Spencer Ackerman responds to me, essentially with this:

ATTACKERMAN » Confusing Kernels With Cornfields

Finel should really read McChrystal’s remarks in full.

And Ackerman should listen to the the Q&A session in full.  Yeah, the prepared remarks and inoffensive.  But in the Q&A, McChrystal unambiguously interjects himself into a current policy debate and takes a direct swipe — several actually — at the reported position of Vice President Biden.  He, in fact, dismisses it out of hand.

Spencer, did you watch the Q&A?

How many times did he argue against anything which would leave Afghanistan “unstable” or about the obligations and promises we’ve made or about the requirement to leave an Afghan government able to control its territory.  Yeah, yeah, he kept saying debate is good, but he also made clear his position in the debate…. which would be fine if he was a Congressman…. or a pundit…. or the Vice President…. but which isn’t fine as a serving military officer at a time when his civilian leaders are debating.

He has created a situation where if Obama chooses not to escalate in Afghanistan he will have done so “against the advice of his commander on the ground.”  McChrystal’s, whether intentionally or not, constrain the administration’s choices.

UPDATE — Ackerman tells me to “stop digging“:

From the NYT:

Advocating a “counterterrorist focus” in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda, instead of a “counterinsurgency focus” against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, he [McChrystal] said, was a formula for what he called “Chaos-istan.”

….

When a questioner asked him whether he would support scaling back the American military presence over the next 18 months by relinquishing the battle with the Taliban and focusing on tracking down Al Qaeda, sparing ground troops by hunting Qaeda extremists and their leaders with missiles from remotely piloted aircraft, he replied: “The short answer is: no.”

“You have to navigate from where you are, not from where you wish to be,” he said. “A strategy that does not leave Afghanistan in a stable position is probably a short-sighted strategy.”

From WaPO:

In a speech Thursday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, McChrystal said that “we must show resolve” and warned that “uncertainty disheartens our allies and emboldens our foes.”

Spencer, man, I know you have a lot of respect for guys like Petraeus and McChrystal because they are smart and have genuine regard for the men and women under their command.  But sometimes you have your head so far up their asses that you can’t even see the big picture.  This is clearly an attempt to affect the policy debate.