Generals accuse Clinton of being too "hands-on" in Syria and Afghanistan
KABUL -- On Thursday, Wikileaks published a trove of hacked emails that show Gen. John W. Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, has repeatedly complained to colleagues about President Hillary Rodham Clinton's "hands-on" leadership since she took office in January.
While generals were critical of Obama's doveish reluctance to use force, their problem with the more hawkish Clinton seems to stem from her intellectually demanding management style.
In a series of spirited communications with BlackwaterBro@aol.com, Nicholson bitterly complains Clinton is "micromanaging" American airstrikes throughout the Middle East, going to far as to demand "millions of details before she let's us use of deadly force. What a bitch!" Nicholson writes.
In another email, Nicholson writes: "Personally, I have found her to be a frustratingly informed commander in chief (i.e., bitch,) who too often exercises independent judgement when us alpha dogs are urging her to nuke Afghanistan and carpet bomb Syria," he said.
When BlackwaterBro@aol.com responded to Nicholson's criticisms of Clinton dismissively, saying Clinton is "probably just traumatized by the Iraq War," Nicholson went ballistic: "She literally just nixed a beautiful plan to drop a MOAB on Afghanistan until she saw more rigorous estimates of the resulting civilian casualties. Bitch!"
He said that her questioning of generals' plans proved so rigorous, detailed, and exacting that top military brass nicknamed her "the smother of all bombs" and a "real droner killer."
In another equally lacerating if philosophical email, Nicholson writes about the imperfections he perceives in America's Constitution, particularly, its insistence on civilian oversight of the military: "Clinton won the election by 3 million votes, therefore she's the 'Commander In Chief,' I guess. But this is just crazy. She acts like its her job to question the military and tell it what to do. Lord, I wish we had a rubber stamp," Nicholson said.
He wrote approvingly of NBC news anchor Brian Williams and ISIS, saying both were "misunderstood."
In a statement released Thursday night, Gen. Nicholson vehemently denied he authored the leaked emails, saying "they're a hoax, plain and simple."
The FBI is investigating whether they were in fact written by disgraced former General and Russian agent Michael Flynn.
