Posted on 10/05/2009 7:41:35 AM PDT by peggybac
The relationship between President Barack Obama and the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has been put under severe strain by Gen Stanley McChrystal's comments on strategy for the war.
According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.
The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bi
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Kinda reminds one of the Truman / MacArthur dust up.
Reminds me of a joke... A soldier, an engineer, and a mathematician are staying at a hotel.
At midnight, the fire alarm goes off. The soldier jumps out of bed, throws open his door, and sees a fire in the ashtray across the hall. Seeing a firehose right next to it, the soldier grabs the hose and gives a full 30 second blast on the fire, absolutely obliterating the fire, the ashtray, and the carpets. But the fire's out, and the soldier goes back to bed.
At 2 AM, the fire alarm goes off. The engineer jumps out of bed, throws open his door, and sees a fire in the trash can down the hall. He also sees the fire hose, so he grabs the hose, does a few quick calculations about the size of the fire, the flow rate of the water, the water pressure, and opens the nozzle for exactly 1.94 seconds, whereby the last drop of water to reach the fire snuffs out the last glowing ember, leaving a pile of wet ash and a cloud of steam. The fire out, the engineer goes back to bed.
At 4 AM, the fire alarm goes off again. The mathematician jumps out of bed, throws open his door, and sees a fire on the courtesy phone table by the elevators. He sees the firehose just a few feet away. The mathematician thinks for a second, proclaims "A solution exists!" and goes back to bed.
That's because our media hides things that make Obozo look bad. This information came from the UK.
If the General goes to Congress - our lamestreams would have to report on it. Fox Cable is usually the only TV that shows the truth about what is actually going on.
How long has it been between full cabinet meetings for the Obamassiah? I think that's a good indication of how soon he'd talk with the general...
Yeah, Obama got what he wanted a photo op, er I mean meeting with the General.
I am sure that the general has made his views made known privately to both the President, his military superiors, and to NATO, since he wears two hats as both the US and NATO commander. His 66 page report was leaked by the WP and put on line.
If I recall correctly, General Petraeus publicly supported a sugre strategy, including before Congress. The Dems are blocking McCrystal's apperance before Congress.
Ultimately, McCrystal will have to make a decision if he does not get the resources he has asked for. Obviously, he believes that a decision should be made sooner rather than later, because the more time that elapses, the less our chances for success. If Obama doesn't like it, then he should fire McCrystal now like Truman did with MacArthur. I doubt that Obama has the stones to do it like Truman. Obama is not a leader. He prefers to blame others for his failures and problems.
Truman fired MacArthur for making “unauthorized policy statements”. Many Korean War vet's were on Mac's side, including my own father, but MacArthur, who had an ego about the size of Jupiter was totally out of line and the firing was necessary.
I respected both for their actions. They both did what their honor and duty required. I can recall MacArthur's farewell speech before Congress. Here is part of it:
"I called for reinforcements, but was informed that reinforcements were not available. I made clear that if not permitted to destroy the enemy built-up bases north of the Yalu, if not permitted to utilize the friendly Chinese force of some six hundred thousand men on Formosa, if not permitted to blockade the China coast to prevent the Chinese Reds from getting succor from without, and if there were to be no hope of major reinforcements, the position of the command from the military standpoint forbade victory.
I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a solution. Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said in effect that I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there is no substitute for victory.
"Of the nations of the world, Korea alone, up to now, is the sole one which has risked its all against communism. The magnificence of the courage and fortitude of the Korean people defies description. They have chosen to risk death rather than slavery. Their last words to me were: "Don't scuttle the Pacific."
I have just left your fighting sons in Korea. They have met all tests there, and I can report to you without reservation that they are splendid in every way.
It was my constant effort to preserve them and end this savage conflict honorably and with the least loss of time and a minimum sacrifice of life. Its growing bloodshed has caused me the deepest anguish and anxiety. Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.
I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams.
The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-by.
And the war in Korea was never officially ended. Instead we have a truce. And now North Korea has nuclear weapons.
“The relationship between President Barack Obama and the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has been put under severe strain by Gen Stanley McChrystal’s comments on strategy for the war.”
No, it was put under severe strain when the pretender in chief sat on the request for more resources (apparently without even reading it) and refused to meet with the general for months all while the general’s men WERE DYING IN THE FIELD!
He already has.
And that was the endgame here. It wasn't so much to really talk (25 minutes??) to the general, but to get that photo to rebuff growing critisism that Obama hadn't met with McCrystal. Plain and simple, that is why this meeting took place.
Its probably the best shots of the bunch.
Kansas58: “This brave General did his duty, to his country, by exposing the evil and incompetence of Obama.”
Wrong! The military works for civilian leadership. POTUS is the commander in chief, and so long as he doesn’t issue unlawful orders, the military is obligated to follow him to the best of its ability.
McChrystal is free to resign or retire. Otherwise, he is not supposed to publicly air his disagreements with the POTUS or carry on a public relations campaign to force the POTUS to follow a particular strategy (no matter how worthy that strategy is).
Your post made me feel a lot better about this situation. I think you are correct that General McChrystal’s standing up for his war fighters puts the Obama administration in a very tight spot. We need to support the general by pouring it on with our representatives, senators, and the white house directly. They need to sweat.
Obama is also “free” to fire him. Go ahead Obama, “Make my day.”
Obama is a skinny little nothing of a person who takes himself far too serious and likes to play the badass. I would love to have gotten his butt on the playgrounds of inner city Baltimore when I was a kid. He was the kind who always ran home to mommy whimpering.
I agree with your post except military “tradition” does not let the chief executive set military objectives and strategy. The POTUS is commander in chief, literally. Tradition has nothing to do with it. Obama is the legal/constitutional commander of the US armed forces.
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