Wouldn't you love to have been at this event?!
Posted on 12/02/2009 11:23:13 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday lashed out at President Obama for claiming the Bush administration rebuffed commanders' repeated requests for more troops in Afghanistan.
In a rare break in his public silence since leaving the Pentagon, Rumsfeld rejected the claim as a "bald misstatement" and "disservice" that cannot go unanswered.
"Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as secretary of defense, deserves a response," Rumsfeld said in a written statement. "I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006."
The president leveled the charge in his speech Tuesday night outlining his plan to send 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan.
In his speech, Obama gave a detailed history of the Afghanistan war starting with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He argued that the Iraq war drew needed resources away from Afghanistan, allowing the situation to deteriorate since 2003.
"Throughout this period, our troop levels in Afghanistan remained a fraction of what they were in Iraq," Obama said. "Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained Wednesday that Obama was referring to requests that came in during 2008, and suggested Rumsfeld was on thin ice with his criticism. (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Obama tells another lie, gee what a surprise.
You've been President a year, Barry, quit whining, man up and start making decisions.
You get him, Rummy.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained Wednesday that Obama was referring to requests that came in during 2008, and suggested Rumsfeld was on thin ice with his criticism.
“I will let Secretary Rumsfeld explain ... whether he thinks that the effort in Afghanistan was sufficiently resourced during his tenure as secretary of defense,” he said..”
LOL, GIbbs, you DOOFUS! So, if the totus was referring to Afghan troop decisions made in 2008, then you just threw SecDef GATES under the bus? D’OH!
Folks, this WH is being occupied by dumb and dumber- you pick.
OK, then let’s hear from Gates?
Now that Gates is joined at the hip with Zer0, didn’t he just diss his own man???
Interesting to notice that Obozo doesn’t even mention that killing or capturing Bin Laden is an objective of his war strategy in Afghanistan.
From his campaign to get elected: As recently as October 7, 2008 in a presidential debate, Mr Obama said: “We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”
Now that he’s got the job, I suppose its best to keep the expectations low so that its not so obvious that he failed. Kind of like Saving or Creating Jobs. What a lying jack off.
Gibbs’s claiming that this was actually done (or not) in ‘08 speaks poorly, then, to Obama’s choosing to retain SecDef. Gates, doesn’t it?
These people just don’t know how to a) tell the truth or b) accept grownup responsibility.
We have, and I write having lived thru the clinton mess and carter mess, a president who does not know what in the hell he is doing. Period. And it shows.
And his classless tribe of liberal blobs that advise and write for him, well, lol, they are EXACTLY what a inept jerk like uhbama would hire...creeps totally out of the marxist playbook-people without conscience who have never sacrificed ANYTHING in their lives but demand it from others. Real dirtbags....take gibbs and his ugly comments-so fitting to his swarmy, nasty, arrogant and extremely ugly personality.
Not to worry. The AP will put 11 fact checkers on this immediately.
“Gibbs’s claiming that this was actually done (or not) in ‘08 speaks poorly, then, to Obama’s choosing to retain SecDef. Gates, doesn’t it?”
An alternative way to view this is that Obama’s incoming SecDef already was well aware of the need for more troops from the day Obama was sworn in, yet it took until March for that to get “formalized” into a request to Obama, who then SAT ON THE REQUEST for 8 months (”dithering”) and only now has given the authorization to proceed.
Yet Obama claimed in his speech that his delay in no way affected when the first troops would arrive in Afghanistan (I’m still waiting for MSM to fact-check this implausible claim). If he can authorize these troops in December and get the first ones there by Jan., it’s pretty obvious that had he not dithered, a decision made in late Jan. of 2009 could have resulted in the extra troops being there by March!
So kind- Sorry for the double post.
Wouldn't you love to have been at this event?!
I turned him off at that point also. A true Commander in Chief would take charge, make a timely decision and take full responsibility for it -- not blame his predecrssor. When the country was hit on 9/11, President Bush never once blamed Clinton for letting OBL get away. He never once claimed he "inherited" the mess and the trimmed down military Clinton left for him. Obama came off as a real wimp last night.
He’s calling the Obama Administration out on their lies. Good for him.
LOL! “You Lie!!!”
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.