Posted on 08/16/2010 11:04:22 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AFP) – The White House said Monday that July 2011 was a "non-negotiable" deadline for starting a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, while insisting that President Barack Obama and his top general in Kabul were on the same page.
The White House was quizzed about a seeming disconnect between the two after General David Petraeus said in an interview aired Sunday that he could seek a delay in the troop drawdown if conditions on the ground required it.
"I think the president has been quite clear in explaining that it's a process, not an event, and that it's conditions-based," he told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.
"The president and I sat down in the Oval Office and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice."
But White House spokesman Bill Burton, speaking to reporters traveling on Obama's plane to Milwaukee, said the general's remarks had been taken out of context.
"I think that that is a very thinly sliced parsing of what he had to say. He said very specifically that that deadline stands and there is no daylight between the president or his commanders on the ground when it comes to July 2011," Burton said.
"As you saw with Iraq, when the president makes a commitment, he keeps it. And he intends to do that here as well," he said.
"Obviously the scope and rate of withdrawal will be conditions-based, but the date is not negotiable," Burton added.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Words fail me.
Not sure Obama has a bus big enough for that task.
I thought he was following the timetable of the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq that Bush signed?
Putting Petraeus in his place!!!
Doormat!
“Under no circumstances will we delay our surrender.”
“How long will it be before Petraeus is thrown under the bus?”
My guess is sometime next May. Then Obama can say that his Petraeus’ strategy failed and we are pulling out the troops starting in July.
Of course Petraeus was a Bush person so this fits into the narrative very nicely.
Well, maybe it’s negotiable with Ahmadinejad at the upcoming meeting. It’s just not negotiable with the Iraqis, Congress (especially the so-called right half of it), or the American people.
The real question is this:
'How long before Petraeus realizes what a scumbag OBAMA is?'
again, prayers that im wrong, but i forsee our 'betters' in the rin-o-p demanding that WE negotiate for the size of our own cattlecars come dec...
If I remember right, the withdrawal date was on the condition that the Iraqis would be able to take over and would not need us. The Iraqis are nowhere near ready. It’s still too soon to wtihdraw.
All those soldiers who fought and died. Probably in vain.
It is all murky there as to what will happen, but Sadr and Chalabi have the votes to determine the prime minister and they will give those votes to whichever contender takes the strongest anti-west position.
Keep in mind that when the NeoCons invaded Iraq, Chalabi was the man they planned to put on the throne.
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