Posted on 12/02/2009 4:56:35 PM PST by smoothsailing
Congress Should Investigate Those 21 Words In Obama's Speech
by Dan McLaughlin
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
One line in President Obama’s orgy of blame-Bush-for-everything speech last night has prompted former Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, who managed the Afghan war for five years, to call for the President to back up his assertions. Secretary Rumsfeld’s statement, issued in a press release this morning:
“In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that ‘Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.’ Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as Secretary of Defense, deserves a response.”
“I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006. If any such requests occurred, ‘repeated’ or not, the White House should promptly make them public. The President’s assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan.”
“In the interest of better understanding the President’s announcement last night, I suggest that the Congress review the President’s assertion in the forthcoming debate and determine exactly what requests were made, who made them, and where and why in the chain of command they were denied.”
UPDATE: The Administration responds:
Robert Gibbs cheerfully responded to Donald Rumsfeld’s denial that he’d denied troops to Afghanistan with, first, a clarification that Obama had been talking about the post-Rumsfeld era of 2008.
…”I will let Secretary Rumsfeld explain” whether the war in Afghanistan “was sufficiently resourced during his tenure” … and how he thinks “history will judge whether they were or were not sufficient,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs quipped: “You go to war with the secretary of Defense that you have.”
Or, in the case of the Obama Administration, you go to war with the very same secretary of Defense - Robert Gates, the man who held the job in 2008 - that you just threw under the Obamabus. If you recall, Gates himself had testified in November 2008 (after the election) that he expected an additional 30,000 troops to be sent, but the incoming Administration put off its follow-through on that promise until March, and cut Gates’ proposal nearly in half.
21 words don’t say what they used to, do they?
I am not sure about anyone else, but I am glad that Rumsfeld is speaking out.
Another unbelievably irresponsible wisecrack from the spokesman for the POTUS. He speaks too glibbsy, methinks.
Me, too!
I certainly agree with you. Rumsfeld is calling Obama a bald-faced liar, and I’m glad he is.
Sure he upset plenty within the Big Green Machine...but that was needed.
From a military POV, history will treat Mr. Rumsfeld very kindly.
Wait until history judges Obama, Glibbs and all of the democrat hacks in Congress! We have the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind with Climategate. We have an administration and democrat congress trying to literally bankrupt our country and ushering in fascist communism into our country. I don’t think history is going to be very kind to them.
We have been right about all of them so far. Can the proof that Obama is not eligible to even hold the office be far behind?
Maybe Gibbs can explain why the US Troop deaths have nearly doubled under Obama’s watch?
Hehehehe. I love this. Rumsfeld and Cheney going after Obama. The buffoon in the Presidency does not stand a chance.
Because Obama himself denied them, as they were asked for by Gates after 2008, but delayed by the incoming Obama administration. He threw himself under the bus !
It doesn't get any goofier than that, people !
LOL!
They were talking about the denials that occurred AFTER Rumsfeld. OK.
So they were taking about, ahem, the current Sec of Def.
Freakin’ idiots.
that’s going to leave a mark.
Good find, if sad and true.
What retards.
0bama said it, it was a lie, he got caught, they changed their story.
Their changed story wasn’t thought through at all and they have indeed just thrown their own SecDef under the bus as you say.
Can you believe these people are in charge?
The Libs and Media are now getting twisted in their own previous assertions and lies.
It's getting awfully crowded under there.
God bless Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
I’m so thankful they are speaking out. I wish we had more people willing to correct the lies being told by the Left.
I think it is a grave disservice to all those affected by the lies to allow them to go unanswered. It’s also a disservice to generations who will grow up believing those lies unless they are also presented with an accurate means by which to judge history.
How sad that we can no longer depend on journalists to give an accurate account of current events, much less history.
Want to correct that by saying “all” journalists. Thankfully, we still have some with integrity and a desire for accuracy.
Patriotic Americans could NEVER count on the media to tell the truth.
Their agenda was always anti-American. IOW, pro anyone who was against America.
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