Bob Woodward strikes again! (McChrystal assessment edition)

Foreign Policy ^ | 9/21/2009 | Peter Feaver

[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...

[Saije]

Somebody leaked it for a reason, maybe just not the obvious one.

[blueyon]

On a side note, amazing how the liberals to not like what they used to do to Bush......leak, leak, leak

[Trust but Verify]

Yes, I recall all the outrage about all the CIA memos that were leaked to the press during the Bush presidency. I recall how outraged the press was that someone would divulge classified info. /sarcasm

[AppyPappy]

I am not comfortable with the idea of the Pentagon doing something that the President doesn’t support fully. Too many people get killed when that happens because the President starts worrying about the health of the enemy too much.

[Hardastarboard]

Forcing 0bama’s hand may be a gift to him. McChrystal undoubtedly knows the history of military conflicts in Afghanistan, and knows about Viet Nam. I’m sure he does NOT want his name to be drug through the mud as a loser in history’s long view of his life.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The brass in DoD leaked it to Woodward because Obama last week left McChrystal hanging in the wind while our servicemen are dying because of the new ROEs and an emboldened Taliban.

[DarthVader]

“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...”

Obozo’s presidency’s survival is on the line and is on life-support getting ready to have the switch turned off.

[Dixie Yooper]

When Obama takes his bill for more money and troops to Congress, earmarks will come flying from everywhere to attach themselves and enjoy the free ride. Since these will be the same invisible earmarks as the ones that attached themselves to the stimulus bill, Obama won't see a thing and will sign into law. The fact that there will be so many earmarks, will make it easy to sneak more socialistic laws in along with it. Hey, it's all for our Troops! Right?

[Candor7]

The Obama Junta wants US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to be DEFEATED. He does not want a victorious army returning to interfere with his community organizing work. He wants our military chewed up, defeated and demoralized when they return to the USA.

The Obama Junta will leave our troops with impossible ROE, minimal supplies, and poor leadership with lefty whacko arm chair politicians and generals running the show.

Why? So Obama can remake America into his Utopia without the interference of returning soldiers.

Its that hopey changey thing.

Obama is a traitor.

He licked the hand of the King of Saud in public. Get it?

[TomGuy]

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...

Yesterday morning FoxNews was reporting that Obama still wanted 6-8 weeks before making a decision.

Presidentin' is hard. Obama seems to want to vote present on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

[crazyhorse691]

It is not good to have a document like this leaked into the public debate before the President has made his decision

---

The libtards have felt that leakers perform a public service...until now, when it’s them that have been leaked upon.

[Jeff Gordon]

Too many people get killed

Do you think our sneaky Prevaricator in Chief gives a damn?

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Yesterday morning FoxNews was reporting that Obama still wanted 6-8 weeks before making a decision

His version of voting 'present.'

I'm watching FOX & Friends rights now. Glenn Beck is right "Fight to win or bring them home." My new tag line.

[Candor7]

What WAPO is saying:

... But Obama’s deliberative pace — he has held only one meeting of his top national security advisers to discuss McChrystal’s report so far — is a source of growing consternation within the military. “Either accept the assessment or correct it, or let’s have a discussion,” one Pentagon official said. “Will you read it and tell us what you think?” Within the military, this official said, “there is a frustration. A significant frustration. A serious frustration.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002878.html

Leftist Obama Junta Treason.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/Assessment_Redacted_092109.pdf?hpid=topnews)

Assesssment with redactions

[Lawgvr1955]

The general's assessment was a waste of time. Prez Zero isn't going to send more troops. After all he has said and done since January, do you really think he is going to do anything that doesn't make the US look bad or weak?

Now that Teddy the K is gone, I have Zero to use as my benchmark. If he is for it (regardless of issue) I am against it. If he is against it, I am for it. If I think a good President would do it, I know Zero won't. It makes my life simpler. I don't even have to know anything about an issue to implement these rules. It saves time.

[Candor7]

Where is LOUDMOUTH MURTHA , why isn't he calling for proper review of the McCrystal military assessment?

Is there a coupe in progress against the Obama Junta?

I would applaud it.

[Candor7]

Where is LOUDMOUTH MURTHA , why isn't he calling for proper review of the McCrystal military assessment?

Is there a coupe in progress against the Obama Junta?

I would applaud it.

[TomGuy]

I'm watching FOX & Friends rights now. Glenn Beck is right "Fight to win or bring them home."

If you look back at the FR postings from the last decade, you will see many of us demanding the same.

We saw Iraq turning political. We saw Afghanistan put on the back burner.

I, and others, posted many times -- win the war before trying to set up political diplomacy.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Obama and the Democrats have said for years that Afghanistan is the primary arena in the war on terror. Obama should have had a strategy the day he was sworn into office. Eight months later he is still vacillating like a woman at a hat sale. Afghanistan is no prize but if this domino falls it could create a momentum that eventually destabilizes Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.