Of course this attack took place when he needed it. And nobody around him is going to object. I have been in high-level political counsels. If you tell the public what is going on, you never get back in the circles of power. Look at the women who told on President Clinton.
Democracy is a system of government where people get what they deserve.
To a respectable conservative, anybody in a soldier suit automatically attains some kind of godhood. But back here in the real world, the guy in uniform is just another human being. Nobody, but nobody, gets a general's star in this day and age unless he is an excellent bureaucrat. That means he puts politicians' interests first. It is no accident that the one American general who was known as a heroic whistle blower was not actually a general.