Posted on 10/30/2009 8:00:54 PM PDT by kristinn
At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.
Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.
Gibbs was asked about a statement by the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning. The mother, Dona Griffin, said she told Obama, Don't leave our troops hanging," when he asked the families if there was anything he could do for them. Gibbs was asked if Obama feels like he is leaving the troops hanging.
He responded that Obama is trying to "understand the full cost of the war."
MR. GIBBS: Again, we haven't gotten into broad specifics on that yet.
On the first part, Jeff, you know, look, I think -- I don't -- I used to have it calculated, I should just go back and do it, the number of hours that he has spent in these meetings is probably now -- well, at the end of today will probably be getting close to 20 direct hours of his time. The group -- the principals that meet with the President additionally take time to get the material ready, and are prepared to answer questions for the President, probably at least twice as much of that of the President's time the principals have spent.
So obviously we -- the President and his team have spent a pretty big chunk of time evaluating very, very closely each of these individual countries, their relationship together and their impact on the region.
At the conclusion of these meetings, he generally is off to the next thing. I think he has spent quite a bit of time after the meetings back in the office -- back in his office, probably primarily in the Residence at night, going back and reading through his notes, as well as -- notes that he's taken on the meetings, and oftentimes will come out with questions that the team will prepare the answers for, for the next meeting.
SNIPQ--Early yesterday morning when he was in Dover and met with the families, the families said that he asked, is there anything we can do for the families. And the mother of -- Dona Griffin, a mother of the last of the dignified transfers, said that she told the President, "Don't leave our troops hanging." When he walks into the Situation Room right about now, does he have any sense that the time he's taking to make these decisions is leaving those troops hanging?
MR. GIBBS: Again, to go back through what's happened, the President believed that additional forces were needed in March and he added them to get us to a point where we could evaluate the outcome of the election. That obviously has been delayed a little bit, but he believes this is a point in which it's necessary to fully assess where we are. I don't believe the President thinks -- I know he doesn't believe that this assessment is in any way doing that. I think he understands and I think, as you heard him say yesterday in the Oval Office, I think his commitment, particularly after going to a place like Dover, is to understand the full cost of the war.
Some gave all.
Some gave 20 hours.
Happy to share. I’m sure that I found it right here. Feel free to snag it.
You and the others who constitute "We" are deranged.
Zero is over doing it a bit. He probably should drive to the local links to rest a bit.
Figure 4 to 5 hours per 18 holes.
“Spc. Jared Stanjer told his mother during his first and last phone call home before he was killed in Afghanistan, “We need help over here. There aren’t enough troops.”
Obama is too busy entertaining Bill Ayers, George Soros, and Angela Davis in the White House to worry about our blessed troops.
Pure evil.
“This jerk thinks he’s going to go over notes for 20 hours and he’s going to understand the war better than his general. “
One would need to be a narcissist, and a sociopath to think like that. Obama fits both molds.
I spent more time playing call of duty
Maybe if put on TPOTUS he would understand it.
BS ... prolly more like 20 minutes, max!
While Zero contemplates his navel:
Oliver North;
One of the raid participants gave me a matter-of-fact description of what happened next: “Within minutes of the bird going down insurgents rushed to the site and engaged the survivors with small arms. For the next 40 minutes or so we set up a perimeter, protected our dead and wounded and fought back until we could be extracted.”
That’s it. No bravado. Just a straight-forward recitation of what transpired. That’s the kind of people we have fighting this war — as soldiers, sailors airmen, Marines and DEA agents. They meet the definition of hero: A person who puts himself at risk for the benefit of others.
.................
OMG!! Does this man not understand who he is messing with? How long will these Officers and enlisted sit back and watch their brothers and sisters be used as target practice for terrorists?
20hrs. Wow. I have become obsessed with what is going on with Afghanistan, I can’t stop thinking about it or reading about it, hoping that I will come to find out that this administration has done something to help them over there.
I cannot believe that this is happening, it makes me sick to my stomach!
” thinking about the war in Afghanistan.”
Well he is/was a Lawyer. I wonder if he billed for Thinking about an issue.
I’ve worked 20 hours in a day and was actually productive with a last-minute project.
Golf is important to this president. There are other important things he spends his time on also, such as what dog groomer to choose.
The End of an Error - 01/20/2013
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