beinart is the author of the icarus syndrome, a history of american hubris. and john soltz returns, co-founder and chair of vote vets.org. and staying with us in kabul is rolling stone s michael hastings, who wrote that article about general stanley mcchrystal that will be everywhere on friday. what do you make of these developments? shocking.
of what was coming? yes, i talked to an individual on the staff of general mcchrystal s staff who deals with his press. i gave him i sort of indicated to him that it could be a rough couple days. but i didn t expect it was going to be as rough as it turned out to be for them. i would disagree with ari just saying i m pretty happy with the policies they have and hope they continue them. larry: all right, pete, what do you make of it? vets for freedom, iraqi war veteran. pete, what s your read? his comments were not he wasn t insub board nat. at the end of the day, he s a war hero. it s great to see petraeus is taking the helm. the guy who was the architect of the iraq surge. the biggest question is the sentiments behind what he said. at the end of the day, he because expressing serious frustration about the support he
accomplished sign which became such a focal point, really during the campaign period. is behind him. so, is it mission accomplished, in iraq, now? pete is the executive director of vets for freedom and joins me now. good to have you with us today. good morning. thanks for having me. martha: we should point out there were several deaths, related to the election process in iraq but, overall, the feeling was that it went fairly well, i guess you could say, in the midst of some of the chaos? yes, there was early sort of violence in the morning, as insurgents tried to intimidate voters from going to the polls but, return after return, indicated that actually it inspired voters an motivated them to show the insurgents they are not afraid of them and that this is their country and they want to come out and vote and so it wasn t the turnout and the security front also. iraqi security forces defended the over 50,000 polling stations, monitored by over