Posted on 11/12/2009 8:23:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind
News that President Barack Obama is demanding new Afghanistan options and answers, after months and eight meetings with top officials on General Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops, led ABC anchor Charles Gibson to express exasperation Thursday night: “What new questions are there to be asked after all this time?”
CBS and NBC, however, weren't so dubious. Though Katie Couric painted “a long, drawn out process,” Chip Reid assigned gravitas to Obama as he asserted Obama “has been agonizing over this decision” and “recently immersed himself in the agony of war.” Reid touted: “That the President is so thoroughly researching such a critical decision is a good thing, according to CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate.” Reid acknowledged that “there's great danger, he [Zarate] says, if it looks like uncertainty.”
Journalists, though, are making Obama look more deliberative than uncertain. ABC's Martha Raddatz assured Gibson that Obama “has four options in front of him” and “he wants to combine those options...to find the best option.”
NBC anchor Brian Williams offered no hint of any dithering as he segued “to the overall decision about the way forward in Afghanistan,” providing just one sentence of information: “President Obama has reportedly sent his war council back to the drawing board to come up with new options for a possible troop increase and a way to let the Afghans know the U.S. is not making some sort of open-ended commitment.”
Reid began his CBS Evening News story with how “the President has been agonizing over this decision for two months already, and now he's sending the Pentagon back to the drawing board.” He recounted: “Sources say the President is especially concerned that the options fail to include an exit strategy and a timeline for turning over control to Afghan forces, fail to make clear the commitment is not open-ended, and fail to address mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai.”
Reid also fretted over how leaks are impairing the President, not a common media concern: “There's another problem for the President. Instead of this being debated in the situation room, it's all over the front pages. Today Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he's appalled by the amount of leaking.”
From the Thursday, November 12 World News on ABC:
CHARLES GIBSON: Yesterday, he had his eighth meeting with his national security advisers on the question of sending more troops to Afghanistan. The White House said the President's decision won't be announced until after he returns from Asia. Our chief foreign correspondent, Martha Raddatz, joins us now. Martha, eight meetings, we understand he's raising new questions about a number of plans that are in front of him. What new questions are there to be asked after all this time?
MARTHA RADDATZ: Well, you'd think he'd be through with the questions, Charlie. In fact, we thought this was the last war council meeting yesterday, but there are going to be more. He has two specific questions. How soon could Afghan troops be trained, and what is the exit strategy? He simply does not want this to be open-ended, Charlie. And he has other concerns as well about Hamid Karzai.
GIBSON: But are there definitive answers to those questions?
RADDATZ: Well, I think there are probably better answers. I've talked to military officials today and they said, “look, these are very good questions. We have to get better answers to the President.” He is looking for the best option. He has four options in front of him. He wants to combine those options, somehow, to find the best option.
Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News:
And now to the overall decision about the way forward in Afghanistan. President Obama has reportedly sent his war council back to the drawing board to come up with new options for a possible troop increase and a way to let the Afghans know the U.S. is not making some sort of open-ended commitment. There's also word the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, former army general, has come out strongly against any major troop increase. The President spent a few hours on the ground late today in Alaska, refueling stop on his way to his first trip to Asia as President.
The full story on the CBS Evening News, transcript provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, who corrected the closed-captioning against the video:
KATIE COURIC: Now the road ahead in Afghanistan. It appeared at the beginning of this week that President Obama had finally made up his mind. He was about to agree to a huge troop increase. But that has apparently changed. The President has rejected all the proposals his war planners have given him. Chip Reid in Tokyo is traveling with the President, and, Chip, this has really been a long, drawn out process.
CHIP REID: You've got that right, Katie. The President has been agonizing over this decision for two months already, and now he's sending the Pentagon back to the drawing board. On the way to Japan today, the President stopped in Alaska to refuel and spend time with the troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today we also send our thoughts and prayers to all those who at this very moment are serving on the front lines.
CHIP REID: The visit comes one day after the President told his war council he's not happy with any of the Pentagon's four options for sending between 10,000 and 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Sources say the President is especially concerned that the options fail to include an exit strategy and a timeline for turning over control to Afghan forces, fail to make clear the commitment is not open-ended, and fail to address mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai.
Concerns about Karzai took on new importance with reports that general Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has expressed deep concern about sending more troops until Karzai shows he'll fight the corruption now crippling the Afghan government. Eikenberry, the top general in Afghanistan two years ago, has now joined Vice President Joe Biden in resisting General Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops.
The President has now held eight lengthy meetings in the situation room on Afghanistan. More are expected, and he's recently immersed himself in the agony of war, honoring the fallen at Dover Air Force Base and, on Veterans Day, walking through Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. That the President is so thoroughly researching such a critical decision is a good thing, according to CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate, but there's great danger, he says, if it looks like uncertainty.
JUAN ZARATE, CBS NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CONSULTANT: It's the body language of indecision or the perception of indecision that may matter more in some ways. Matters in terms of how our allies view our sense of resolve in Afghanistan, how our enemies perceive our willingness to have backbone in whatever decision is made.
REID: And there's another problem for the President. Instead of this being debated in the situation room, it's all over the front pages. Today Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he's appalled by the amount of leaking.
COURIC: And, Chip, when is the President expected to make his decision?
REID: Well, the earliest that we could hear this decision from the President is ten days from now when he returns from Asia, but we're told it could still be several weeks.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
He’s most likely just waiting for his marching orders. Wonder what’s taking them so long. Wonder what they are really up to.
He was against the surge in Iraq. He still can not say it was successful. He will not admit the surge turned things arouns and is the reason for our success.
No effin’ way will he send any troops to Afghanistan.
The russians took over Afghanistan because other then poppy, it is one of the largest sources of copper for mining in the world.
Watch that market and you will know.
This is no different from him voting “present” as a senator.
The man is incapable of making decisions, he’s not a leader in any sense of the word.
He thinks by not making a decision he’s leaving both options open, what he’s really doing is letting the decision be made for him.
It’a all about counting votes for obama-care in the US Senate and House.
He greatly fears any meaningful move to reinforce our troops in Afgan will only spell failure for obama-care
Obama’s stalling is just like voting present.
You bastard, Mr. President. My nephew is in Afghanistan!
He is afraid to make a decision. He knows he is unqualified for the job and if he makes the wrong decision then everybody will know it too.
Most of us knew he was a fraud since day one, but he is worried that the Obama bots are starting to catch on.
After nearly 8 months, after Fort Hood, this is getting to be unbearable. Be a man Obama, make a decision, or resign!
I was watching Charlie Gibson on the news tonight (sorry forgive me) he asked about an exit strategy then said is it really that important - my comment in talking to the tv was - it seemed very important last year for President Bush.
I know, I know, never watch network news but there were three tv vans in our neighborhood today and I was hoping to see why.
If Major Garrett has major balls he will ask obama about the increase in casualties on his watch. Then he will hit him with this: “Mr. President, do you not see the connection between your indecision and the casualty rate? What do you tell the families. Is it even realistic to expect your to send more troops considering your opinion of the Iraq surge””
This is what is meant by the differences between LIBERALS and normal. (Sheepdog, Wolf and Sheep)
These damned liberals (sheep) think they know everything, they hate the wolf and yet at the same time hate the sheepdog. Sheep do not understand warfare, do not understand enemies that want them and others dead and hate it when they fail but cover up their failures with more incredibly dumb ideas and hand wringing. The liberals in this case worry more about what Hamas is thinking of them then of the men and women DYING FOR THIS CAUSE.
I am sick and tired of this kind of lackluster idiotic thinking that relegates our dire need for leadership at the political level to meaningless conversation all the while intense effort and resources is poured into how to take down FOX news.
I have said it before but this is just more evidence for holding the position I do...I resent liberalism,...its deadly.
It will be insightful to see the total number of friendly troops killed since MacChrystal’s request and Obama’s response, assuming he ever responds.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today we also send our thoughts and prayers to all those who at this very moment are serving on the front lines.
Generally when warriors are serving on the “front Lines”
it means THERE’S A WAR ON, STUPID.
When Obama says he doesn’t want the resolve to be “open ended” he is telling the Taliban that we will quit at
some point.
The manchild is useless, a tit on a boar hog, a diamond
in a goat’s ass, less than worthless.
Thank God we at least had a real democrat during
WW II, not this jackass.
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