Top US general in Afghanistan 'faces sack'

White House refuses to rule out general's dismissal after he dismissed senior administration officials as 'clowns' and 'wimps'.

The top US general in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington today to face possible dismissal for remarks in which he and his staff displayed contempt for senior members of the Obama administration.

Gen Stanley McChrystal, head of Nato and US forces in Afghanistan, was said by a US magazine to have "seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: the wimps in the White House." The general was scheduled to take part via teleconference in a monthly meeting on Afghanistan in Washington today, but the US president, Barack Obama, has ordered him to appear in person. The White House said last night that Gen McChrystal had made an "enormous mistake", and refused to rule out sacking him.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Gen McChrystal had made "a significant mistake" and used poor judgment. In a profile published in the magazine Rolling Stone, the general tells an aide that if he were asked what he thought of the war strategy advocated by the vice president, Joe Biden, he would reply: "Who's that?" Another aide describes the national security adviser, James Jones, a retired four-star general and veteran of of the Cold War, as "a clown" who was "stuck in 1985".

Yesterday Gen McChrystal issued an apology for his remarks. "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile," he said in a statement. "It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. 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."

Tension between military commanders on the ground and politicians in Washington casts doubt on the war in Afghanistan, including a planned major Nato mission to take Kandahar from the Taliban this summer. Gen McChrystal has been working to build up critical support from Pashtun tribal leaders for the delicate mission that aims to create a "rising tide of security", as he has put it, in the city and surrounding areas.

But this is not the first time his plain-speaking style has landed him in hot water. Last year, after Gen McChrystal dismissed Mr Biden's counter-insurgency strategy as "short-sighted", he was given a dressing down by Mr Obama on Air Force One and told to keep a lower profile. Gen McChrystal made his name in Iraq as head of the Joint Special Operations Command, the elite and shadowy unit that killed and captured hundreds of al Qa'eda insurgents in Iraq, including its leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He was appointed to deliver a success story for Mr Obama's most important foreign policy issue, Afghanistan. In the magazine profile he comes across as an earthy soldier who considers candles on dinner tables "too Gucci". His awkward first one-on-one meeting with Mr Obama took place in the Oval Office after Gen McChrystal was given the Afghanistan job, the magazine reports. "It was a 10-minute photo-op," an adviser to Gen McChrystal is quoted as saying. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed." Gen McChrystal is also dismissive of Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, whom the general's team describe as a "wounded animal" who worries about being fired. The profile says that on a trip to Paris, Gen McChrystal checks his BlackBerry. "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," he groans. "I don't even want to open it." His relationship with the US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, a three-star general who previously served in Afghanistan, is notoriously tense. In a classified cable to the White House leaked last year Mr Eikenberry warned that the US president should not send more soldiers because Hamid Karzai, the Afghan leader, was an unreliable partner. Gen McChrystal told Rolling Stone that he felt "betrayed" by the leak and offered a cutting assessment of the ambassador's motives. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so'." Gen McChrystal is trying to implement a controversial counterinsurgency programme that focuses on winning the loyalty of the Afghan population. It is no easy task - the US death toll is rising and Afghans are increasingly becoming hostile to foreign forces as air strikes continue to kill innocent civilians. He has maintained a good relationship with Mr Karzai, however. While the Afghan leader has fallen out with nearly every major international ally, Gen McChrystal has been seen as a steadying influence on a leader perceived by many as unreliable and lacking legitimacy. He travelled with Mr Karzai to Washington in May to help patch up relations between the Obama administration and the Afghan president, which had hit rock bottom after a former US diplomat suggested Mr Karzai had a drug problem. [e-mail]