Upon completing the course in April 1979, he remained at Fort Bragg as commander of Operational Detachment A-714 (an "A-team") in Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

[20] In February 1981, McChrystal moved to South Korea as intelligence and operations officer (S-2/S-3) for the United Nations Command Support Group—Joint Security Area.

[20] McChrystal was selected to deliver nationally televised Pentagon briefings on U.S. military operations in Iraq, including one in April 2003 shortly after the fall of Baghdad in which he announced, "I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over.

[27] Nominally assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he spent most of his time in Afghanistan, at U.S. Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar, and in Iraq.

Simultaneously undermining U.S. domestic confidence in the way in which America was operating, and creating or reinforcing negative perceptions worldwide of American values, it fueled violence".

On 28 April 2004, six days after Tillman's death, McChrystal approved a final draft of the Silver Star recommendation and submitted it to the acting Secretary of the Army, even though the medal recommendation deliberately omitted any mention of friendly fire, included the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire", and was accompanied by fabricated witness statements.

[4][36][37][38] According to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, beginning in late spring 2007 JSOC and CIA Special Activities Division teams launched a new series of highly effective covert operations that coincided with the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.

[39][40] In a CBS 60 Minutes interview, Woodward described a new special operations capability that allowed for this success, noting that it was developed by the joint teams of CIA and JSOC.

Several senior U.S. officials stated that the "joint efforts of JSOC and CIA paramilitary units were the most significant contributor to the defeat of al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

[44][45][46] Instead, McChrystal was nominated by George W. Bush to succeed Lieutenant General Walter L. Sharp as director of the Joint Staff in February 2008, another three-star position.

[47] After meeting with McChrystal in private, the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmed his reappointment as lieutenant general in May 2008 and he became director of the Joint Staff in August 2008.

[49] McChrystal warned that the war in Afghanistan might be lost if more troops were not sent, but the report ends on a note of cautious optimism: "While the situation is serious, success is still achievable.

[52] New York magazine refers to the leaked report as the "McChrystal risk" as it boxed Obama into a corner about boosting troop levels in Afghanistan.

[53] In an article written by freelance journalist Michael Hastings ("The Runaway General", appearing in Rolling Stone magazine, 8–22 July 2010 issue),[10] McChrystal and his staff mocked civilian government officials, including Joe Biden, national security advisor James L. Jones, US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, and special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.

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.

[62] Obama's statement on the topic began as follows: "Today I accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation as commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"[63] Later that day McChrystal released the following statement: This morning the president accepted my resignation as Commander of U.S. and NATO Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.

I strongly support the president's strategy in Afghanistan and am deeply committed to our coalition forces, our partner nations, and the Afghan people.

"[69] After the report was made public, the White House tapped McChrystal to head a new advisory board to support military families, an initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president.

In 2011, McChrystal joined Spirit of America, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports the safety and success of Americans serving abroad and the local people and partners they seek to help, as an Advisory Board Member.

He stated, "'Service member' should not apply only to those in uniform, but to us all ... America is falling short in endeavors that occur far away from any battlefield: education, science, politics, the environment, and cultivating leadership, among others.

Portfolio publishers stated, "We have decided to delay the publication date of General McChrystal's book, My Share of the Task, as the book continues to undergo a security review by the Department of Defense ... General McChrystal has spent 22 months working closely with military officials to make sure he follows all the rules for writing about the armed forces, including special operations.

"[83] On January 8, 2013, McChrystal appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe program, in which he endorsed stronger U.S. gun control laws, saying that assault weapons were for the battlefield, not schools or streets.

With his co-authors, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell, McChrystal describes how he and his staff remade the Joint Special Operations Task Force in the Middle East to fight a new kind of decentralized, tech-savvy enemy.

[89] McChrystal called on the 2016 presidential candidates to embrace practical solutions to restore social trust in the United States "such as engaging young Americans in a year or more of national service."

[93] On 16 November 2016, McChrystal rejected the offer to be president-elect Trump's first choice of Secretary of Defense saying, 'I've been watching the campaign and I don't think I'd be a good fit for the ...team.

Also, I'm not sure you'd be happy...'[94] In May 2020, The Washington Post reported: "A new Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal ... is planning to deploy technology ... to combat online efforts to promote President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite the two's philosophical differences and the fallout from the 2010 Rolling Stone article, McChrystal explained Biden and Obama openly listened to his comments during his service, and that disagreements were paramount in a functioning democracy.

"[96] On 26 September 2024, in an opinion piece written for The New York Times, McChrystal endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president in that year's election.

Despite his disagreements with the Democratic policies from their convention that year, he stated that Harris' strength, temperament and values stood in contrast to Donald Trump.