if i had behaved that way or colonel schafer and undermined a commander, we would be relieved. the president needs to send a signal to the troops on the ground that insubordination from within the uniformed military is not tolerated. >> larry: colonel, when's your side? >> i agree with the captain's assessment of the situation but there's i think mitigating issues. look at world war ii. general patton survived two incidents of slapping troops and saying outlandish things to the press, as well. precedence is there. i don't want to defend general mcchrystal's bad actions but i'm here to say the president has to consider when's best for his strategy and, larry, let me be painfully clear here. for the strategy, break, break, if you go with the strategy the way it is, you have to pick the very best guy with the shot of making it work. now, general mcchrystal is part of the review process that established it last year and from all accounts he's been able to really bring back a lot of internal focus within the forces in afghanistan. yes, he's riled some of the state department folks.

. >> larry: control knell schafer, should we judge him on how good of a job is he doing in the job he'sot? >> everybody makes mistakes. i'm not defending the fact that mistakes were made here but you need to look at the overall picture. i have a book coming out this summer "operation dark heart" which focused on my time of general mcchrystal and will be an eye opener. i have information about -- enhanced interrogation. i looked -- there's good and bad on both sides of the coin on this and i think we need to look at the ultimate objectives assigned to this again. this is not good. i think he needs to do some deep house cleaning. frankly, if i were the commander and i allowed my staff to say these things to "rolling stone" i would fire them instantly without regard to any excuse they have. but you need to look at can we achieve victory this way with this man or is it time for a change? several names have been given to me. my cent-com contacts. believe me, there's a discussion going on about who might replace him and that's on the table. >> larry: the article also reports on mcchrystal and