We're going to need a big push to
wrap this up. Let's git 'er done.
Posted on 11/29/2014 1:01:16 PM PST by Mozilla
On a trip to Afghanistan during President Barack Obama's first term, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was stunned to find a telephone line at the military's special operations headquarters that linked directly back to a top White House national security official.
"I had them tear it out while I was standing there," Gates said earlier this month as he recounted his discovery. "I told the commanders, 'If you get a call from the White House, you tell them to go to hell and call me.'"
To Gates, the phone in Kabul came to symbolize Obama's efforts to micromanage the Pentagon and centralize decision-making in the White House. That criticism later would be echoed publicly and pointedly by Gates' successor, Leon Panetta.
The president's third Pentagon chief, Chuck Hagel, was picked partly because he was thought to be more deferential to Obama's close circle of White House advisers. But over time, Hagel also grew frustrated with what he saw as the West Wing's insularity.
There have been similar gripes from other Cabinet officials, but the friction between the White House and the Pentagon has been particularly pronounced during Obama's six years in office. That dynamic already appears to be affecting the president's ability to find a replacement for Hagel, who resigned Monday under pressure from Obama.
Within hours, former Pentagon official Michele Flournoy called Obama to take herself out of consideration, even though she was widely seen as his top choice and would have been the first woman to hold the post.
Flournoy officially cited family concerns, but people close to her say she also had reservations about being restrained like Hagel and would perhaps wait to see if she could get the job if another Democrat — namely Hillary Rodham Clinton — won the presidency in 2016. .
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Hagel represented the military? Who knew?
Sounds to me that he came to disagree with Obama over Afghanistan and Iraq and Obama would hear nothing of it. So he quit when he couldn’t take it anymore.
That means we need to sh*tcan Dempsey. Only a traitor would "get close" to Obama, given what Obama has done to our armed forces.
It’s hard to believe that any other military in the world would have taken as much abuse as ours has had from Obama without staging a coup.
In other countries, the military-vs.-the-political-leadership dynamic serves as the ‘’checks and balances’’ that ensure a nation’s survival.
Throughout the world, bad leaders can be removed by their militaries when needed, while here we are burdened with a virtually inoperable series of impeachment procedures that ensure our leaders’ survival in office no matter what evil and destruction they may perpetrate.
In fact, like Obama, they can destroy our own constitutional system of checks and balances among the branches of government, which ensures our survival as a democracy, with no repercussions, it seems.
Any bets on Jarrett?
I agree and at least arguably the generals and admirals have not lived up to their sworn oath to “defend the constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic”.
If there is a way to arrest the bastard legally they should DO IT!......even if it costs a few of them their job!
Try getting the military out of power afterwards.
Really, it's a good thing we don't have military coups like other countries.
Once generals get in the habit of deposing elected officials the habit can be a hard one to break.
And of course such coups aren't always uncontested, so there's the possibility of real civil war, or a state of emergency that allows the generals to remain in power for decades, repressing dissenters and potential opponents.
You may think it's cool that the army could through out a president you don't approve of, but if we didn't have the principle of non-interference, it would already have happened, perhaps to a president you do approve of.
Try getting the military out of power afterwards.Really, it’s a good thing we don’t have military coups like other countries.Once generals get in the habit of deposing elected officials the habit can be a hard one to break. And of course such coups aren’t always uncontested, so there’s the possibility of real civil war, or a state of emergency that allows the generals to remain in power for decades, repressing dissenters and potential opponents.
You may think it’s cool that the army could through out a president you don’t approve of, but if we didn’t have the principle of non-interference, it would already have happened, perhaps to a president you do approve of.
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Agreed. A path we don’t want to go down. The outcome is usually ugly and its a bad precedent.
An image that stands out in my mind was a photo of a general (McChrystal, I think) and Obama, shortly after he was elected. The general was briefing Obama on the situation in the middle east and the general’s facial expression said it all. It seemed to me he was thinking ‘after all I’ve been through to get to this rank and here I, four star general, have to take orders from this POS with zero military/warfare/tactical experience. What a crock of $h!t.’ That photo, taken so early on in this presidency, spoke volumes of what we were in store for.
The Military should have kicked out Obama after Operation Gunrunner began and court martial him.
“”close relationship between Obama and Gen. Martin Dempsey””
He’s such a pipsqueak. It’s pretty obvious he is a brown noser! If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t still be there...
“”If there is a way to arrest the bastard legally they should DO IT!......even if it costs a few of them their job!””
They have to settle on which is more important - their job or their country!! Their pensions or their country? What good is the pension when our country is gone?
except none of us EVER in our wildest dreams thought so many things could get so f’d up in this country so fast!
.......what’s transpired is like a fiction novel!
I would place all my money on Jarrett. She would then tell Obama what she thought he needed to know.
I also dread the day a woman is in charge of our military. Ugh!!!
Yes!
But, there was a day when an oath meant something! And a pension was subordinated to the oath!
One “General” that comes to mind, and who’s story is an inverse analogy, was Robert E. Lee. When the Civil War started, he discovered he was in the wrong Army and the wrong country! The easy way out for him was to just remain in the Union Army and take up arms against his friends and neighbors and relatives. But, guided by his conscience, he made the awesome decision to disavow his oath to the Union Army and the USA and accept a commission and take an oath in the CSA.
So, where’s the analogy some freeper will argue? The analogy is that Lee WAS ABLE at CRUNCH TIME to tell the Union Army I cannot support what you are doing and I hereby resign!
The only US Soldier to do that in the Obama age as far as I know was Dr. (Colonel) Terry Lakin. Everybody else is worried about their pensions as the USA is in it’s death throes due to no leadership.
There is just as much, if not more, at stake today as there was for Lee at the beginning of the Civil War.
“”The only US Soldier to do that in the Obama age as far as I know was Dr. (Colonel) Terry Lakin.””
Well written post. I have a hunch that several of the others we’ve seen exit the military since obozo’s entrance onto the political scene did so for similar reasons but it was kept quiet. Too many to be a coincidence. IMO even Petreaus’s exit was suspect.
.......I wonder if Petraeus would have ever spoke up?
........the recent revelation that IRS had turned over to the Whitehouse 2,500 files may explain why everybody is towing the Whitehouse line too. Basically, just your everyday blackmail.
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