Posted on 09/22/2009 3:51:39 AM PDT by Saije
The Obama Administration has been Woodwarded again, this time with a major scoop: Bob Woodward has a major front-page story that is more or less a summary precis of General McChrystal’s confidential Initial Assessment of the Afghan situation...I have a few initial assessments of my own:
1. It is not good to have a document like this leaked into the public debate before the President has made his decision...I assume the Obama team is very angry about this, and I think they have every right to be...
4. The leak makes it harder for President Obama to reject a McChrystal request for additional troops because the assessment so clearly argues for them...Presumably, the McChrystal assessment and request is shared by Petraeus and, I am told, also by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That does not make it irrefutably correct, but it does make this issue now the defining moment in civil-military relations under President Obama’s watch...
5. The toughest part in the report from the point of view of the Obama White House is the twin claim that (i) under-resourcing the war could cause the war to be lost, and (ii) the resources need to show up in the next year. The former puts the responsibility for success/failure squarely on the desk of the President and the latter, because of the long lead times needed to send additional resources into the theater, says that failure could result from choices made or not made in the next few weeks. And it said that a few weeks ago...
The domestic political-military stakes have been ramped up considerably with this leak. It is not quite a 3-AM-phone-call crisis, but it is probably the most serious national security test the Obama team has confronted thus far...
(Excerpt) Read more at shadow.foreignpolicy.com ...
Does anyone here think CinC Barack 0bama could possibly get it right?
If he’s going to make America wage the war badly, perhaps catastrophically badly, let’s accept the inevitability and get out before he sends any more good people out on a limb.
Decade?? I’m thinking Decade?? But then I thought wait, it is almost 2010. My ‘baby’ is in college now and I am also a grandmother.
“Fight to win or bring them home.” I am making signs and bumper stickers.
Song Lyrics:
[Groucho]
I don’t know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I’m against it.
Your proposition may be good,
But let’s have one thing understood,
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it,
I’m against it.
I’m opposed to it,
On general principle, I’m opposed to it.
[chorus] He’s opposed to it.
In fact, indeed, that he’s opposed to it!
[Groucho]
For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night to morn,
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
And I’ve kept yelling since I first commenced it,
I’m against it!
(hackinbush)
I am with you on the leak and it’s reason.
It needs to be pointed out forcefully that the _resident has had nearly a full month, AS CASUALTIES INCREASE, without any movement.
(didn’t the Mushlim-in-Chief indicate before his coronation that this war was a no-brainer?)
- very true, just like the Vietnam war - liberals love Vietnam - it's the only war they ever won.
Love Groucho. The mother of a guy I went to school with once dated Groucho when she was younger. He said his grandfather was pretty upset about it and it didn’t last long.
Thanks for posting the actual assessment.
After a quick skim:
As expected, the mission is an odd one: “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda” through “stability in Afghanistan.”
No though killing or destroying, but through nation-building.
1) The opium problem: Afghan supplies 95 percent of the world’s opium supply with about $2 billion annual revenue **at the source farmer level** and is a (”the” ??) source of revenue for the Taliban. yet it is discussed in ONE paragraph in 66 pages.
2) Pakistan: Maybe I skimmed too fast. Couldn’t find any discussion of Pakistan at all, which is the exact and precise analog of Cambodia/Laos during Vietnam.
O told us this was a war of necessity. either it is or it isn’t. if it isn’t any more, his action of sending more troops earlier in the year, and his judgment/credibility are down the tubes. he’s boxed himself in — and soldiers are left hanging at the moment — kind of like how he is handling the CIA situation. every day he makes us less safe as people think twice about serving the country in these capacities and our allies wonder what the heck they can count on us for.
It’s my themesong!
“No though killing or destroying, but through nation-building.”
Drink some coffee dude!
“Not through killing or destroying....”
It is less messy to leak and to have the public depose the president and the leadership than to send a company of Marines to the Capitol and another to the White House and clean them out.
Who would be our Claudius?
This is what happens when a career “community organizer” assumes the role of Commander In Chief.
>>>> The brass in DoD leaked it to Woodward <<<<
It’s marked Unclassified for a reason.
It’s about one step away from an OSD press release.
By the way, having skimmed it I am not impressed.
The two main problems in Afghanistan are (a) opium and (2) Pakistan.
There is no suggestion of seriously acting on either problem.
A house divided?
Our heroes are being killed in action while O dithers.
Leaking is a GOOD thing.
O needs to stop voting PRESENT.
That was the left hand no less.
Obalicker.
He ain't no president of the USA.
He can't tell the eating hand fromm the shite whiping hand, how can he be president? Thats a rather basic skill unless one has not learned because others have done it for yah!LOL.
“It’s not good to have a document like this leaked.” Oh, really? When the Bush blue-ribbon panel was assessing Iraq, it was just fine to have stuff leaked early. . . if it was harmful to Bush.
“FoxNews was reporting that Obama still wanted 6-8 weeks before making a decision.”
Zero wants that much time to continue enjoying lobster and Kobe beef with the heartburn his answer to the General will cause.
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