Rewriting the history we watched
The Washington Post’s Anne E. Kornblut, Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung try to portray President Obama as a pragmatic leader on the issue of the war in Afghanistan in their total tonguebath of the president in the Post entitled “Obama pressed for faster surge” subtitled “AFGHAN REVIEW A MARATHON; ‘What was interesting was the metamorphosis’. Interesting? Hardly.
As everyone (and their grandmother) predicted, the “metamorphosis” began with his trip to Dover AFB;
On the evening of Oct. 29, Obama flew to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to meet a returning C-17 cargo plane. In its hold were 18 flag-draped “transfer cases” carrying the remains of soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents. He stepped inside the plane for a few minutes with the caskets.
October was the deadliest month in Afghanistan for U.S. troops since the 2001 invasion. Fifty-eight troops died, more than three times the toll during the same month last year. A senior administration official said Obama “always believed it was important for him to acknowledge the sacrifice” at some point in the review.
Yeah, we all knew that the trip was orchestrated even to the point of teaching Obama how to salute properly just so he could appear to be weighing the costs of his decision. Ray Charles could have seen through it from space.
But the part that gets me is the last meeting supposedly on November 29th, in which the Post tries to make it look as if Obama is a consensus builder;
Obama then went around the room asking one question: Do you support the strategy?
“If they didn’t support the decision, he was going to issue another decision” until there was unanimity, a senior administration official said. “But it was his assessment that everyone could and should get behind it.”
No, he wasn’t building a consensus. He setting up everyone in the room for the blame in case the plan fails. Now we know, thanks to the Post, that all of the President’s advisers approved “the surge”, so, if for some reason the plan falls apart in Afghanistan, it’s not Obama’s fault-all of those clowns are going under the bus.
Oh, and, by the way, it makes him look weak that he couldn’t make a decision based on the information that every department of the government presented him. A leader doesn’t build consensus – a leader makes a plan and then convinces everyone that it’s a good plan. Building consensus is how weak-kneed pussies operate.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
Building consensus is how weak-kneed pussies operate.
I have a feeling we’re all gonna be re-stating the obvious for a while.
Sadly, the suggestion is that we’ll also be pissing into the wind.
I simply haven’t an ounce of respect for this POTUS anymore. I didn’t have much to begin with, but his heading down to Dover for a photo op with our honoured dead was just too much for me.
“Ray Charles could have seen through it from space”. Great line, and even though it was addressed to the photo op at Dover, it applies to the following quote also. So, if he steward serving coffee and soy latte’s didn’t agree, the Dear Reader was going to come up with another, different decision? Calling BS on that one. And the wheels on the bus need changing, they need new tread.
Unfortunately, we have people in our country who think that being a weak-kneed pussy is admirable.
A leader doesn’t build consensus – a leader makes a plan and then convinces everyone that it’s a good plan. Building consensus is how weak-kneed pussies operate.
Well, well said John.