Jumping ship
The Washington Times reports that former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Conway, doesn’t give the President’s new strategy against the Islamic State much of a chance;
A former Marine Corps Commandant told an audience that President Obama’s strategy to defeat Islamic State militants doesn’t have a “snowball’s chance in hell” of succeeding.
Another link to the Washington Times reports that the President’s two previous Secretaries of Defense, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta are also taking their shots;
“I really thought that it was important for us to maintain a presence in Iraq,” Mr. Panetta said in an interview set to air on “60 Minutes,” CBSreported Friday.
Mr. Panetta said the entire national security team urged Mr. Obama to give more support to rebels fighting in Syria against Bashar al-Assad.
“The real key was how can we develop a leadership group among the opposition that would be able to take control. And my view was to have leverage to do that, we would have to provide the weapons and the training in order for them to really be wiling to work with us in that effort,” Mr. Panetta said, CBS reported.
I don’t believe a word that comes out of Panetta’s mouth, for the record. I think he’s just trying to save his own image at this point. Like when Clinton left the White House, I wish I had a nickel for every liberal who told me they thought he was a scumbag.
I feel the same about Gates, who has taken every opportunity to try and salvage his image since he left the Pentagon and screwed the troops with his BS about lower wages and increased healthcare costs;
“I’m also concerned that the goal has been stated as ‘degrade and destroy’ or ‘degrade and defeat’ ISIS. We’ve been at war with Al Qaeda for 13 years. We have dealt them some terrible blows, including the killing of Osama bin Laden. But I don’t think anybody would say that after 13 years we’ve destroyed or defeated Al Qaeda. So I think to promise that we’re going to destroy ISIS or ISIL sets a goal that may be unattainable,” Mr. Gates said.
Of course, everyone is lining up to get their shots in, where the f*** have they been for the last five or six years to stop us from getting to this point? Where were they when Obama half-assed the surge? Why didn’t any of them speak out when he was unassing Iraq? Where were they six months ago when ISIS took Fallujah? There has been points during this thing that someone should have come forward and said something – any of those three could have changed the direction this administration was taking.
Now that the President’s polling is falling off a cliff, the rats are abandoning ship. They could have changed the course of history, but instead they just went along with the current.
Category: Terror War
not much more I could add to what you stated Jonn… Where in the hell were they then, and since then??
If anything, it is vindication for those who have been screaming about the lack of leadership in the White House all along, but that vindication comes at a huge cost doesn’t it?
Damned sheeple who re-elected that idiot…
Where were they? Waiting for retirement dates to kick in. Where else would they be?
When someone has a job for a brief period and then suddenly steps down, it’s most likely because he finally got the morning mirror message, the one you get when the shit has hit the fan for you and you’re barely dodging it.
Not a snowball’s chance in Hell, huh? Well, ain’t hindsight 20-20? How convenient that bodaprez’s popularity has dropped and they can say what they want to without getting fired for it.
I keep wondering when some of these people are going to show up on SNL. Then I remember: they get to be on Meet the Press or some other Sunday morning talking heads show. So now I’m waiting for the current press sec’y/spokesperson to walk away.
Neither needed a day’s service as SECDEF to retire from Federal service, Ex-PH2. Both Pannetta and Gates had already retired (or were eligible to retire) from Federal service the day they started duties as SECDEF. Either could have resigned and gone back to retiree status any time they wanted to do so.
Yeah, but they didn’t, Hondo. That’s the point. They stayed to work for a glad-handing sack of shit political moron. Maybe their idea was that being SecDef would give them extra status in retirement. People do things for odd reasons, one of them being status in the public eye.
In this case, I’d say it was status for both of them, without any other info. And maybe they both left because they saw what was coming.
Yeah, it’s easy for those two Barnum & Bailey fucks to come out and say shit now. They had a chance to do something about it when they were in a position of power. Instead, they decided to be company yes men and collect a paycheck. It’s easy to come out against Zero when everyone else has already criticized him on this.
I can cut both Pannetta and Gates a bit of slack for not speaking out while in office. Anyone who’s ever been in the military knows what it’s like to follow orders you think are pointless, wrong, or stupid – but lawful.
I can even give them a bit of slack for staying and trying to mitigate the stupidity from the inside. Sometimes that’s the best thing you can do in such a situation.
Where I fault both is in not resigning in protest – publicly – somewhere along the line if their issues with Administration policy were severe. They were both civilians, and unlike serving military that option was immediately available to them at all times.
Since neither did, I’m forced to conclude both were at least able to tolerate the stupidity while a member of the Administration, and at worst were active supporters.
The above doesn’t necessarily mean a damn thing concerning their present opposition to the Administration’s current boneheaded ISIS strategy. But it does make you wonder why they didn’t speak up about similar such idiocy (there’s been plenty) before.
Well said. Actions always speak louder than words.
Both had a chance to show “Leadership by Example” but chose not to.
Okay so maybe they may have stayed for the right reasons — maybe.
This is a tempest in a teacup. Suppose while part of the administration they fought against administration actions or they fought for administration actions. Once the decision is made they can either quit or stay and try to make it work. They didn’t quit. So does that mean that they approved and tried to make it work or did not approve and tried to make it work? We don’t know, we probably cannot find out, and so it doesn’t matter.
I will do some reading about Mr. Turner and Mr. Panetta and then decide what I think about their opinions.
For what it’s worth, I think that we should not have supported any Syrian rebels. Unlike the Kurds, there was no respectable party in that conflict.
For what it’s worth, I think that we should have pushed a lot harder for a good SOFA in Iraq, including working with both the Sunni and Shia leadership in the country. If we had, Iraq would have a better military and the national government might be able to lead their people to push IS back into Syria.
Quite frankly, 310 million Americans might disagree with me but that does not make me wrong — just unpopular. Been there, done that.
I’m still mad at Panetta for taking those cross-country weekend trips home in a taxpayer funded 757 so he could “clear his mind”. Gates went from being on the BOD of SAIC to SecDef. If they are talking, I can’t help but think that they have an angle… maybe some money on the line. I regard both of them as political hack robber barons.
You know supporting rebels was always an odd policy to me. Arm and train them has always been the call of the hour. However, every photograph of the rebels, whatever side they are on, is a shit load of guys all armed to the teeth and/or in the midst of fighting their little hearts out killing whatever side they don’t like. Seems they are always pretty well armed and doing a hell of a job killing someone. Every time we arm and train rebels, the training and arms come back pointed at us. Kurds however, will fight bare handed if need be. So arm them and just show them the fine points of the weapons and let them have at it. Anyone else to include the Iraqis has not worked out well for us.
Gen Amos (aka worst CMC in history) tried to get the ball rolling a few months ago on salvaging his image. Nice try…he’s due to retire very shortly & finally found that itty bitty ounce of moral courage. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-marine-obama-fight-191600744.html
Anyway, everyone get in line to slap the empty chair…