Posted on 07/20/2008 2:43:56 PM PDT by Red Steel
Senator Barack Obama has demanded plans be drawn up immediately for US troops to be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Visiting Kabul on the first stop of his first major overseas trip since winning the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Mr Obama described conditions in Afghanistan as "precarious and urgent".
"I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we have to start doing something now," he told CBS television. "We can't wait for a new administration otherwise it will be a year before new troops arrive."
Mr Obama, who is also due to visit Iraq during his eight-day tour, sought to seize the initiative on foreign policy from his Republican rival Senator John McCain, a Vetnam War veteran. Mr Obama met American troops and held talks with President Hamid Karzai, key elements of his trip to two war zones that is intended to convince doubters at home that despite his inexperience he is a plausible future commander-in-chief.
-snip-
Mr Obama has placed defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda at the centre of his foreign policy. But in an unfortunate reminder of the worsening violence in Afghanistan, Nato admitted yesterday that its forces accidentally killed at least four civilians in the country's east, while coalition troops mistakenly called in air strikes against Afghan police, killing nine.
Mr Obama did little to disappoint critics who accuse him of arrogance. He said the objective of the trip was to "hold substantive discussions" with national leaders "who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years".
He added: "It's important for me to have a relationship with them early."
After Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr Obama will visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and finally Britain in a grand tour that is attracting unprecedented scrutiny for
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
But aren’t the troops overstretched and need to come home? That’s what he has said before.
Please tell me this is satire.
Er, and exactly how does Mr. Obama think he has the authority to "demand" anything?
Hey, BO -- you're still just a "presumptive" nominee -- and getting less "presumptive" every day, it seems.
Like the impeached ex-President, he is already planning how much money he will make lobbying and giving speeches after he is out of office.
Two thoughts:
1) There is no more obnoxious zealot than a reformed sinner.
2) How convenient.
Can you imagine if McCain had said this???
I can’t believe BO used the word “vigor” to describe how we needed to pursue the war in Afghanistan. Sorry BO, the correct pronunciation of the word is “vigah.” That’s they way JFK used to say it. If you’re going to be “historical,” at least get the pronunciation right.
McCain = bad...Obama = very, very good. Much better.
8-10 years? He assumes he will have two terms, wants to start the first one early and is already figuring our how he’ll stay past the end of the second one?
“It is important TO ME that I get to know them early”???? Do they feel the same urgency in getting to know him? How many of *them* will still be in charge or have the same priorities in 6 months and how many will be where they are for the assumed 8-10 years?
He hasn’t already had his national security people draw up plans? Just whom is he demanding do this, immediately?
I’d say he is dangerously delusional and should be nowhere near the Oval Office, let alone the Red Phone.
Are the nominees (presumptive and presumptuous) getting briefings designed to help them from stepping in it too big time so that Obama would be aware of our plans to beef up our forces in Afghanistan? If so, is this him positioning himself when troop deployments are announced to make yet another statement that the Bush Administration is moving in his direction?
They are desperate to make it look like this guy knows what he is doing, which he clearly doesn't. But with 300 foreign policy advisors in his stable, maybe he isn't the only one who is basically clueless and wants to run policy based on ideology (and on whoever is bribing them), and not the realities of our world or the threats we face.
So he plans on changing the Constitution to allow him to serve an additional 2 years if he gets elected?
The shortest route by which to move US forces deployed in Iraq to Afghanistan is - through Iran.
It would be a bloody fight, but one in which the relative merits of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran would come face to face with the most technologically advanced military machines history has ever known.
There is no such thing as a “surgical strike”, there shall always be collateral damage. The good thing would be, almost all the collateral damage would be on THEIR territory, one of the better strategies for fighting any battle.
The other strategy is to win, quicker the better.
And who knows, the bulk of the Iranians may even welcome the liberation. But that is not the objective. Gaining swift transit from Iraq to Afghanistan was the original goal, and mission creep should be suppressed to the degree possible.
To people like Barak, the Constitution means nothing to them.. Why do I have a feeling that if elected Barak would do something to “suspend” the Constitution???
2 + 2 = 5
thus
4 + 4 = 10.
Sounds like he plans to become a dictator. 10 years? Why not just go ahead and say “for the rest of my life?”
Woodrow Wilson mixed with Jimmy Carter?
I would say a combination of Jimmy Carter, LBJ, Woodrow Wilson, FDR and other failed rat Presidents with the exception of JFK..
Nope.
Well, maybe he can continue in at least some of those extra states he seems to think exist here in Oz.
IMO one should be able to observe that Obama doesn’t know what the Hell he is doing simply by the multitude of bit parts he routinely enacts upon the Political Stage.
If Obama knew what he was doing, he wouldn’t have so many damned advisers for various reasons, as well he wouldn’t be allowing each and everyone of them to pull him in so many different directions.
He cannot manage himself, much less our Nation.
The world supposedly hates the US and GWB, but that is largely a fabrication.
However, can you imagine other world leaders having to deal with pompous, arrogant ass? Their hatred for us will grow by leaps and bounds if this twerp is elected POTUS.
Will he be wearing his burka?
This man is an embarrassment. His plan is nonsense, but the underlying idea is already the current policy - as the Iraqi army takes more control, more troops can come home and others redeployed to Afghanistan.
Shew. How is this guy registering more than 20% in the polls?
Somehow I don't think that's quite what he's planning.
JFK was a lousey President too. His claim to fame came with a bullet. I think everybody here at FR knows the man was inexperienced and was carried to the WH simply by his Charismatic personality, and great speeches.
Sound familiar?
The extra 2 years is how long Karzai, et al can be expected to be around. For him, 10 years is the short-term.
You're right - that makes this is even more ridiculous. Whew. Too much craziness to deal with at once. Again I ask - how is this guy anywhere about 20% in the polls?
We should not be trying to invade and occupy a nation of 50 million people. That is beyond the capability of our force structure. If your idea is to declare war, then declare it and claim all the legal rights that go with a declared war. We would have the right to interdict commerce, confiscate assets, institute air and naval blockade. Irani insurance rates would go thru the stratosphere. Their trade would evaporate. their treasury empty. Air strikes could be made against their internal infrastructure, destroying transportation and disabling communications. These things are possible with a formal declaration.
That is what he said. One could construe his statement to mean the 10 years he was talking about was the longevity of the "foreign leaders" he wants to meet, like Karzai.
“Mr Obama did little to disappoint critics who accuse him of arrogance. He said the objective of the trip was to “hold substantive discussions” with national leaders “who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years”.”
Does he expect to drop over dead in his third term?
No, no, this is NOT from Srappleface. No one could make this up...
~snip~
Mr Obama did little to disappoint critics who accuse him of arrogance. He said the objective of the trip was to “hold substantive discussions” with national leaders “who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years”.
~snip~
If Obama wins 57 states, he automatically gets an extra 2 years in office. Don't you know your Constitution?
***”For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,” he told CBS. “I think it's very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough.”***
Perhaps Obama called for zero brigades a year ago? Is Obama claiming it's alright to surge in Afghanistan to win but not alright to surge in Iraq to win?
Senator Barack Obama has demanded plans be drawn up immediately for US troops to be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Visiting Kabul on the first stop of his first major overseas trip since winning the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Mr Obama described conditions in Afghanistan as “precarious and urgent”.
“I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we have to start doing something now,” he told CBS television.
And I thought he just went overseas to play a little basketball. All the while he must have been using the super secret CIA undercover basketball/crystal ball allowing him to see the future in Iraq and Afghanistan. Silly me. Thank God my crystal ball shows John McCain as our next President and Barack Hussein Obama going back to Chicago and continuing his work as a community organizer while looking for employment as a high school basketball coach. Unfortunately it will be a long search it seems he is not qualified to be a basketball coach either.
I’ll do him one better. When their job is done, the troops should come home to the U.S.
Perhaps he meant brigs.
This big-eared dumbo doesn’t have a clue.
Obama and U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed spent an hour and 45 minutes today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his top aides in the presidential palace in Kabul, including a working lunch of traditional Afghan rice, lamb and chicken, spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told reporters. Obama left Afghanistan after the meeting without making any public comment.
He (Obama) also called for more aid to rebuild the war- torn the country, such as money for roads and an electrical network.
This morning on MSNBC the host was talking about McCain and said here is a clip of what McCain said.
Instead the clip was the Joker from Batman. What biased bastards they are.
Wonder what the anti war crowd is thinking right about now.
This idjit can’t buy a clue. Not a shred of intelligence.
Yeah, a campaign trip to change term limits ..he’s going to be president for 8-10 years!
Barack, he changes the levels of oceans, the climate of the globe, starts a civilian national security force, and adds a year to a president’s term ...
So... Now Barry wants to repeal the 22nd Amendment??? Whoa... there Barry O.
The Media really has pumped your head up just a tad bit too much.
You could at least wait until you get elected to do that sort of stuff, and here’s hoping that you never do. The last thing America needs is another narcissist (see Bubba Clinton) as President. LOL
I thought the media couldn’t get more sickening...(check this out)
Twist editor Laura Varon Brown has an exclusive interview with Michelle Obama
“By the time we got around to what the definition of success is, I felt like I was talking to my girlfriend.”
German Politicians Criticize New Venue For Obama Speech in Berlin
Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag: “The Berlin Victory Column is dedicated to the victory over neighbors, who today are our European friends and allies. To me that is an unfortunate imagery.” Rainer Brüderle, deputy leader of the Free Democrats said in the same paper, that the column was moved to its current location by Adolf Hitler. Brüderle added: “For him (Hitler) it was a symbol of German superiority and victorious wars over Denmark, Austria and France. I ask myself whether Obama was well advised to choose the Victory Column as a venue for a speech about his vision for global cooperation.”
http://blogs.dw-world.de/acrossthepond/michael/1.6834.html
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace,” possible vice presidential pick Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., tried “not to make news” when asked if Sen. Barack Obama’s, D-Ill., presidential campaign has requested documents from him as part of a vetting process.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/bayh-trying-not.html
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