President Barack Obama apparently raised a few eyebrows on a trip to Baghdad when he complained about having to take so many pictures with U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq, author Michael Hastings has written, according to
BuzzFeed.
“After the talk, out of earshot from the soldiers and diplomats, he starts to complain. He starts to act very un-Obamalike, according to a U.S. embassy official who helped organize the trip in Baghdad,” Hastings writes in his book, “The Operators.”
“He’s asked to go out to take a few more pictures with soldiers and embassy staffers. He’s asked to sign copies of his book. ‘He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about it,’ a State Department official tells me. ‘Look, I was excited to meet him. I wanted to like him. Let’s just say the scales fell from my eyes after I did.’ ”
Hastings' June 2010 article in Rolling Stone magazine, "The Runaway General", profiled Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then commander of the war in Afghanistan. The article reported remarks by McChrystal's staff that were overtly critical and contemptuous of White House staff and other civilian officials, and resulted in McChrystal's firing by Obama.
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