How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com

Tension with the military had been simmering since the leak of the McChrystal report, which some in the White House took as an attempt to box in the president. The friction intensified on Oct. 1 when the general was asked after a speech in London whether a narrower mission, like the one Mr. Biden proposed, would succeed. “The short answer is no,” he said.

White House officials were furious, and Mr. Gates publicly scolded advisers who did not keep their advice to the president private. The furor rattled General McChrystal, who, unlike General Petraeus, was not a savvy Washington operator. And it stunned others in the military, who were at first “bewildered by how over the top the reaction was from the White House,” as one military official put it.

I hope to get the time to discuss this article in depth… but I did want to just flag this issue. Despite the furious pushback I got from Ackerman and Exum at the time, it is pretty clear that my view of McChrystal’s gaffe was shared by senior administration officials.