Netflix Picks Up Rights to Incriminating Book on US in Afghanistan

Netflix announced it has purchased the rights to "The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War In Afghanistan," an excoriating view of the way US military leaders led operations in the Middle East. The film will fall in the "satirical comedy" genre.

President Obama and McChrystal in the Oval Office in May 2009

© White House, Pete Souza

Netflix has purchased the rights to produce a feature film based on Michael Hastings book "The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War In Afghanistan." Producers plan to make the film a "satirical comedy."

Brad Pitt has already been chosen to play Stanley McChrystal, the disgraced military general who was fired by President Obama after being featured in a Rolling Stone Magazine article penned by the late Hastings. (Hastings was killed in a car accident in 2013.)

In "The Operators," Hastings recounted his experiences embedded with military leadership set in the backdrop of America's doomed war in Afghanistan. During on-the-record interviews, McChrystal spoke disparagingly about President Obama as commander-in-chief while enjoying drunken R & R with other military leaders in Parisian restaurants. 

Hastings's article, "The Runaway General, in which Hastings first reported on the general's criticisms in Rolling Stone, prompted Obama to call McChrystal back to Washington where he fired him on the spot.

"The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be met by – set by a commanding general," Obama said when he announced McChrystal's departure. "It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system." 

Frank Rich calls the book "an impressive feat of journalism by a Washington outsider who seemed to know more about what was going on in Washington than most insiders did." 

Netflix plans to release the film version sometime next year.