On Veterans Day, President Obama visited a section of Arlington National Cemetery reserved for service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm gonna need an extra box.
Posted on 12/05/2009 3:58:53 PM PST by Libloather
How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan
By PETER BAKER
Published: December 5, 2009
WASHINGTON — On the afternoon he held the eighth meeting of his Afghanistan review, President Obama arrived in the White House Situation Room ruminating about war. He had come from Arlington National Cemetery, where he had wandered among the chalky white tombstones of those who had fallen in the rugged mountains of Central Asia.
How much their sacrifice weighed on him that Veterans Day last month, he did not say. But his advisers say he was haunted by the human toll as he wrestled with what to do about the eight-year-old war. Just a month earlier, he had mentioned to them his visits to wounded soldiers at the Army hospital in Washington. “I don’t want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years,” he said then.
The economic cost was troubling him as well after he received a private budget memo estimating that an expanded presence would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, roughly the same as his health care plan.
Now as his top military adviser ran through a slide show of options, Mr. Obama expressed frustration. He held up a chart showing how reinforcements would flow into Afghanistan over 18 months and eventually begin to pull out, a bell curve that meant American forces would be there for years to come.
“I want this pushed to the left,” he told advisers, pointing to the bell curve. In other words, the troops should be in sooner, then out sooner.
When the history of the Obama presidency is written,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
...yeah, yeah, we'll all recall the Carter failures. We get it.
Very large article. Click the link.
NYT fails again.
I’m so sick of his “bending the curve” fixation, no matter what the issue is. That just sounds like a no life experience policy wonk.
I'm gonna need an extra box.
He asked a simple question: WWGWBD? = What would George W Bush do? lol
Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren't we, bucko?
Obama and the NYT make good headlines for toilet paper.
Lies lies and more lies
Susan B. Glasser and Peter Baker, both journalists, were married Sept. 10, 2000.
The bride, 31, is keeping her name. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University. Her parents are Lynn and Stephen Glasser of Montclair, N.J., the founders and former publishers of Legal Times, a weekly newspaper that covers the law and lobbying in Washington; they are now the chief executives of Glasser Legal Works, a legal and business publishing company in Little Falls, N.J.
The bridegroom, 33, is the author of ''The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton,'' which is to be published this month by Scribner. He is the son of Linda Sinrod of Mason Neck, Va., and E. P. Baker of Reston, Va., and is the stepson of Keith Sinrod and of Martha Baker. The bridegroom's mother is a computer programmer for I.B.M. in Gaithersburg, Md. His father is a retired partner in Scribner, Hall & Thompson, a Washington law firm.
******
They both should just bend over for Obama. That article is absolutely nauseating.
The man and his colleagues are unfit to govern. The problem is this: how we govern ourselves in spite of him, if that’s even possible. I think it would require some extraordinary, selfless and persistent actions by groups of members of the House and Senate, which are only hinted at so far. The only common interests we all have are the condition and safety of the county, but the executive branch acts otherwise in so many ways. I’m not optimistic about waiting until the next presidential election. We’re the resistance now, and a shadow government is needed. Individuals who voice the prudent choices for each executive action, as events occur. A group that has some kind of elective authority.
The truth is found in paragraph 13 on the first page:
"....guided in particular by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates."
The Realists are running Obama's foreign policy.
Well, that is his standard response on every issue, isn't it?
That wussifies the groom. So sad.
No.
He asked, “How many Whites can I kill or cause to die quickly?”
As such, it will have tremendous appeal inside the West Wing and amongst the NYT’s ever dwindling number of readers.
The White House has obviously been stung that after Barry delivered his snoozefest at West Point,
he wasn’t greeted like a conquering hero.
Not just from the cadets , but , world wide.
So, they engage their toads at the NYT in a pathetic and transparent attempt to make Barry into General Eisenhower overseeing the invasion of D Day.
And the result is this mess.
A CINC with zero military experience who hasn’t a clue.
It’s worse than we could have imagined.
The hilarious part is that the NYT validated Barry’s dithering , lack of military experience , laziness and overall stupidity,
instead of dispelling it.
By far the most offensive quote is Barry angrily saying he doesn’t want to be visiting Walter Reed for the next 8 years.
A CINC who doesn’t understand the mission and services of Walter Reed , the veterans and active duty it serves ,
who wouldn’t set foot in a military hospital if he didn’t have to ( he flicked off Landstuhl twice ) and obviously doesn’t plan on ever visiting veterans after he leaves office.
What a great message to send to the troops.
I’m a moron and I can’t stand you.
But, you know what?
They already get that.
And for a guy who’s poll numbers are in the 40s ,
he’s pretty cocky and arrogant that he’s going to be re-elected.
The teleprompter told him what to do.
Mr. Obama peppered advisers with questions and showed an insatiable demand for information, taxing analysts who prepared three dozen intelligence reports for him and Pentagon staff members who churned out thousands of pages of documents.
sNip~
It also proved to be what one review participant called a “head-snapping” moment of revelation for the military. The president, they suddenly realized, was not simply updating his previous strategy but essentially starting over from scratch.
The president made it clear that in the next assessment in December 2010 he would not contemplate more troops. “It will only be about the flexibility in how we draw down, not if we draw down,” he said.
This is now 0bama's War.
He threw out the strategy presented to him upon taking office, and has formulated his own.
Any blowback will be on his head, including plots hatched to fruition after he leaves office in 2013.
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