Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Michael Steele causes uproar with Afghan remarks (Michael 'WhoDat?' Steele Sighting /sarc )
Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 7/2/10 | John Whitesides

Posted on 07/02/2010 12:57:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Party leader Michael Steele faced heavy criticism and calls for his resignation on Friday after blaming President Barack Obama for the Afghanistan war and suggesting it could not be won.

At a Republican fundraiser in Connecticut on Thursday, Steele was videotaped while criticizing Obama's decision to bolster the Afghanistan war effort. The comments contradicted the stance of the party, which has consistently pushed for more troops and funding in Afghanistan.

"This was a war of Obama's choosing," said Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."

Steele also called the recent resignation of Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal "comical" and made fun of Obama for deciding to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

...

The United States invaded Afghanistan under Republican President George W. Bush in retaliation for the September 11, 2001, attacks by al Qaeda, whose leaders had taken refuge there.

The comments sparked a wave of criticism from Democrats and calls for Steele's resignation, led by prominent Republican conservative columnist Bill Kristol.

"Needless to say, the war in Afghanistan was not 'a war of Obama's choosing,'" Kristol said in a blog on the Weekly Standard magazine site. "It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort.

"There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan and they're certainly entitled to make their case. But one of them shouldn't be the chairman of the Republican Party."

Steele issued a statement trying to extricate himself from the controversy, saying Obama's shift in the U.S. military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan means "this is his strategy."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: afghan; michaelsteele; remarks; uproar
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last
To: DallasDeb

Bingo. Fight to win or pull out.


41 posted on 07/02/2010 1:44:39 PM PDT by Vinnie (You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Last Straw Alert!


42 posted on 07/02/2010 1:47:03 PM PDT by muleskinner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Psalm 144

Steele is right. Obama’s nation building war is a hopeless quagmire and only undermines national defense. Bring the troops home and end Obama’s War!


43 posted on 07/02/2010 1:50:13 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Psalm 144

Why is it that politics attracts the lowest and dumbest quadrant of society??

*******************

“For the idle, narcissistic egotist, what other path offers so much opportunity to showboat, abuse people, and live well and securely?

Dillinger robbed banks because he just wanted the money. If he had other character defects he might have run for office. “

Post of the Day!!


44 posted on 07/02/2010 1:50:50 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our Troops, and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

The Rats are looking like crap right now and the Republicans continue to screw up so bad it’s almost like it’s intentional.


45 posted on 07/02/2010 1:51:05 PM PDT by ladyvet (WOLVERINES!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SaraJohnson

Really happy to see there is independent thinking here still. Great points in your response...and I agree. There is no “winning”. We should simply leave with the message that if it happens again we will come back and bomb them until even the rocks have been turned to dust. Then leave again for them to wallow in the dust, leaving them again the same message. “Happens again, we will bomb you again.”

Go back to retaliation, not pre-emption and not nation building, culture changing, etc. Just the hard fist, which is all those rock heads will ever understand.


46 posted on 07/02/2010 1:57:28 PM PDT by reardensteel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Uh oh! We have politically incorrect thinking going on in here???? LOL!

Measure the war in light of the current circumstances, not in yesterday’s terms. I know it is hard for some people to take in new information and realities, but it is something adults have to do in life. Espeically if they want to govern.

You are wrong. Bush was in Afghanistan, but he was not in it like he was in Iraq. FACT: Obama esclated the Afghan war. You don’t think the McCrystal wanted Bush to send the additional troops? They just all of a sudden made that up when the Kenyan entered office? Why did not Bush do that? Maybe he did not see it as a head on confrontation in tatics????? McCrystal turned out to be a real winner.

Facts are facts - get used to it. Dear Reader esclated the war and set terms of engagement that endanger our troops and protect our enemies - VIET NAM ALL OVER AGAIN! He’s putting the troops in there but he loves the enemy more than he is committed to winning the war. Just like the Marxists did with the Reds during the Cold War.

I think you are ignorant in what you said - so we’s even.:)


47 posted on 07/02/2010 1:57:47 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: SoCalPol

I bet you do know about illegals. ;)


48 posted on 07/02/2010 1:58:46 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: reardensteel

Yep. Some people have a real hard time moving their minds along with the changing scenery of situations. They think it makes them wrong to begin with if they change their minds with unfolding circumstances. They would do anything not to be wrong.

But they are not wrong...the circumstances changed and adults are supposed to be able analyze current reality and change stragegy when indicated.


49 posted on 07/02/2010 2:02:47 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: reardensteel

We should simply leave with the message that if it happens again we will come back and bomb them until even the rocks have been turned to dust.

*******************

IMO, there were three leaders who had a proper appreciation of Islam, and dealt with it as it should be. In ascending order of skill, diligence and effect:

Charles Martel

Vlad Tepes

Genghis Khan


50 posted on 07/02/2010 2:03:40 PM PDT by Psalm 144 (The Democrats' mascot is a jackass. This is because they are asses who are in it for the jack.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
We are not fighting a "war" in Afghanistan to Win any territory or much of anything else. Winning in Afghanistan is not an option unless we are ready for classic colonization of the place for a couple of centuries. There is nothing there on which to build a country. The trillion $ worth of resources won't do it. It will only support an oligarchy of Croesuses. We are in Afghanistan to deny the area to the Jihad for effective use in the Islamic War or the Long War, whichever way one would term it. That requires occupation and border warfare for the duration of that Islamic War which will last until the West, America at the moment, finds the insight and fortitude to do what must be done to shut down the Jihad i.e. destroy utterly the military and economic capability of the current center of the Islamic resurgence. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that is Iran. This war has lasted for 13+ centuries and will not end short of extermination or conversion of either all Mohammedans or of all Infidels but it can be shut down for a generation or a century or two by a decisive destruction of its current leading proponent, Iran. It took decisive defeats in the past at Tours and at Lepanto and Vienna and Malta to stop Jihad in the past. They did not end the war but they put it in remission for lengths of time. Sanctions do not rise to meet the requirements. Diplomacy only promotes the Jihad.
51 posted on 07/02/2010 2:06:04 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" to have your econ arguments at hand.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Is this guy really this stupid? Or is it simply that there’s not that much difference in the two parties. I go with the latter. It all depends which one is in the majority. Once the majority changes so does the talking points.


52 posted on 07/02/2010 2:07:20 PM PDT by Terry Mross ( I voted for McCain and still feel like I wasted my vote. Vote third party - same results.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker

That would not surprise me at all.


53 posted on 07/02/2010 2:11:47 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: arthurus

I just read your ‘about’ page.

I grok.


54 posted on 07/02/2010 2:23:30 PM PDT by Psalm 144 (The Democrats' mascot is a jackass. This is because they are asses who are in it for the jack.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Michael,

Leave. Now.

I tolerate politics about the war with NO one and NO party. We (meaning America and her troops) win or We (meaning America lose. Don’t you dare try to make this a game the way the Democrat’s did for 8 years.


55 posted on 07/02/2010 2:27:00 PM PDT by Soul Seeker (?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Soul Seeker

Please tell me Freepers do not honestly believe Michael Steele was engaged in thoughtful dissertation about the genesis and development of this war under both administration’s.

He’s a political hack who was trying to dump it on the Democrat’s and Obama the way they did to Bush and demoagogue it for partisan gain.

If people want to have a debate about the war go ahead. But let’s stop this “Steele was right” nonsense. Unless you think he’s right to use it as a political tool since that is about as deep as his thoughts go.


56 posted on 07/02/2010 2:33:38 PM PDT by Soul Seeker (?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker; ConorMacNessa
Dawson: RNC should remove Steele

Former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson, who finished second to Michael Steele in the Republican National Committee chairman's race last year, is calling on the committee to oust their embattled chairman.

Steele is under fire for suggesting at a fundraiser Thursday that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won. After a salvo of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans Friday, Steele walked back his remarks and said he supports the mission.

"The RNC should do the responsible thing and show Steele the door," Dawson told CNN. "Enough is enough."

57 posted on 07/02/2010 2:41:12 PM PDT by La Enchiladita (with love, from me, to you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: La Enchiladita

They won’t get rid of him, and 4 weeks before the November elections, Steele will quit, citing “racism” and take a job with a Democrat lobbying company.


58 posted on 07/02/2010 2:43:56 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our Troops, and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker

It’s surreal to recall how much he used to be admired here, and was supported for the chairmanship, but could not be more of a disaster at this point.


59 posted on 07/02/2010 2:52:10 PM PDT by La Enchiladita (with love, from me, to you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Since everyone is keying off the Reuters article I refuse to believe he meant anything other than Obama said Afghanistan was the worthwhile war and shouldn't be ignored in favor of Iraq. Which is what he claimed in every speech.

I hate the way everyone here jumps on the "Dump Steele" bandwagon at the slightest misquote by the Left. MSNBC has been campaigning for the Republicans to chase away its most visible Black member since he was made head of the RNC.

Can't you malcontents ever see when you;re being played?

60 posted on 07/02/2010 2:52:48 PM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson