Giving Obama cover for political cowardice
The Washington Post this morning gives Obama an exit strategy for making the politically tough decision to add to our forces in Afghanistan. The headline shouts Success Against Al Qaeda Cited;
The Post quotes unnamed “officials” who think we’re winning in Afghanistan without more troops;
A U.S. counterterrorism official said that the combined advances have led to the deaths of more than a dozen senior figures in al-Qaeda and allied groups in Pakistan and elsewhere over the past year, most of them in 2009. Officials described Osama bin Laden and his main lieutenants as isolated and unable to coordinate high-profile attacks.
The unnamed “officials” (who could be Kenny the Copy Guy for all we know) claim that these successes stem from our successful employment of ninjas and drone aircraft – you know the same things we were doing before the Inauguration before Obama sent 20,000 new troops to Afghanistan. You remember – before the Inauguration when we were losing Afghanistan.
Of course, this article is nothing more than cover for Obama to disregard General McCrystal’s request for more resources – mainly because it goes against the brilliant military analysis of the smartest man in the world, Joe Biden;
Those within the administration who have suggested limiting large-scale U.S. ground combat in Afghanistan, including Vice President Biden, have pointed to an improved counterterrorism effort as evidence that Obama’s principal objective — destroying al-Qaeda — can be achieved without an expanded troop presence.
So now we know that the White House Wing of the Washington Post will be pummeling us with more of their propaganda to give cover to Obama when he punts on the issue of increasing ground forces in Afghanistan. I’m sure we’ll see an increase in ninjas and zombie robots, though.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Media, Terror War
Kind of reminds a person of the Johnson/McNamara era of military planning and strategy, eh? Of course, we all know how well that went.
“So now we know that the White House Wing of the Washington Post will be pummeling us with more of their propaganda to give cover to Obama when he punts on the issue of increasing ground forces in Afghanistan. I’m sure we’ll see an increase in ninjas and zombie robots, though.”
Hey, Afghanistan isn’t called the “graveyard of empires” for nothing. Remind me again, when was the last time someone actually won a war there? Assuming they can meet our objectives (those have to be defined, too) I’d rather lose 100 Predators than one US soldier. And I don’t think you have to worry that the Predator is about to put soldiers out of the fighting business.
I don’t know what the best (? least bad?) option is, but why not use all the tools at our disposal? And instead of this website’s typical knee jerk criticisms of the President, how about a little constructive debate?
Ok, I’m waiting for him to be constructive on the war and discuss this with Gen. McCrystal, mmmmkay?
Your analysis would be on target, about winning a war there, if you would have included a minor detail: If we were there for conquest of the people, then I can see your historical point, since those that lost previously were there to conquer, not give them self determination. Of course, in the “progressive” mindset; it’s just fine to have a murderous, oppressive bunch of terrorist harboring thugs in charge, eh?
OldTrooper,
No, no terrorist harboring thugs – get rid of Al Queda wherever they are. And it is indeed a noble, and hopefully achieveable, goal to guide them toward self-determination. Bleeding heart that I am, seeing those little Afghani girls eagerly going to school for the first time brings tears to my eyes. I’m just saying the man has had a lot on his plate these last few months – give him time to listen, discuss, assess. It’s an understatement to say we have a lot riding on this. I am glad he is taking the time to weigh options instead of just rushing in. At some point in the near future he is gonna have to make some momentous, controversial decisions that will affect us all, and I am glad he is listening to different opinions, including to General McChrystal’s. I am glad I am not in his shoes…..
Granted, I can understand him having a lot on his plate, what with taking over the financial industry, auto manufacturing, and he’s still working on taking over healthcare. Not to mention his never ending world apology tour and jetting off to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics for Chicago, and just recently throwing Poland and the Czech Republic under the bus, I can see where he would have little time to actually listen to his Commander in theater. Oh, and we can’t forget how much time he spends on denying that Iran isn’t playing by the rules and his thoughtful pleas to get them into compliance.
Sorry, but he doesn’t impress me at all. The same people that are begging us to give him some time, were the first to go after Bush for waiting 7 minutes to respond to 9/11.
OldTrooper,
Agree to disagree…..
Joe: ‘And instead of this website’s typical knee jerk criticisms of the President, how about a little constructive debate?‘
Joe: ‘OldTrooper, Agree to disagree…..‘
In other words, you were calling for a war of wits and came unarmed. You were just trolling and hoping no one would actually debate you. Now call names and tell us we’re not worth debating. Don’t forget to call us wingnuts or something equally shallow.
I disagree with you guys & apologies in advanced if this is old info, but I think we can all agree that this factoid isn’t a good one:
“The military general credited with capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says he has spoken with President Obama only once since taking command in Afghanistan.
“I’ve talked to the president, since I’ve been here, once on a VTC [video teleconference],” Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CBS reporter David Martin in a television interview that aired Sunday.
“You’ve talked to him once in 70 days?” Mr. Martin followed up.
“That is correct,” the general replied.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/sep/28/us-commander-of-afghanistan-only-talked-to-obama-o/
Ya know, John, I stumbled on this site via a link (from Huffington Post?), and I have come back to it hoping to get some insight to the military mind. What I have noticed is that many contributors to this site (but not all, thankfully) are great with snide remarks and zingers, they tend to hate anyone who is not a member of their mutual admiration society, they tend to lack empathy, they seem to know it all, they’ll die for their country but hate most of the people in it, they are quick to judge and very, very bitter, and they use a lot of acronyms. A lot of virtual high-fives and “you tell ’em brothers”. I could have gone on for scores of pages about the pros and cons of an Anti Ballistic Missle System, the so-called “takeover” of the various industries, why 45,000 people, including working men and women and children, die in the US every year because they can’t get health care in the richest country in the world, the pros and cons of holding the Olympics in the US, whether we (or Israel) should nuke Iran back to the stone age tomorrow, but I would get blisters on my fingers, just so someone like yourself could respond with a snide comment. Honestly, from what I’ve seen of the posts on TAH, and your posts in particular, you do not want a give-and-take conversation, you already have all the answers.
Junior: What’s to disagree? He stated he has talked once with Obama. What is being left out of the equation is that McCrystal also sent his assessment and troop request to the President a month ago and hasn’t heard a peep out of Obama.
It sounds like the President isn’t really interested in discussing this with the good General.
Joe: “Honestly, from what I’ve seen of the posts on TAH, and your posts in particular, you do not want a give-and-take conversation, you already have all the answers.”
I guess you’re looking for the easy way out. I keep my posts short these days because I want to encourage discussion. All of your comments have been attacks on us and our readers and very little substance. Yet, I haven’t banned you or deleted your shallow talking points memos. So I don’t know what you’re talking about, nor do you, I suspect.
Thanks for noticing I have all of the answers, though.
Joe: Show me where you get your data on “45,000”, please??? You can’t, because that number was made up, and that’s a fact. It was made out of whole cloth and for you to bring it in here tells me a whole lot about you. You have no interest in a discussion of military minds, but are looking at trying to put your own zingers in an effort to show how much more you “care” than we do. If we didn’t, we would keep our mouths shut. The General in the theater, who has the job of trying to pull off the task he’s been dealt, told the Commander in Chief exactly what he needed. The Commander in Chief has basically said “I’ll get back to ya on that”.
With Iran shooting off missiles and Obama keeping quiet on the fact that he knew 3 months ago about Iran’s secret nuke site, all while telling us “I can negotiate with Ahmanutjob” all while Iran is thumbing their nose at him. They know he’s a neophyte that got bitch slapped by Moscow and they have watched him give every dictator and thug around the world a hummer. It’s called projecting weakness and they aren’t interested in negotiating anything as long as they know we have weak, or non-existent, leadership.
That’s reality, not something thought up over a double decaf soy latte.
OldTrooper
Iran is a tough nut. You would prefer perhaps a nuclear war? I care less about what Ahmedinajad thinks of us than I do about preventing an absolute catastrophe over there, a catastrophe for everyone, not just the Iranians. How many US troops stationed nearby would a nuclear war with Iran cost us? What about Biden’s plan? Predator drones might save a bunch of house-to-house and close-in fighting and prevent some American deaths – is that a bad thing? Since when is saving American soldiers a bad thing? So Biden is trying to win the war with a minumum of American deaths, and for that he deserves your scorn? Should we do what the Russians did, pile more vulnerable ground troops in harms way to be ambushed and slowly bled to death? They’ve already choked off some of our long, thin supply lines as it is. With the fast pace of technological development, shouldn’t we at least look at some high-tech options? One gets the impression that you’re afraid the Predator is going to take away your jobs. Again, I don’t know what the best approach is, but I’m not going to chastise a good faith effort to adopt a strategy that will win the war with a minumun of American deaths.
One more note for those that don’t know about the data for the 45,000 died from lack of healthcare, crappola. It came from a “study” that interviewed a segment of the population. They were asked if they had healthcare, and those that didn’t were tallied. Now, here’s the interesting part; they never followed up on them. That’s right, they looked back 12 years later and looked at those that didn’t have healthcare at the time of the initial interview and if they were now deceased, they chalked it up to not having healthcare.
Great scientific work there, huh? They never determined what the cause of death was, just that the person was now deceased. They never checked to see if they had gotten healthcare coverage in the 12 preceeding years, just that they didn’t have it at the time of the interview.
Of course, it wasn’t a “progressive” group that did the scientific study, or anything, or an equally “progressive” group that put out that data in an effort to sway opinions. Nah, that couldn’t happen.
Well, I’m sorry, I had no idea that General Biden was so up on military strategy? Some day, he may be as good as that Austrian corporal was at military strategy? Leave the war fighting to the professionals. Just as you wouldn’t take your car to your doctor to fix, I doubt you would go to your auto mechanic for a hernia operation (that may be the case under the Obama healthcare plan, though).
As for the Predator Drone theory, about being worried we’ll be out of a job; where have I heard that before??????
Why not implement a strategy that combines both? Why can’t we have boots on the ground augmented by Predators? Oh, wait, we are already doing that. Huh, I wonder what other bits of wisdom General Biden has for us? Maybe he and I can talk it over in that cafe he always goes to in order to “get the pulse of the people”? Oh, wait, can’t go there, it was closed over 20 years ago. Maybe General Biden can send a Predator over DC to find it???
OldTrooper,
The devil is in the details…..
Ouch!! Medic!!! Man down!!! I took one in the nuts with that rapier like wit of Joe’s!!
I love it when the leftists say, “I just want to save the life of soldiers. You other people just don’t care for them because you want them to die.”
What a steaming load of cow poo-poo, Joe. You cannot save soldier’s lives by being weak with our enemies, and no action can cost more in blood than some action.
By waiting to act we’ve simply added to the casualty lists to follow.
Well, I always enjoy a good argument, and I guess we’ve had a few today. I am a proud leftie, but not anti-military, and I do honestly and sincerely thank you all for your service, past and present. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with all or any of your ideas…..
You know Joe your so far off on Afghanistan, Obama and Bidens handling of that area I wont even comment on them since others have tried to enlighten you already. That comment about people not being able to receive health care in the richest nation of the world just pops my top though. There is absolutely noone in our area who cannot receive health care and we are a very poor area with thousands of illegals. Mexicans are flowing across our border in hordes for that reason alone so please never make statements from info you dig up on sites like Hufpo. It is making this health care debate look even worse than it is already.
Scorch,
So kindly enlighten us – what is the right strategy in Afghanistan. I’m all ears……
Joe, why don’t YOU go to any number of sites and look up what Gen. McChrystal has proposed? And check out what’s been written on COIN? Why should you come here, wanting someone to do your work for you? Oh, that’s right, you’re a “proud leftie”. I notice you say you’re not anti-military, just couldn’t bring yourself to be pro-military, could you?
If the US goes to mostly using Predators to kill AQ, how is that different than “air-raiding villages”, which 0 decried in the campaign?
“Should we do what the Russians did, pile more vulnerable ground troops in harms way to be ambushed and slowly bled to death?”
Joe, what type of infantry made up the bulk of the 40th Soviet Army in Afghanistan? What was their glaring weakness? If you cannot answer those two basic questions, you are a bleeding tuna amongst the sharks here.
Why is it that you poke your nose into an arena where many people have survived in situations that are, ahem, nasty, brutish and short & expect them to be metrosexuals?
UpNorth,
I took your suggestion and read and re-read a number of articles on Afghan strategy last night. So we follow the generals recommendations even though it sounds like a slow, laborious process to regain the ground we have lost, but we go with it. If that’s what people on the ground recommend, even though they will be in harm’s way for a longer time, I guess we have to respect that.
The thing that gives me pause is my memories of the Viet Nam era. The parallels between the current recommendations and the belated “hearts and minds” campaingn in Viet Nam, and the similarity between the Ho Chi Minh trail, with its endless supply of Russian arms, Viet Cong, and ultimately NVA, and today, the frontier provinces of Pakistan, with their seemingly endless supply of arms and very patient religious fanatics. How can the war be won if there is the never-ending trickle of armaments and insurgents replacing the ones we destroy?
And JuniorAG, you’re right, I don’t know a lot of details of the 40th Soviet Army in Afghanistan, so I guess I’m chum in the water. I thought they were more a big, cumbersome WWII style fighting force, heavy on tanks, kind of sitting ducks, but not well suited to the demands of fast-moving guerilla warfare in extremely rugged terrain, but beyond that I do not know a lot of details.
Joe: Did you know that Tet was a victory for us? Did you know that the North Vietnamese were going to sue for peace? The reason they didn’t was the media blitz of “anti-war” protesters in this country and Walter Cronkite getting on television, without knowing what was going on, and saying “the war is lost”, based on his watching a tv report about Tet.
Barry is backed into a corner, because this is the first time in his political career he can’t vote “present”. Trust me, if that option was available to him, he would use it. We were given a sneak peek at his in-experience in pretty much everything, back when Russia invade Georgia. McCain came out immediately and made a statement. Obama took 3 days of “consultations with advisors” to form a statement. That’s not leadership, just as his jetting off to Denmark while avoiding a decision now is definitely not leadership. He had opinions on A-stan during the campaign, but now that he’s actually the one that has to decide, he’s waffling. He has the information. He’s had it for a long time, even before the troop request. He’s just hoping someone else will make the decision so he can lay blame, later.
I still think (? hope) Obama can rise to the occasion. I can understand him not wanting to rush in – Viet Nam still haunts some of us 40 years later. But these posts, and other websites that these posts encouraged me to visit, have made me much more skeptical of Biden’s “decapitation by drone” ideas. Tough, tough questions. I am thankful there are thoughtful, courageous men and women like you on our side.
Hope? Down here we call that approach, pissing into the wind.
“Viet Nam still haunts some of us 40 years later”. Would those being haunted be the ones who fought there? Or the unwashed masses who bombed buildings in the US, demonstrated, ad nauseum, that the war was “unjust”? Oh, that’s right, two of the bombers were the 0’s friends, Bill and Bernadine, so, obviously, their counsel should be heeded. And, Old Trooper is right, the NV’s were on the verge of suing for peace after Tet, they’d lost most of their army in the south, and all of their in-place surrogates. Then Walter and the surrendercrats in congress convinced them they could still win.
And, if 0’s actions(?) during the Russian War with Georgia are any indication, he WILL vote present, and just keep on keepin’ on.