Posted on 01/25/2009 9:07:51 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama faced down his three top military officials in a policy confrontation during his very first day in office, U.S. military sources have told UPI.
On Wednesday, the president met with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen and Central Command commander four-star Gen. David Petraeus. Gates, supported by Mullen and Petraeus, vigorously argued that the president should back away from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq within the next 16 months and space out the withdrawal over a longer period of time. However, the president instructed the three officials to prepare a plan that would still implement the 16-month withdrawal period, Pentagon sources said.
The discussion between the president and the three officials was friendly and respectful. However, the president's determination to implement his stated policy took the officials by surprise, one of the sources told UPI.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Here we go... Bambi and the Pols will eff up victory.
AMEN!!!
Petraeous is in a tight spot. He needs to stick around a support his troops, but he also needs to do what is right.
Gates however, is just a bureaucrat and soulless.
One way or another Petraeous is a possible candidate for higher office and will be viewed as a rival by Zero.
Kudos to them. Hope they land on their feet when “The Zero” I mean “That One” makes it clear there can be no dissent.
Just DAMN.
Pentagon sources told UPI, however, that the debate over the 16-month timetable is far from over. They said many senior Army officers believe Obama’s timetable is far too tight; they say it is unrealistic to withdraw the 140,000 or so U.S. troops still operating in Iraq, along with their equipment, without running the risk of letting Iran vastly increase its influence and power in Iraq, or facing a resurgence of al-Qaida and other insurgent groups, or both possible outcomes.
Note to all Generals and Military strategists...
“I WON”
signed,
President Soetero-Obama
Thy all 3 should announce their retirements because of this and leave him holding the bag on this stupid plan. Tell him to have the key to Bagdad ready to hand to alQueda because that is what he is doing.
Then they're idiots;
this is what he said he'd do.
Give 0be 6 months to come to the conclusion that “Those are not the 16 months I knew”. If he doesn’t, perhaps some folks will be retiring/resigning.
You’d think this clown could keep his intentions quiet until after the Iraqi elections
A dangerous combination. And "O" has a healthy dose of both.
never a good idea to piss off the military too much.
Øbama’s “I’m the boss” pathology may go over big with the anti-American imbecilic left but it looks terrible to everyone else. It seems to have also pissed off someone high up in the military so much so that “U.S. military sources” released it.
I don’t think Obama really cares what the general’s think. I think he is just as bullheaded as the Democrats in Congress in 1975 who pulled the plug on South Vietnam.
Blue Dog Democrats need to step up to the plate here and Pubblies need to get a spine on this issue. But will they?
All of Barry’s “policies” come with an expiration date. all of them
If Iraq falls, it will be on Barry's hands.
And it would hardly be in Barry's best interests (because with him, that's what everything is about) if Iraq fell and was taken over by Iran or various terror groups.
Is that why we support the POTUS, just none of his policies?
Watch Mookie Sadr dhow up just in time for the election
Then, later in the campaign, he assured voters that he would get the opinions and advice of the commanders in the field before making a decision on how quickly to withdraw.
I hope somebody can find a link to that statement from him. I recall it, but I haven’t found it yet.
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