Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
SecDef Robert Gates (right)
At odds against one another. I'd sympathize with Gen. McChrystal.
Posted on 10/06/2009 1:25:00 PM PDT by myknowledge
THE top US military commander in Afghanistan has been effectively rebuked by President Barack Obama's man in the Pentagon for running a public campaign to back his request for more troops.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday spoke out just days after General Stanley McChrystal declared any scaling back of operations in Afghanistan, such as that favoured by some White House officials, would be short-sighted.
In a speech to the Association of the US Army, Dr Gates urged advisers to Mr Obama to keep their views on the deteriorating allied position in Afghanistan behind closed doors.
"In this process, it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations - civilians and military alike - provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately," he said.
The comments by Dr Gates follow criticism from Mr Obama's national security adviser James Jones a day earlier that military leaders should provide their advice "through the chain of command".
Mr Jones said determining the best strategy on Afghanistan was more complicated than adding to troop numbers.
In a speech last week in London, General McChrystal rejected the preferred view of some in the White House - including Vice-President Joe Biden and other senior officials close to Mr Obama - that the US should scale back operations by using unmanned drone aircraft and targeted raids by special forces against the Taliban.
General McChrystal has stuck publicly to his position that more troops are needed after submitting a 66-page review, commissioned by the White House, that warns the war effort "will likely result in failure" in the next year without additional forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
SecDef Robert Gates (right)
At odds against one another. I'd sympathize with Gen. McChrystal.
This old soldier won’t be fading away.
I don’t like saying it, but Gates has essentially become Obama’s pet. I disagree with a number of the things he has been willing to advocate recently.
It’s just shameful that a theater commander has to make a public plea for help because the political CoC is sitting on it’s collective thumb.
These clowns better think very carefully about who the American people are likely to sympathize with.
It does appear to me as though General McChrystal is employing a subtle psyops/civil affairs campaign. Whether or not it’s deliberate really hinges on who leaked the assessment.
At first I thought McC should step down.
Better he should stay and unload both barrels on Zero
Gibbs said today that Obama will “make up his own mind” about what to do in Afghanistan.
Then, he will go to the bathroom and make poo-poo and pee-pee all by himself too.
Me too and it sounds like another distraction the dimwits want. Alinsky rules and all.
I wonder if there are a couple of resignations in the offing. When, and if, that happens we can then speculate on the futures of Gens. Petraeus and McChrystal. I’m beginning to believe that they may very well be useful in a future government. We’ve never had a military government in modern times.
The Obama people never would have given Gates his current position if there wasn't something wrong with him. Gates has proved to be unprincipled and weak. He follows the political wind and stabs the military people in the back. Loyalty up and loyalty down is the principle of a successful military. Gates has shown no loyalty whatsoever to the men under his command.
Robt Gates has always been a POLITCIAN first and foremost - his “low key” style was the opposite of Rummy’s so took the pressure of Bushie once he was in - a limp-wristed, whimppy move. He now has the blood of American young on his hands - shades of McNamara - after Nam, we should be saying NEVER AGAIN and yell it at Gates...such utter CRAP!
Do I recall any criticism of Genral Shinseki when he went after Bush and Rumsfeld.
Remember Hitlery referring to General Petraeus as General Betrayus?
These hypocrits are costing American lives.
This admin wants to keep it behind closed doors and away from the American people. They know that the people are smarter than they are.
LOL So true.
It’s one thing for an Obama mouthpiece to question the General’s public statements, but when your direct boss at the Pentagon starts doing it things are getting serious.
But McChrystal is Obama's guy. So either Obama is screwing up in delaying this decision or Obama screwed up by picking the wrong man for the job.
Dear Doctor Gates,
We OWN your ass. We PAY your ass. WE ARE the chain of command, and you had best not forget it. And your fonky boss too!
Thanks, LucyT. This stuff just burns my.....
No. Do you have a source for that?
The winds are blowing badly for McCrystal right now. I would say the odds of his remaining commander are less than even money. Now does OZero have the nads to do what Truman did to MacArthur or does he let McCrystal ask for a new assignment? My guess is he will find some henchman to fire him just like he did with the IG at Americorps as I don’t believe McCrystal is the type guy to just go off into the night.
Did anyone see that pathetic interview of Wes Clark by OReilly last night. I do not like Clark but having O’Reilly with ZERO military experience telling him what he would do in afghanistan was enough to make me sick.
Gates is a Texas Aggie (Texas A&M University), isn’t he.
What a shame. I’ve known many good Aggies, but have never known one who was a patsy for an overseer.
I recommend Weasely Clark. He is up (down?) to the job of sucking Obama's @$$.
I stand corrected. Gates did not attend Texas A&M University, rather College of William and Mary, Indiana University, and Georgetown University.
He just didn’t fit the profile of one who actually attended school at A&M.
http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/biographydetail.aspx?biographyid=115
Robert Gates has become complacent about this fact, and he is Robert S. McNamara reincarnated.
Yeah. Nothing the left hates more than the campaign of an honest individual to get facts and truth to the public!
“Remember Hitlery referring to General Petraeus as General Betrayus?”
It wasn’t hitlery. Moveon.org took out a full page ad in the NYT, (for a reduced rate, no less,) calling General Petraeus “General Betrayus.”
hitlery said something about a “willing suspension of disbelief” during his appearance before the senate.
I actually think it was MoveOn.org who ran the “Betrayus” ads
They call them Kapos. Gates and his ilk are Kapos.
Capos...I like it!
“No doubt they are searching high and low for a satisfactorily genuflecting and compliant Perfumed Prince as a replacement.”
But McChystal WAS until he realized they were setting him up to take the fall for defeat in Afghanistan. That was the gamechanger.
Either one fits.
Kapos
The German concentration camps depended on the cooperation of trustee inmates who supervised the prisoners. Known as Kapos, these trustees carried out the will of the Nazi camp commandants and guards, and were often as brutal as their SS counterparts. Some of these Kapos were Jewish, and even they inflicted harsh treatment on their fellow prisoners. For many, failure to perform their duties would have resulted in severe punishment and even death, but many historians view their actions as a form of complicity. After the war, the prosecution of Kapos as war criminals, particularly those who were Jewish, created an ethical dilemma which continues to this day.
Capos
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a “crew” of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization. Caporegime is an Italian word, which was originally used to signify the head of a family in Sicily, but has now come to mean a ranking member, similar to captain or sergeant. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to a boss or an underboss.
Then, he will go to the bathroom and make poo-poo and pee-pee all by himself too.
He can't even do THAT right...
It sounds like this was the only way for General McChrystal to get the attention of 0bama or to bring his issues to the forefront. I don’t blame him.
Oh thanks for the reminder. A willing suspension of disbelief.
Certainly applies now!
Oh thanks for the reminder. A willing suspension of disbelief.
Certainly applies now!
To Obama.
I have zero confidence in Gates after he backed Bambi’s decision to cave to the Russians and Iranians and not build the missile and radar facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Do you think maybe that they’ve been setting US up for defeat? McC is the one who led in finding Saddam in a hole in the ground. Maybe they are trying to hang McC and his men/women by forcing their defeat/retreat. /tinfoil off
We simply have defeated ourselves in Afghania over the space of the past few months.
And if he does surge the 40K troops, the ramifications and repercussions of his vacillating, the public debate, the badmouthing and dissing of Karzai, his crawdaddying from his campaign statements have already wrecked that potential future endeavor.
Everyone’s made contingency plans. There is no belief left in the determination of the US.
The Obamawallahs have engendered a self fulfilling prophecy which in many ways, in their eyes, gives them a way of Afghanistan, unintended consequences notwithstanding in order to boost Obama’s star (that’s what they think, LOL!).
It wasn’t hitlery. Moveon.org took out a full page ad in the NYT, (for a reduced rate, no less,) calling General Petraeus “General Betrayus.”
hitlery said something about a “willing suspension of disbelief” during his appearance before the senate.
Yes, I remember that.
Wow, Gates sure has been neutered since O took office.
Make up his own mind? Well hell, let’s just disband congress and all the generals and get this dictatorship officially started!
I think that’s a pretty good description of it.
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