General Stanley McChrystal was the top commander of American and international forces in Afghanistan in 2009 when his career was cut short.

An article in Rolling Stone quoted him and his aides making candid yet disparaging remarks about President Obama and Vice President Biden.

McChrystal resigned after 35 years in the Army.

Among the units he led in that career,

the Joint Special Operations Command,

which hunted down Al-Qaeda in Iraq

when the United States was bogged down in that war.

He now has his own consulting firm

and is the author of a new book,

On Character, Choices that Define a Life. I spoke with him earlier

this week and began by asking him about the current leadership at the Pentagon and the controversy

around Defense Secretary Hegseth's sharing of classified information on a commercial messaging app.

Well, like most Americans, I'm concerned about the Department of Defense because it's responsible

for all our defense.

If I look at something like Signal Gate, as we'll call it, you know, mistakes get made.

To me, that came across as people acting in an amateurish fashion and they make a mistake

and you move on.

But you accept responsibility for that mistake.

And what bothered me most about that particular incident was the days after when professionals

who were involved in that went in front of television and I think some testified in front of Congress,

and they claim that the information was not classified.

And they know better. And what's the impact of that? I mean, I've had several conversations. Congress, and they claim that the information was not classified.

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