Posted on 10/05/2009 11:57:56 AM PDT by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying in a speech that whatever decision President Obama makes about what to do in Afghanistan, the military will "salute" and fall in line to implement his decision. Gates said Obama's decision will be one of the most important of his Presidency. . . . (VIDEO)
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomslighthouse.com ...
Ofcourse they will submit to the command of the President! They died doing that in Viet Nam.
Prediction...you heard it here first..Gates will be the one to resign...McCrystal won’t go, not that he’s not principaled..bu if he stays..he’s bullet-proof...Obama can’t remove him..and this way the General can protect his troops from being wasted by Obama’s idiot policies..
Sounds like Gates is daring the Generals to resign.
“the military will “salute” and fall in line to implement his decision. Gates said Obama’s decision will be one of the most important of his Presidency”
Indeed, the military, which *IS* honorable, will execute the orders of the CINC.
AND, this *IS* one of Zero’s most important REAL decisions.
It could be that Gates is setting up his boss to fail.
The general is in a personal win:win here. But I think he WILL do what is best for his troops.
The Clueless Commander In Chief.
What about that ‘question authority’ speech you gave Mr. Gates, eh?
Gates is a butt-boy. They would have to surgically remove him from Obama’s ass before he COULD resign...
There are rumors
“He added that he had “just heard this morning from someone who’s been in touch with people in the administration, a foreign gentleman who deals with this government, that people are talking about Secretary Gates leaving at the end of the year, and being replaced by Chuck Hagel.” Hewitt and Kristol then took the opportunity to attack Hagel:
KRISTOL: People are talking about Secretary Gates leaving at the end of the year, and being replaced by Chuck Hagel…
HEWITT: Ugh.
KRISTOL: Yeah, exactly, as Secretary of Defense. I think that’s quite a plausible rumor, and a very worrisome one, because he is an advocate of retreat everywhere, I think.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/01/kristol-hagel-rumor/
Gates is a buffoon. He is George Bush’s biggest mistake. He is in the job for himself - the military be damned.
He is presiding over the biggest disarmament in the history of the world, and by being originally a Republican appointee, giving Obama cover.
He is beginning to make Les Aspin and William Cohen look good. (He’s not at the Robert McNamara point - yet!)
Or they can always resign. Lot of speculation that’s what McCrystal will do if Obama doesn’t listen to him.
You’re too hard on Gates...He was the perfect guy to follow Rummy..given all the tumult at the time...and he saw the implementation of the surge to success..he gave Petraus all the support he needed to make it happen..and I like the fact that he stayed oon.because we are at war..and he recognized that while he doing so gave Obama some cover..it also provided continuity and he was able to do the best job possible for the troops..I mean..the poos guy probably has to talk to Biden every day...
I’m surprised that Dr. Gates has put up with 0 for this long, and I appreciate very much his fortitude in doing so. He is an honorable man doing a very difficult job under an incompetent President and an administration that has no regard for our national security.
No telling what damage 0 and his minions might have been able to do had he not decided to keep Gates for a few months.
No doubt Gates is now on his way out, and that is bad for the country. I wish him well and keep the generals in my prayers.
Obama? “Decide”? He’s got to pick a church first. Mmm Mmm Mmm Present!
“Or they can always resign. Lot of speculation that’s what McCrystal will do...”
.
The general’s resignation would not do the military much good. Now is the time for McCrystal to challenge Obama to expose his true identity so as to give the troops the confidence that they are led by a legitimate CIC.
I find it surreal that within only 9 months of Obama being asleep at the helm, that a Defense Secretary would find it necessary to public make such a comment.
Sounds like there is dissention in the ranks.
public =publicly.
Does RESIGNING come under the heading of “salute and follow”?
I’ll bet they have threatened the Generals!
Nothing less than the soul of America is at stake.
FWIW, when I’m the President Ollie North will be my Secretary of Defense.
Obama has put a gag on General McChrystal now.
* The Wall Street Journal
* OCTOBER 6, 2009
Gates Silences Strategy Talk
By PETER SPIEGEL and ANAND GOPAL
A foreign worker of the Afghan Election Commission, second right, counts the suspicious ballots with her Afghan colleagues during the recounting possess at the main election office in Kabul on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday called on the U.S. government’s civilian and military leadership to keep their advice to President Barack Obama on Afghanistan private amid an increasingly public debate over a White House review of war strategy.
Mr. Gates said that Mr. Obama’s decision on Afghanistan, expected by the end of the month, will be “among the most important of his presidency” and that the president should be given time to consider how to proceed.
“In this process it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations — civilian and military alike — provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately,” Mr. Gates said.
The comments come just days after the U.S.’s top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, made a public appearance in London in which he said he was opposed to narrowing the military’s strategy to focus on unmanned drones and elite forces to target al Qaeda.
Geoff Morrell, Mr. Gates’s spokesman, said the secretary’s remarks were not aimed at any individual. “This admonition was aimed at anyone and everyone who is involved in these debates with the president,” he said.
Supporters of Gen. McChrystal have said that his address Thursday to the International Institute for Strategic Studies has been widely misinterpreted as an effort to press for an increase in troops when it was a restatement of the importance of a counterinsurgency — a policy backed by Mr. Obama in March and one Gen. McChrystal has advocated in public comments repeatedly.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs appeared to join those supporters on Monday, saying that he did not believe Gen. McChrystal was actively campaigning for a troop increase.
Retired Gen. James Jones, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, on Sunday appeared to suggest Gen. McChrystal had gone outside normal channels when he gave the speech. “Ideally, it’s better for military advice to come up through the chain of command,” Gen. Jones said on the CNN program “State of the Union.”
Meanwhile, Afghan election officials on Monday began recounting votes from the disputed August presidential elections. Officials said they were expected to announce the final results in less than a week, and incumbent Hamid Karzai remains poised to emerge the victor.
Investigators from the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission launched the recount after receiving numerous reports of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation, mostly in favor of Mr. Karzai.
Commissioners have divided the most suspicious results into categories, including those in which one candidate received more than 95% of the vote, and those where votes cast outnumbered voters. That amounts to nearly 12% of all polling stations. Investigators will examine a fraction, and if those votes are found fraudulent, votes for the whole category will be thrown out.
Since the majority of questionable votes are for Mr. Karzai, this could bring him down from his preliminary vote total of 54% to under 50% and force a runoff. But observers and analysts say that Mr. Karzai is still the heavy favorite to emerge as the winner. “He has too many important institutions on his side,” says Habibullah Rafeh, a policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences.
The ECC is relying on Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, which conducted the elections, to identify fraudulent ballots. The IEC, whose leadership is appointed by the president, has been widely accused of supporting Mr. Karzai, though the commission says that isn’t the case.
Peter Galbraith, a high-ranking American diplomat in the U.N. who was removed from his post, has accused the U.N. of covering up the electoral fraud to favor Mr. Karzai. There “has been no such cover-up,” U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Monday.
—Joe Lauria contributed to this article
Write to Peter Spiegel at peter.spiegel@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A6
Debates? The President should get the facts and then make a decision.
That statement about debates, means obama is out of control , not that I did not already know that.
Thank god we have some good generals.
The Generals’ War
by Pat Buchanan
“............ McChrystal answered Biden in a speech and Q-and-A session in London, all but saying Joe ought to stick to the rubber-chicken circuit and leave war to the warriors. A “counter-terrorist focus” like the Biden strategy, said McChrystal, would lead straight to “Chaos-istan.”
Would he support it?
“The short answer is no,” said McChrystal. “Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support” — a shot at what critics are calling Obama’s dithering in deciding on McChrystal’s troop request.
Obama, said to be “furious,” called McChrystal to Copenhagen for a 25-minute face-to-face on Air Force One.
Yet McChrystal is now quoted in Newsweek about any half measures to reverse a deteriorating situation. “You can’t hope to contain the fire by letting just half the building burn.” .....
http://560wind.townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2009/10/06/the_generals_war.
Newsmax.com
Obama Moves to Muzzle Top Military Commanders
Monday, October 5, 2009 7:42 PM
By: David A. Patten
Sources tell Newsmax the Obama administration is muzzling its top military leaders, and keeping them from publicly airing their views on how to fight the war in Afghanistan.
The administration’s primary target: top Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose speech in London last week apparently caught administration officials off guard. ...................
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