Of the 10 principles of war taught to all cadets at Britain's Sandhurst military training academy, coping with “surprise” is among the most important. General Stanley McChrystal has had to tackle many potentially career threatening surprises during his tenure as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, from suicide bombers to unreliable Afghan political partners. But it would be fair to assume that he can never have expected to be undone by an article in Rolling Stone, one of America's premier cultural magazines.
在戰爭教給英國桑德赫斯特軍事學院所有學員的十大原則中,應付「突發事件」是最重要的一條。在任美國與北約駐阿富汗部隊指揮官期間,斯坦利•麥克里斯特爾將軍(General Stanley McChrystal)需要應付諸多可能威脅其職業生涯的突發事件,包括自殺炸彈殺手、不可靠的阿富汗政治夥伴等等。但我們有理由認爲,他絕對不會想到,自己會因《滾石》(Rolling Stone)上的一篇文章而被解職。《滾石》是美國最重要的文化雜誌之一。