One meal a day, few hours of sleep...he’s the top Unites States Army guy in Afghanistan

Lt gen Stanley A McChrystal, the ascetic who is set to become the new top American commander in Afghanistan, usually eats just one meal a day, in the evenings, to avoid sluggishness.

He is known for operating on a few hours’ sleep and running to and from work while listening to audio books on an iPod. In Iraq, where he oversaw all secret commando operations for five years, former intelligence officials say he had an encyclopedic, even obsessive, knowledge about the lives of terrorists and pushed his ranks aggressively to kill as many of them as possible.

But McChrystal has also moved easily from the dark world to the light. Fellow officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former colleagues at the Council on Foreign Relations describe him as a war rior-scholar, comfortable with diplomats, politicians and the military man who would help promote him.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com