Obama: Hostage To Petraeus

The Atlantic ^ | Wednesday, June 23, 2010 | Andrew Sullivan

[SunkenCiv]

David Petraeus is the real Pope of counter-insurgency and if he decides that he needs more troops and more time and more resources in Afghanistan next year, who is going to be able to gainsay him? That's Thomas P. Barnett's shrewd assessment. Obama's pledge to start withdrawing troops in 2011 is now kaput... It really is Vietnam -- along with the crazier and crazier rationales for continuing it. But it is now re-starting in earnest ten years in, dwarfing Vietnam in scope and longevity. One suspects there is simply no stopping this war machine, just as there is no stopping the entitlement and spending machine... now we have the real kool-aid drinker, Petraeus, who will refuse to concede the impossibility of success in Afghanistan just as he still retains the absurd notion that the surge in Iraq somehow worked in reconciling the sectarian divides that still prevent Iraq from having a working government... Obama will run for re-election with far more troops in Afghanistan than Bush ever had -- and a war and occupation stretching for ever into the future, with no realistic chance of success. Make no mistake: this is an imperialism of self-defense... continuing this struggle will actually increase and multiply the terror threats we face -- as it becomes once again a recruitment tool for Jihadists the world over... Maybe this is why you supported Obama -- to see the folly of nation-building extended indefinitely to the least promising wastelands on earth, as the US heads toward late-imperial bankruptcy. It is not a betrayal as such. But it is, in my view, a huge and metastasizing mistake.

[SunkenCiv]

Click the image to see more screed from this "no party or clique" jackass.

[SunkenCiv]

Here's the link to what Sullivan purported responded to -- same date.

10 Things to Know About the Petraeus-McChrystal Switch
by Thomas P.M. Barnett
author of Great Powers: America and the World After Bush
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Whatever the general wants, the general will get. After firing his Afghanistan commander twice in just thirteen months, Obama has no choice. Petraeus now outranks every administration player on Afghanistan. Save Obama -- officially, at least... Frankly, the new sheriff's strong personal relationships with the Pakistani military and security forces will matter a helluva lot more than which of McChrystal's lieutenants he keeps on or gets rid of."King David" has no peers when it comes to counterinsurgency credentials, having overseen the creation of the Army-Marine Corps's seminal field manual and commanded its first successful application in Iraq. If anything, Obama has now doubled-down on the COIN path in Af-Pak, so the COINdistas haven't taken any sort of hit.

The Pope, the King -- and no complaints from anyone about referring to both of these writers as jackasses.

[chris_bdba]

This is the first thouht I had wne it qwas announced he was taking over. I wondered what Obama told him to get him to take the demotion. I’d bet that he was told whatever you want....

[Slings and Arrows]

I’ll be damned - the old queen is right. All Petraeus has to do is resign, and Zer0 goes down.

Petraeus now holds Zer0’s..administration...in the palm of his hand. Squeeze, General, squeeze.

[FreeAtlanta]

We had the Vietcong on the ropes, but our anti-American media won a big victory for the communists.

[hinckley buzzard]

it is now re-starting in earnest ten years in, dwarfing Vietnam in scope and longevity.

Andrew Sullivan really is a dipshit. Afghanistan dwarfing Vietnam, with its six hundred thousand troop commitment and 59,000 dead and missing? I don't think so. But then I'm not a limey poofter so what do I know.

[detective]

There is a coordinated operation within the MSM to:

1. Make sure the U.S. loses in Afghanistan.
2. Make sure Obama bears no responsibility.
3. Destroy the careers and the reputations of the military officers who were successful during the Bush years.

Obama is universally praised as brilliant and a great Comander in Chief for firing McChrystal and replacing him with General “betray us” who Democrats and the MSM hate. The MSM is also careful to include the fact that “betray us” supposedly formulated the policy in Afghanistan, he is clearly being set up to fail. Meanwhile, Obama who has been worse than incompetent as CIC and who has created an atmosphere of infighting and sabotage within his administration is praised as a brilliant leader. Petreaus will be sabotaged as McChrystal was.

[downtownconservative]

Another take on this is that O’bummer needs to be well engaged in this war when he comes up for nomination and reelection in 2012. A major platform will be that any disruption in the DC power structure would jeopardize the entire effort.

[freespirited]

If Afghanistan is Vietnam, the current RAT president wont be running again.

[grey_whiskers]

All Petraeus has to do is resign, and Zer0 goes down.

Shhhhh. With language like that, you'll bring Larry Sinclair to Sullivan's mind : and then he'll go into Al Gore ("crazed sex poodle") mode on us.

Cheers!

[RobbyS]

As Mac Arthur said to “Ridgeway in December, 1950: “It’s all yours, Matt.” Petraeus, however, is wearing both hats.

[Slings and Arrows]

> > All Petraeus has to do is resign, and Zer0 goes down.

> Shhhhh. With language like that, you’ll bring Larry
> Sinclair to Sullivan’s mind : and then he’ll go into Al
> Gore (”crazed sex poodle”) mode on us.

Thank you very much. I will now vomit up every meal I’ve eaten since 1974.

[twister881]

Petraeus now holds Zer0’s..administration...in the palm of his hand. Squeeze, General, squeeze.

Actually, it's Obama's b@!!$ in the palm of his...er, wait the Muzzie-Commie Kenyan Usurper doesn't have any.

Actually, it's Michelle-Wookie's b@!!$ in the palm...

[RC2]

David Petraeus will not be sabotaged by this President. America knows what they have in David Petraeus. The other thing is that the President is running out of choices and must keep Petraeus. I figured that Petraeus would not have accepted the job unless he got exactly what he wanted. He’s a warrior and wouldn’t have accepted less. He knew he had Obama by the short hairs and Obama knows it also. If Obama ever, EVER, fires this general, he’s done and may be forced out of office.

[Albion Wilde]

All Andrew Sullivan really cares about is that taxpayer dollars be spent to ram homosexuality down everyone else’s throats. Who died and made him an astute commentator on international affairs?

[SumProVita]

Hmmmm...I see that Barnett has finally seen some light on Obama.

[Albion Wilde]

If Afghanistan is Vietnam, the current RAT president wont be running again.

From your keys to God's ears...

"I shall not seek, nor will I accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

[csmusaret]

The media conveniently over looks the fact that McChrystal was handpicked by Obama. Obama then gave McChrystal’s plan and COIN strategy his personal blessing including an additional 21,000 troops initially, followed by a surge of 30,000 more(which won’t be complete until September). They can call appointing Petraeus brilliant, but that appointment was caused by Obama’s collossal failure with McChrystal.

[Mariner]

I cannot, and not for want of trying, come up with a real strategic or essential US National Security Interest for the US being in Afghanistan.

Once we routed the Taliban the first time we should have invited the Russians, Indians, Chinese...WHOEVER to come in and set up some type of government, any type which is not Islamic.

Our interests would have been FULLY satisfied by stopping right there...and out by 2003.

[Don Corleone]

Wasn’t he the “General Betray Us” the libs piled on just a little over a year ago? They are so out of it that they will just support anything the Obama regime offers up. No intellect at all, just robots to Communist groupthink!