Obama puts brake on Afghan surge

[jenmito]

"PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded that American defence chiefs review their strategy in Afghanistan before going ahead with a troop surge.

There is concern among senior Democrats that the military is preparing to send up to 30,000 extra troops without a coherent plan or exit strategy.

The Pentagon was set to announce the deployment of 17,000 extra soldiers and marines last week but Robert Gates, the defence secretary, postponed the decision after questions from Obama.

The president was concerned by a lack of strategy at his first meeting with Gates and the US joint chiefs of staff last month in “the tank”, the secure conference room in the Pentagon. He asked: “What’s the endgame?” and did not receive a convincing answer..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5683681.ece

Now THAT'S a LEADER! HE asked Gates and the joint chiefs of staff questions about the plan, wasn't satisfied with the answers, and decided the answers weren't convincing enough! :fistbump:

[Jennicut]

1. Love it Jen. He wants straight answers from the military.

Bush just wanted to believe in falsehoods about how Iraq/Afghanistan were going.

[jenmito]

2. Exactly. If Bush didn't hear what he WANTED to hear,

he'd just listen to someone else (who's not qualified to give him advice) or FIRE those people. We have a REAL CIC!

[firedupdem]

3. These fuckers have been playing with lives like this is a game!

How do you not have an answer for the question "What's the endgame?". Unbelievable!

Thank God we have a President who isn't afraid to ask for real answers!

[jenmito]

5. He's not only not afraid to ask for real answers,

he's not afraid to TELL them they didn't have good enough answers to implement the plan yet.

[firedupdem]

6. Not bad for a

centrist,same as Reid, right wing loving President huh?


:eyes:

[Jennicut]

7. Yeah, I told off that poster. Really idiotic thing to say.

[jenmito]

8. Some here will find a reason to be against this.

:eyes:

[EraOfResponsibility]

10. I'm against it

just joking. :)

[Blue_In_AK]

4. That's very good news.

[eleny]

9. This news made my night

k&r

[Colobo]

11. True leadership.

[Parker CA]

12. Great news!! And even more-so, a very important insight to Obama's concept of strategizing.

Just as I imagine he did with Axelrod, Plouffe and Gibbs two years ago, and as he likely did with his staff a number of weeks ago before taking on the stimulus bill, he asked what the end game result would be? Two years ago it was to win the election, which he did. A number of weeks ago, it was likely that he needed to find a way to pass the stimulus bill, which he will.

And now, with the commanders and top military brass, he lays it right out on the table and asks not, 'how many people are we putting in?' but rather, 'how are we going to get our troops out and home safe in the end?'

He views things in a very complete manner and has a strategy from the onset through what the envisioned completion should be. If he needs to change some tactics as he approaches that completion, that would be natural, but the goal nonetheless remains the same.

It is so incredibly refreshing to hear snippets from conversations like these and to see just how dramatically different our President is from * and the evil empire.

[jenmito]

17. Well put...

good description of how Obama runs things and how he takes charge while listening to others.

[Fireweed247]

39. He's asking questions, he's listening, then he's thinking...

How refreshing!
:applause:
And now he is saving lives
:loveya:

[Undercurrent]

13. “What’s the endgame?” is the most logical,

basic, and intelligent question for any commander to ask. This is true for a field commander, or a Commander in Chief.

Thank God we have an intelligent, reality based President again!

[jenmito]

18. Exactly...

He asks what Bush NEVER asked. Obama is the Bizarro Bush.

[chill_wind]

14. K & R big time.

And the American press on this-- is where? Still trying to figure out how to reframe it, no doubt.

[glitch]

16. Maybe he'll keep them so confused they'll be working on the last meme while he makes his next change

It'd be sweet to see them routed too.

Anyway, this news made my morning! Thanks for posting, K & R.

[jenmito]

19. I haven't heard it in the media at ALL!

I wonder if we will.

[chill_wind]

21. Extremely revealing. I just checked the google.

Nothing but the TimesUk. And-- the FreeRepublic (and some other blogs).

"Damn LIBERAL U.S.Media"! You better believe if that had been the Bush/Cheney Cabal even burping two syllables about Pentagon strategy/fp, it would be dominating on every Sunday morning Pentagon Pundit talk show by today. The silence is eerie.

[jenmito]

22. Can you believe it?

And guess where I got that article-freeperville, just like your search showed. THEY had the article and were ANGRY about it, of course, portraying it as Obama wanting to let al Qaeda go free. :eyes: But since the MSM isn't covering it at all, it's just more proof that they're not liberal at ALL. They seem to only want to talk about Obama's "plummeting" approval rating, his "new partisan tone" and "showing a clenched fist to the Repubs.," and his "lack of vetting."

[chill_wind]

26. There is a pervasive pall of sadness there, I couldn't help notice,

over the demise of certain language and all that it fueled and symbolized for them in their Bush/Cheney loving fantasies: "The WOT is dead!"

[jenmito]

28. Yeah...

I couldn't believe that one: "The WOT is dead!" They don't even know what a war on "terror" IS! Obama wants to get the terrorists who attacked us. You can't have a war on an idea.

[patrice]

15. Oh god, I hope so!!!

I don't want to be a skeptic, but that's almost too good to be true!

[Life Long Dem]

20. Damn right.

And if Petraus is still there I'd remove his ass. Wherever he is Iraq or Afghanistan.

[jenmito]

23. kick

[Bjorn Against]

24. This is certainly very encouraging.

One of the biggest problems I have had with Obama is his prior support for sending more troops to Afghanistan, if he is backing down from that position as this article suggests that is very good news. I must say that since his inauguration Obama has been off to a very good start, there are still a few things I don't like but he has definitely been better than anything I would have expected from any President a few years ago.

[Cha]

25. Thank

Goodness! Someone using logic and history, incredible!

[jenmito]

29. Doesn't it feel great?

:)

[tekisui]

27. Thank You, President Obama.

It almost feels like he listens.:)

[jenmito]

30. He DOES listen-just like he listened to family members of those

who got killed on 9/11 and in the Cole attack. The people went in skeptical of him and came out very impressed with him and his ideas and how HE listened to THEM. They said he's the first president who even agreed to meet with them.

[PurityOfEssence]

31. But wasn't it HIS idea in the first place?

It's great that he's actually thinking about reality and trying to define what "victory" is before going ahead, but HE was the one who tasked the military with expanding the Afghanistan imbroglio, so why didn't HE have a definition of victory? Did he ask them for this when asking for plans for an expansion? That SHOULD be the way: "here guys, let's do this, this and this with the intention of having the end result be THIS", instead of "come up with an augmented deployment plan".

Nonetheless, if he's finally taking a hard look at the reality of the situation and being causal and specific about overall aims, IT'S GREAT, AND HE'S DOING THE RIGHT THING.

One additional wrinkle is the sudden Russian offers to help fight in that hell-hole; one can look at the entirety of Russian military as an ongoing fight against Islam. War after war against the Turks and others have consumed their national energies, and it's very much alive still. That, of course, makes it more of a religious kind of war, but it's hard to avoid the reality of fighting Islamists anyway: it's about religion.

Whatever it takes to keep us out of a stupid, fruitless war, I'm all for it, but he's the one who brought this up well over a year ago, and he's the one who got this far down the pike without a real plan.

To interpret this as Obama standing up to the runaway militarists, however, is simplistic and just plain wrong; this was HIS idea. He asked THEM for a logistical plan to ramp it up, and although final results are a military concern that determines objectives, the military is not supposed to be policy-based; they're supposed to follow orders and achieve results. The POLITICIANS are the ones who are supposed to come up with a definition of what "victory" is.

This is like going to a mechanic and asking him/her to do x thousands of dollars of preventative maintenance on your vehicle, and then dressing the person down when you ask "so where should I drive it?" and there's now answer. At least Obama is stopping the work when he got a perplexed shrug in response, so that's a healthy development, but it's hardly the mechanic's fault, and it's NOT an instance of the mechanic calling him up and scaring him into an expensive repair.

Overall, though, a very heartening development by whatever dynamic. Many of us have been asking for a definition of "victory" in this hellhole for a long time.

[jenmito]

32. "Blah blah blah...

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

[autorank]

33. OK, now it gets REAL interesting

I mean totally interesting. The Petraeus camp defied Obama on Iraq withdrawals by going public against
Obama's draw down in Iraq - 16 months or so. Then the Military Commissions member defied Obama on
Gitmo.

I think that this is both common sense but also the answer to the military for messing with him.

I also think that we'll see Petraeus reassigned and the Gitmo commission guy transferred to the Aleutian
Islands or somewhere like that.

The Military is in an end game. All that can happen now that we're totally broke is a total draw down
of the military world wide 750 installations 67 major bases, no money. Even a war won't save this
structure.

Ask yourself - Why are we basing so many troops in Europe? Can't find an ansewr. That question
will be asked again and again.

I'm surprised at Obama's move and I'm encouraged that he made it.

[leftstreet]

34. "Even a war won't save this structure"

You're absolutely right.

Interesting indeed.

[autorank]

40. Did a little research;)

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/3634

[smalll]

35. Surprising, and VERY good news. Sorry to say, but -

war in Afghanistan is even MORE unwinnable than war in Iraq. :hide: Happy to see this.

[amborin]

36. thank goodness! *any* Afghanistan surge is pure folly....article after article condeming it

Afghanistan is, of long time lore, the "graveyard, where the bones of soldiers of empires lie"

the US military, itself, loves "Three Cups of Tea," which is the opposite of a military surge

[Fireweed247]

37. wow, I am impressed and so happy!

It's almost as if Obama didn't realize what they are up to over there.

'The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous'

[Fireweed247]

38. man, I want give this a rec

Can someone repost this so I can recommend it? I am now happier about Obama than I ever thought possible.

Maybe he should bring this up during the stimulus debate- think of all the money we can save! ( Now if he would just line item veto the new tax cuts and add back on the help for homeless and people in need of low income housing and other assistance...)

[MrSlayer]

41. because there is no convincing, plausible answer. We CAN NOT win there.

There is no endgame. These wars are nothing but bullshit cash cows for the super elite. We always knew this. Will President Obama, who surely must realize this too, actually bring this into the open and bring our troops home? How much danger would he be putting himself in by doing so?

[bridgit]

42. That's right, bush fuckered up Afghanistan so badly w/his psychotic cowboy routine a review...

of just how bad he fucked shit up seems the only responsible next step. Someone will have to explain to Petraeus that he can't just keep riding off to the sound of his own gun fire