Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels

Fox News ^ | 10/31/2009 | FOX News

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe.

The president reviewed his options with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made clear he wants at least one more meeting with them and with his broader national security team before deciding on a revamped war strategy for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, said a senior administration official.

The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels.

He reportedly is expected to receive several options from them next week.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

Un-flipping-believable...

[Slings and Arrows]

Sorry, Zer0, you can’t vote “present” on this one!

[Greenpees]

This guy is the most indecisive person, let alone President, I’ve ever seen when it comes to foreign affairs. What the hell is he thinking?

[Rome2000]

Civilian control of the military is not all its cracked up to be.

Once the decision to go to war is made, the generals should call the shots, this begging a crytpo-muslim communist usurper for troops in the middle of the war while he spends more time playing golf than "thinking about the war" is preposterous.

[ChiMark]

Zer0 is looking for a “fall guy”. He has no intention of winning but he needs a compliant dufus to CYA.
My hunch is’s he wants victory for the Muslim terrorists by
having our military appear as a failure.

[Cobra64]

He’s stalling until after the his deathcare bill is passed.

[Jet Jaguar]

healthcontrol will not pass.

And we have troops with no clear plan.

[Clive]

He knows what he wants to do and don't do.

Now he needs the Pentagon to generate a few alternative proposals that will give him some political cover and some scapegoats to blame if his already determined action turns out to be disastrous.

[nathanbedford]

I think it is necessary to put Obama on to the correct matrix to understand why he is dithering.

He is dithering because of schizophrenia in his basic motivations: his narcissism is in conflict with his Marxism. His Marxism teaches him to work for the humiliation and weakening of America and to promote one worldism. Marxist doctrine tells him that American wars of imperialism are evil and that uprisings by indigenous peoples are to be supported.

His narcissism tells him that his political power is at risk. No matter what choice he makes he will either offend his base or offend nearly half of the country. If he wages a war in Afghanistan and incurs growing casualties, he will see his poll numbers decline. If he fails to wage a war in Afghanistan he will appear impotent in the eyes of half of America. More, fundamental Islamist jihad waged against America is an assault on his personal power and his Marxist foundational beliefs. Ultimately the two worldviews are utterly inconsistent and at some point Obama will have to wage war against the Islamicist.

But Obama is not dithering out of concern for American casualties, except as they might affect his poll numbers. He is not dithering out of concern that a war in Afghanistan is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is dithering because there is no good solution which accommodates both his Marxism and his narcissism.

[james500]

from the source article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103004081.html?hpid=topnews

“The president appears committed to adding at least 10,000 to 15,000 troops in Afghanistan in an effort to bolster the training of Afghan army and police officers in the country. Current plans call for the United States to double the size of the Afghan army and police forces to about 400,000 in the hope that they can take over security responsibilities.”

If they’re floating 10-15K, I have a feeling they want 25,000 to sound like a strong commitment in comparison.

[DavidAccord]

Obama, The Great Ditherer.

[monocle]

When our troops are being killed, it ceasess to be a foreign affair and becomes a highly tragic domestic affair.

Obama's only concern appears to be that Afghanistan will divert funds for all the socialistic programs he wants to force down our throats.

[MestaMachine]

obama and his handlers want the drugs. If they can pay the taliban to deliver the drugs, they will throw our troops AND Afghanistan into the Lion’s Den. They do not care. They have no conscience. And bam is a muslim. He is not being inconsistent with his muslim background.
America will suffer a defeat. bam will surrender. America will suffer its worst humiliation in history. And islam will have its first GREAT victory.

[nathanbedford]

And bam is a muslim. He is not being inconsistent with his muslim background.

I disagree. It seems to me one can be a Manchurian Marxist or one can be a Manchurian Muslim but it is almost impossible to be both unless you really are schizophrenic. In fact it is almost impossible to be a Manchurian Muslim because the dictates of the faith require open expression. It is philosophically antagonistic to entertain the Marxist view of the world and accommodate Islam.

Although both are thoroughly authoritarian, Marxists are eternally in Mortal combat with theists. Muslims are eternally in mortal combat with unbelievers. They proceeds from different starting positions and they proceeds toward different goals. Neither their origins nor their goals are compatible.

I suppose it is possible for Obama to be both a Manchurian Marxist and a Manchurian Muslim but I think it highly unlikely. Since the evidence shows that he is a Marxist, I think his accommodation to Islam is superficial and traditional. I think that explains his bowing to the Prince of Arabia, for example.

To the degree that Islam poses a threat to Marxism, Obama must make a choice and I believe he will choose the latter. If he can dither and procrastinate making an unpalatable choice between the two, especially when other factors like poll numbers and political considerations are at play, I have no doubt that he will do so.

But I think it is an absolute mistake to believe that Obama is afraid to wage war. I accept that he is reluctant to wage war to further the national interests of the United States but I believe he will fight with cold-blooded determination to maintain his own power and to advance his Marxist worldview.

Strange as it sounds and as infuriating as many on this thread will find this observation, Obama is an idealist. But he is also an atheist in the truest sense. He is a God Player who will tolerate no threat to his freedom of action. One can be a narcissist and a believer but one must so distort the principles of a major religion like Islam that the contortions become bizarre. It is much cleaner to believe that Obama is a pure narcissist who has plugged in Marxism as a guiding philosophy and gives him the self-confidence his narcissism demands because it explains everything. Islam can do that as well but it requires submission.

[Rome2000]

But Obama is not dithering out of concern for American casualties

You analysis is correct, this son of a whore could care less about how thin American forces are stretched or the casualties resulting from undermanned troop positions:

WASHINGTON (AP) - In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either.

When the battle in the small village of Wanat ended, nine U.S. soldiers lay dead and 27 more were wounded. A detailed study of the attack by a military historian found that weapons failed repeatedly at a "critical moment" during the firefight on July 13, 2008, putting the outnumbered American troops at risk of being overrun by nearly 200 insurgents.

The truth is that after that battle, only a true usurper could possibly delay his top Generals request for more troops for more than the time it took to put pen to paper to sign the order.

An arrogant marxist deceiver with QUESTIONABLE allegiances is POTUS.

In fact, I'd say the question has been answered, his allegiance lies not with the United States but with international communism and the islamist horde.

[Venturer]

Clueless.

[RU88]

When I saw them throwing out this figure that each additional soldier will cost an $500,000 a year I knew they were planting the seeds for withdrawal. Either we are dealing with a clueless pseudo muslim or a treacherous letch, take your pick.

[ScottinVA]

“This guy is the most indecisive person, let alone President, I’ve ever seen when it comes to foreign affairs. What the hell is he thinking?”

This guy makes Jimmuh Carter look like John Bolton by comparison.

[Prole]

"...his allegiance lies not with the United States but with international communism and the islamist horde."

Agreed. Obama is a friend to communist and islamic terrorist alike, and he is an enemy to the American people.

"It is better to be alone than in bad company." - President George Washington

"I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors and the structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy. When we ground out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints." - Barack Hussein Obama