Obama Chooses Dempsey to Be Next Joint Chiefs Head

AP via ABC News ^ | Monday, May 30, 2011 | Robert Burns

[kristinn]

President Barack Obama moved Monday to complete an overhaul of the national security apparatus, selecting Army Gen. Martin Dempsey as his new Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman amid a winding down of the war in Iraq, protracted battle in Afghanistan and American assistance to the NATO-led effort against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

Obama announced a new lineup of his top military leadership group in the Rose Garden of the White House just before venturing across the Potomac to pay tribute to the nation's war dead at Arlington National Cemetery. The Memorial Day announcements had been expected, although there was no immediate indication what the military leadership moves might imply for possible changes in military policy.

Already, the president had turned earlier this month to CIA Director Leon Panetta to succeed Robert Gates and secretary of defense and chose to move Army Gen. David Petraeus from his command of the Afghanistan war effort to the United States to replace Panetta at the CIA.

SNIP

The president also announced he has chosen Navy Adm. James Winnefeld to succeed Cartwright as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Army Gen. Ray Odierno as his candidate to replace Dempsey as Army chief of staff.

The nominees have to be approved by the Senate, and Obama voiced hope that could happen in a timely fashion.

Obama called America's servicemen and women "the best our nation has to offer, and they deserve nothing but the best in return, and that includes leaders." The president then traveled to Arlington and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Dempsey, who began a four-year term as Army chief of staff on April 11, will have to be confirmed by the Senate, as will Winnefeld and Odierno.

[quadrant]

Hussein wants a pliable - that is, spineless - officer to lead the Joints Chiefs. He's certain to get that with an Army officer, but never with a Marine.

[kristinn]

BTW, Obama is at Arlington this time, stumbling through his reading of the TelePrompter. And I do mean stumbling. He tripped up on "Staff Sergaent." He's unsure how to pronounce the names of soldiers whose stories he is highlighting.

Last year he was on vacation in Illinois and had his speech zotted by a lightning storm. He ended up giving his speech to a captive audience at Andrews AFB later that day.

[MagUSNRET]

I was particulary ammused (and offended) by his refering to the Naval college at Annapolis as evidently being afloat!! “The USS Naval Academy” (what a blithering idiot!)

[kristinn]

But he’s from Harvard....

[BikerJoe]

I was particulary ammused (and offended) by his refering to the Naval college at Annapolis as evidently being afloat!! “The USS Naval Academy” (what a blithering idiot!)

It won't be if he gets four more years.

[twister881]

Doubtful the word “corpsman” ever will appear on Zero’s teleprompter again.

[MindBender26]

According to both Pattons (WWII and VN) and Schwarzkopf, there are two kinds of officers, “Politicians” and “War Fighters.”

This man may be a fine fellow, but he s NOT a War Fighter.

[verity]

It is deplorable that Presidents do not consult with the sages on FR before selecting nominees. lol

[Red Badger]

I pick floyd patterson!

[Lancey Howard]

Is Dempsey another faggot guy? You know, all in favor of the repeal of DADT and the sodomization of the US military?
Support for that seems to be the main criteria for Ubama and the Democrats’ military appointments these days.

[JudgemAll]

Indeed, something about that Army culture which promotes carrot lovers over sticks, and a bunch of soldiers now being trained to look at their commander with loving little girl eyes for sake of respect and dignity of his Zero highness and his “sl#t” wife as per the vernacular of The View and Schulz.

[rabidralph]

Has he seen any of the “fallen” in the audience yet?

[oneolcop]

He's certain to get that with an Army officer, but never with a Marine.

That's a just plain stupid thing to say.

[napscoordinator]

Is Dempsey another faggot guy? You know, all in favor of the repeal of DADT and the sodomization of the US military?

Sadly I believe that this ship has sailed. I believe it does not matter what Dempsey thinks. Gays in the military are here to stay. Unless somehow he is strong enough to call the whole thing off and get Congress to repeal their votes. It would take a really strong person and maybe Dempsey is the one.....but I doubt it.

[Melchior]

I just finished reading Dempsey’s bio. I am whelmed.

[quadrant]

I doubt it.
For an Army officer, having one’s backbone surgically removed is an essential career step, similar to attending the CGSS or the War College.
One cannot make that claim about most Marine officers.

[quadrant]

No doubt Dempsey will agree when Hussein Obama insists that the rainbow flag - you know the one that flies at the corner of Market and Castro Streets in SF - fly alongside the Stars and Stripes.

[oneolcop]

Just trash talk from somebody who got brainwashed sometime in his late teens.

Certain and Never are absolutes.

Look, I realize you're loyal to your corps, but it's really adolescent to denigrate the members of another service.

Let me quote Gen. James Jones a former commandant of the Marine Corps: "The Marines win battles, the Army wins wars."

[quadrant]

I don't have to denigrate the Army - its doing that for (and to) itself.
Would those wars include Vietnam and Korea, two conflicts run almost exclusively by the Army, and two that are anything but victories?