Mullen mollifies/pacifies the Right Wing

[boston bean]

It's nothing new. We must not make the Right angry. We must cow tow to them. I have taken the time to transcribe Admiral Mullens interview on CBS. Nothing about a hardline on withdrawl, it's all about how it's soft. If this guy doesn't know the real strategy and he's lying, I don't know what to say, except I don't think he's lying. I'm pretty sure the withdrawl timeline is a bunch of bull pucky.....

Harry: Can we talk about this 18 month timeline a little bit there is confusion for the last day or so about whether or not it is a target or a date certain. What is your understanding?

Mullen: It’s very clear that the president has given us guidance that in July of 2011 we’ll start to transition security responsibility to the Afghan national security forces, the army and police. And in doing that there is no determination of how long that will take, so there is no withdrawal date on the right hand side of that there’s no specific guidance with respect to how many it could be very few it could be a large number. He also said and I think this has gotten missed often times, he will do this responsibly and it will be based on conditions on the ground.

Harry: The Afghan military and security forces are the real wild card here. Can you give us a number that you think are battle ready today and how many you think you need to have ready in a year and a half?

Mullen: We have about for the Army, we have about 96000 who are in the Afghan Army today..

Harry: Are they capable of operating on their own. We saw this in Iraq too. There were hundreds of thousands of troops, very few that could actually function.

Mullen: Right and it’s about 55 or 60 thousand that are out there operating in the field and the vast majority of those are partnered with us. There aren’t that many that are in the lead, there are very few. But not unlike Iraq, that’s the challenge, we’ve got to work with them and the significant in strategy that Gen. McCrystal put in place is this partnering. We’ve got about 80 percent of the Afghan forces that are partnered with US forces and that will continue to grow. And if I can Harry just on partnering, that means company size units working with company size units.

Harry: Plenty of the people in the military are already in their second and third tours in Afghanistan. Which puts an enormous strain on them and their families. Are we asking to much of some these folks?

Mullen: Well I spend a lot of time with them as does my wife and we know the stress and strain and pressure that they are under. They truly have been magnificent. Chief of Staff of the Army General George Casey spoke with me a couple of days ago and says he is ready and the Army is ready to execute this strategy and manage it over the next couple of years. We are moving slowly to a point where our troops will be home twice as long as they are deployed. It’s going to be slower for the Army than it is for the Marine Corps.

Harry: Admiral we thank you for your time this morning.

Mullen: Thanks Harry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcRTQ4fwoD8&feature=player_embedded#

[BeFree]

1. Senator Kerry says:

I would hope that just as the exit strategy is based on conditions on the ground, so too should our strategy for escalation be based on conditions on the ground.

I continue to believe that, absent an urgent security need, we should not send American troops in to clear places unless we are confident that we have the Afghan partners and resources in place to build on our victories and transfer both security and government functions to legitimate Afghan leaders.

Frankly, I am concerned that additional troops will tempt us beyond a narrow and focused mission. And, with 30,000 troops rushing into Afghanistan, I believe we will be challenged to have the civilian and governance capacity in place quickly enough to translate their sacrifice into lasting gains.

[boston bean]

2. Is Senator Kerry for the surge??

This whole timeline thing is a red herring for the sycophants to grab hold of and use as a talking point.

Republicans want us there and to continue to stay and are criticizing giving a date.

The date means nothing, nada, zippo.

[BeFree]

3. No, Don't think so

He says that a surge with out a follow up in place will be a waste.
But I also think he sees no other way than to keep at it. He doesn't think abandoning the field is a good idea. He has too, he voted to invade.

[lamp_shade]

4. Mullen makes me nervous. I watched several hours of this week's hearings. Gates' answers were

quick, clear and confident. Mullen... not so much. Too much hesitation, stuttering and "What I meant to say was...".