Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly sat down with Cipher Brief Expert and retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal at the NYSE in New York this week to talk about his new book, Leaders: Myth and Reality. The Cipher Brief will release that full, fascinating interview next week, but we also wanted the General’s quick take on the developing situation with Saudi Arabia and the apparent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Cipher Brief: We’ve been hearing disturbing details about the apparent murder by the Saudis, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi followed by a less-than satisfactory visit to the Kingdom by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. What do you think should be done about this developing situation and what will the broader impact be?
McChrystal: I think we're seeing a manifestation of a government, Saudi Arabia, that got itself involved in something that appears, on the surface, to be poorly thought through and wrong. And they are going through a public relations nightmare because, and you see this in politicians and you see it in celebrities, the first thing is to deny it, to say, “It never happened”. And then say, “It happened but it wasn’t like that, it was like this”. And then finally, you come to, “It happened, and it was very much like that. Sorry”. I think they are going through that, and I think it's a learning process for a kingdom that's been pretty insular for a long time.
I think it may be an even tougher situation for the rest of the world, particularly the United States. How do we process this? Do we damn the Saudis forever and say you know you're evil? I don't think that's practical. And I don’t think it's right. We’ve made some pretty bad mistakes in the United States as well.
The Cipher Brief: But they need to say it's a mistake in order to make that work, right?
McChrystal: We need to say it's a mistake too. We can't simply say, ‘No, don't worry about it.’ We've got to stand up and say, ‘That's wrong’. Something happened that's wrong. You have to own that. It doesn't mean that we don’t want to have a relationship going forward. But it does mean that that's wrong and we will not pretend it didn't happen. It's important for the world, because other nations will do this, and will make big mistakes again in the future. You just can't ignore them.
The Cipher Brief: Do you think that there will be a transformative change or do you think that this will just become another bump in the road on the relationship?
McChrystal: I don't think this is big enough to transform relationships. There are too many forces of inertia taking us in that direction. I think it will be a severe lesson for some people, but I don't think it's going to change the direction, maybe as much as it should.
This interview was slightly edited for clarity.
