You Say ChickenHawk, I Say Obama
Sep 23, 2009 Political
Well, it is coming apart for our Resident- he picked the wrong war- he thought (and still, to this day cannot say the words) that the surge in Iraq couldn’t work, probably because George Bush advocated for it.Now that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is going south, he wants out.
Actually, he was never in it, as other Democrats now are beginning to admit. This was just a campaign ploy to try and show that he had some testosterone somewhere in him, when in actuality the opposite is true. Democrats do not like to fight- they have never met a war they couldn’t lose, or a confrontation they could master.
President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
The options under review are part of what administration officials described as a wholesale reconsideration of a strategy the president announced with fanfare just six months ago. Two new intelligence reports are being conducted to evaluate Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.
The sweeping reassessment has been prompted by deteriorating conditions on the ground, the messy and still unsettled outcome of the Afghan elections and a dire report by Mr. Obama’s new commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. Aides said the president wanted to examine whether the strategy he unveiled in March was still the best approach and whether it could work with the extra combat forces General McChrystal wants.
nytimes.com
War is a messy thing in the best of circumstances, and Afghanistan is not that at all. Afghanistan is, as the Russians found out, a very complicated situation. Russia was attempting to conquer the country- we are just trying to unify the country under one leader with a quasi- democratic form of government. Still, the resemblance to attempting to herd cats is still a valid analogy for this tribal country, where there has never been any central leadership to speak of.
So we can agree that the task is hard, but the Resident is more concerned with politics and perception than with real results, and his advocacy for this war was always rooted in relativism- the “perception” of being for this conflict was always more important than the reality of succeeding in this endeavor, despite the blood of our soldiers being spilled for this effort.
Although Mr. Obama has said that a stable Afghanistan is central to the security of the United States, some advisers said he was also wary of becoming trapped in an overseas quagmire. Some Pentagon officials say they worry that he is having what they called “buyer’s remorse” after ordering an extra 21,000 troops there within weeks of taking office before even settling on a strategy.
Mr. Obama met in the Situation Room with his top advisers on Sept. 13 to begin chewing over the problem, said officials involved in the debate. Among those on hand were Mr. Biden; Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton;James L. Jones, the national security adviser; and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
They reached no consensus, so three or four more such meetings are being scheduled. “There are a lot of competing views,” said one official who, like others in this article, requested anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.
Among the alternatives being presented to Mr. Obama is Mr. Biden’s suggestion to revamp the strategy altogether. Instead of increasing troops, officials said, Mr. Biden proposed scaling back the overall American military presence. Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American forces would concentrate on strikes against Qaeda cells, primarily in Pakistan, using special forces, Predator missile attacks and other surgical tactics.
nytimes.com
Oh yeah, there’s a good idea Joe- Why, for the life of me someone doesn’t just sew Biden’s lips shut I will never know- he should be duct taped to within an inch of his life and put in Cheney’s “undisclosed” location. Even Hillary can’t accept this scenario– it runs counter to reality, and as much as I might dislike her personally, she has a better grasp on reality than either the Resident or “Say it aint so” Joe.
Mrs. Clinton, who opposed Mr. Biden in March, appeared to refer to this debate in an interview on Monday night on PBS. “Some people say, ‘Well, Al Qaeda’s no longer in Afghanistan,’ ” she said. “If Afghanistan were taken over by the Taliban, I can’t tell you how fast Al Qaeda would be back in Afghanistan.”
nytimes.com
But sources in the administration and elsewhere finally admit that the support for the ” Good War”- the war in Afghanistan, was only a ploy to try and demonstrate Nobama’s manhood- and that it can now begin to be “disengaged” from, in a delicate and discreet way.
Escalation is a bad idea. The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides they called for withdrawal from Iraq. Nobody asked too many questions sat the time, including me. But none of us should forget that it was a political strategy, not a serious foreign policy.
There have been many campaign promises “adjusted” since the election. There is no reason that the administration should feel any more bound to what they said about this than all the other committments [sic] it has blithely turned aside in the interest of “pragmatism.”
the liberal blog Hullabaloo
Yep- that’s a liberal for you- everything is relative, there is no black and white, just shades of gray, and as we have seen from the missile withdrawal from Eastern Europe, treaties are apparently just pieces of paper, and our word, our honor, means nothing to these cowards. And that is what they are, top to bottom, front to back.
And the words of this Resident, that sounded so “lofty” and principled, and, well- serious- well, you can wad them up and try for a free throw to the trash, because that is, apparently, all they are worth.
“Al Qaeda and its allies — the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks — are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban — or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged — that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.”—— Barak Obama
Yes- that was, and is true- but this Resident is interested in easy results, and doesn’t want to chance being bogged down in a long war- we have a Resident with ADD, and he really can’t concentrate on something for an extended period. This is probably the reason for the teleprompters.
Representative Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, sent Mr. Obama a six-page letter arguing the case for more troops for General McChrystal. “There is no strategy short of a properly resourced counterinsurgency campaign that is likely to provide lasting security,” he wrote.
Mr. Obama now has to reconcile past statements and policy with his current situation.
“The problem for President Obama is he has made the case in the past that we took our eye off the ball and we should have stayed in Afghanistan,” said former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. But now that he is in charge of the war, Mr. Cohen said, Mr. Obama is discovering “he doesn’t have much in the way of options” and time is of the essence.
nytimes.com
The biggest problem for the Resident is that he just does not trust or believe the Generals in charge of this war- which is contrary to common sense, because I can think of no one in this administration that has less experience than our “Commander in Chief” (in name only)– thus, he should, if he was smart, be listening hard to the officers in the field. But he doesn’t. And that is a problem very deeply rooted in the Democratic Leftist psyche.
If someone in the WH doesn’t tell the Resident to shut up and listen, this war will drag on for years, or he will jerk us out of Afghanistan, and he will be the single reason we lost the war here. Al Qaida will have their safe haven back, and the the only way we could respond in the future would be with nukes, because by that time, Al Qaida will have toppled Pakistan as well.
Because Pakistan will have seen how we treated Poland and the Czech Republic, and they will know that Nobama is no friend to have or trust. They will be on their own.
And so will we.
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Tags: afghanistan, coward in chief, hypocrisy, lies, war
We Are Back To A War On Terror
Aug 31, 2009 Political
It was not that long ago that Barack Obama decided we were not in a war on terror. He decided that this phrase as well as a few words/phrases like Jihadists and global war were no loner acceptable and did not reflect what was taking place.
“The President does not describe this as a ‘war on terrorism,'” said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a “new way of seeing” the fight against terrorism. Washington Times
It seems that we are now back to a war on terror and this might have something to do with Obama’s war in Afghanistan. He has sent more troops as part of an increase that started under President Bush’s surge (a strategy Obama said would not work when implemented in Iraq) and now he will likely have to send more if he wants to achieve victory. This has to drive his base nuts because he promised them when he was candidate Obama that he would bring the troops home. It might have looked as if he was heading that way when he softened the terminology but the return to “war on terror” leaves a quick end unlikely.
The term is more threatening than the watered down versions that came out of the White House early on and this might be because Obama wants support for his actions. To be clear, I support any movements that increase troop strength and include tactics aimed at victory but the right is not who needs to be convinced (though we will certainly deride him for his naivete during the campaign). His base is the gaggle that took him at his word when he said he would bring the troops home and they are the ones who need to be convinced.
Obama has not read the assessment of Afghanistan yet (it was sent to the Pentagon today) but it is believed to include the need for more troops. If he decides to send more troops, and it looks like he will, the left will go bonkers. Cindy Sheehan is already ginning up her band of merry mischief makers and it will not be long before the entire left is fed up with Obama and his war.
I want to see an end to war but the only way for it to end is with victory defined on our terms. Obama desperately wants to bring the troops home to fulfill his campaign pledge but now that he is no longer a candidate reality is setting in and he is beginning to see that the decisions are tough and one cannot just make statements or snap fingers and expect results even if the one is the messiah of the left.
It will be interesting to see how the left reacts if this all takes place. The right supports the troops and their efforts and knows that the only exit strategy is victory. Obama won’t have to convince us of the need to support the troops. His task is to reel in his base.
This is a tough position because if they do not side with him he will have hell to pay and if they do it will show once and for all that they are hypocrites.
I think Olbermann will be the first moonbat to jump on board along with tingle leg Matthews. It would not be the first time these guys changed positions based upon the party of the White House occupant.
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Sheehan Now Goes After Obama
Aug 28, 2009 Political
Will she still be darling of the left?
Barack Obama is off on his vacation this week (destroying the country is tough work) and he ran into a bunch of people who are still thrilled with him. That is, all but a few. Anti war protester Cindy Sheehan, the darling of the left when she harassed George W. Bush, turns out to be an equal opportunity moonbat. Sheehan is now near Obama’s vacation spot and will harass him for the troop build up in Afghanistan.
Poor Barack can’t catch a break. He ran for office pledging to end the wars and bring the troops home (frequencies changed from immediately to 16 months) but he decided that it might not be wise to leave the Middle East too soon. This drove his base nuts and his increase of troops in Afghanistan has sent them over the edge. Obama kept saying Afghanistan was where the focus should be but as soon as he focused there, it was not important any longer.
I am not opposed to any of the actions of the administration with regard to deploying troops to Afghanistan (except there should be a lot more of them) and I hope he decides that victory is the best exit strategy. I expect him to exert as much effort on winning in the Middle East as he did winning his current job. I am happy that he has adopted many of the tactics that George Bush employed. I know Obama has “repackaged” them so they are “not the same” but he is basically keeping what worked no matter how much he bashed it during the campaign.
Will Cindy Sheehan be the darling of the left after harassing Obama? Will they allow her to have her way as they did at Crawford or will they arrest her or otherwise force her to leave? The left is caught in between Barack and a hard place because it applauded Sheehan when she attacked Bush. How can they attack this poor woman who lost her son in a war? It will be interesting to see how she is portrayed now that the messiah is in office and the media are his cheerleading team.
Even before all of this some of Obama’s people were saying he has had it so tough that he needs a vacation from his vacation. Obama will go to Camp David after he returns from Massachusetts and will not be back in DC until after Labor Day. His vacation wore him out. According to White House spokesman Bill Burton:
On Monday, Burton pointed to former President George W. Bush’s vacation habits to defend scattered criticism of Obama’s August schedule.
“As I recall, the previous president [took] quite a bit of vacation himself, and I don’t think anyone bemoaned that,” Burton said. Politico
He does not think anyone bemonaed that? What planet was this guy living on? The left always carped that Bush was on vacation. Any discussion about 9/11 leads to people saying Bush was on vacation instead of reading intelligence briefings. The left constantly discussed the supposed 5 week vacation Bush took. It was addressed quite a bit by the left.
From the Washington Post:
President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of — nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.
The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening to clear brush, visit with family and friends, and tend to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.
Here is a site with jokes about Bush on vacation (some are quite funny).
Here is a CBS report that discusses how much time Bush spent at Camp David.
And here is one from the blowhards at the Huffington Post who cry about Bush going on vacation as the Middle East heats up. Anyone read where they made the same complaint about Obama going on vacation while his troop surge in Afghanistan is heating up?
Now personally I don’t care where Bush, Obama or any others go spend their time because they are not really on vacation. The job is an around the clock gig so even during “down time” they are getting briefed and making decisions. I bring it up to point out the stupidity of Burton’s remark. Of course the difference here is that Bush was seen as never working and his vacation was the reason for 9/11. Obama is seen as needing even more time off. Think anyone will blame Kennedy’s death on him? I mean, it did happen while he was on vacation (and in the same state to boot).
Back to Sheehan. She was a moonbat long before this and she will be one long after. I don’t think what she is doing serves any purpose just like I felt when she was doing it to Bush. The left though, celebrated her acts back then so now they have to live with the monster they created.
One of the last things Obama needs is someone like Sheehan reminding his base that he did not keep his word or that he is emulating George Bush with regard to the war.
They told me if I voted for McCain there would be an escalation in the war tempo.
They were right.
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Obama Cuts Defense and Adds Illegals
Apr 9, 2009 Immigration, Military, Political
I have had a go around with several people who claim that Resident Obama is actually increasing Defense spending. It is true that Obama has increased the budget 4% but he took the war funding, which was not part of the Defense budget (it was funded from other sources) and placed it under Defense but the money did not go with it. This means that The DOD will have a budget cut.
As has been reported, the 4% increase in defense spending proposed by Secretary Gates is actually 4% less than what the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted; and, if taken alongside the fact that this budget attempts to fold in spending previously funded by supplemental war budgets, the supposed 4% increase is actually a $8 billion cut in defense spending. The Army is worst hit by folding supplemental spending into the base budget, as it was receiving the most ad-hoc funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. Ace of Spades
Ace goes on to explain this for those who care to look at it. It is easy to understand but in DC math this is considered a budget increase. It definitely is NOT.
While all the grenades are being lobbed around by the bumbler in chief, he continues to throw so many things at the public that it cannot keep up. On top of the economy, the omnibus, the trillions in spending, the 90% taxes to punish people whose contracts were honored, Iranian rockets, North Korean missilesm bows to kings, ACORN and the census, shooting pollution into the sky to cool the planet and all the other distractions, Obama is now ready to make millions of ILLEGALS into citizens.
Drudge is reporting that the New York Times will have a page 1 story tomorrow on Obama’s plan:
IMMIGRATION BILL THIS YEAR: Obama to begin looking for illegal immigrants to become legal, NY TIMES planning to lead in Page Ones on Thursday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE… Developing…
It is time to gear up for a big fight. We cannot allow millions of lawbreakers to become citizens. They broke the law and we need to get rid of them when we find them. We cannot afford to have these blood sucking leeches be rewarded for breaking the law. You get more of what you reward and if we reward these people with citizenship then we will get more and more ILLEGALS coming here expecting the same deal. The amnesty that was provided two times before was billed as necessary to take care of the problem and it would never have to happen again. Now we are looking at millions more becoming citizens, being rewarded for breaking the law.
I read somewhere that immigrant groups (the ones that work hard to help illegals) had John McCain at some meeting looking for his help on this issue. I remember that they all left without a warm and fuzzy feeling because McCain indicated they were on their own. I believe he told them that they made their choice by picking Obama and they needed to go to him for what they wanted.
If I am not mistaken, McCain was basically telling them that he put his neck out for them during the last amnesty debate and bucked his own party which ended up costing him political capital. His message was, I was there for you and in the election you overwhelmingly supported Obama so go ask him for help, don’t come to me.
If that is true then maybe McCain finally got the message. We need to be tough on this. Pay close attention because this is all about politics. Democrats want to increase the number of votes they receive and they can do that by rewarding ILLEGALS with citizenship. Any member who votes for this needs to be voted out of office in 2010. They need to know that is what their vote will cost them.
We will see how this pans out when the NYT publishes the article.
Related:
Flopping Aces
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King Hussein Speaks At Camp Lejeune
Mar 1, 2009 Political
The Evil One visited Camp Lejeune to deliver a speech to Marines discussing how he intends to end the war in Iraq. He also told them what a wonderful job they had done while failing to mention that the US had achieved victory which should surprise no one since Democrats have always said that we lost the war. They have continually ignored our successes and they have clearly communicated that none of George Bush’s initiatives, such as the surge, would work. Barack Obama and “Nobody messes with Joe” Biden opposed the surge and said it would not work. Both refuse to acknowledge that it worked or to give Bush credit for the success. In Obama’s speech I never heard the word victory.
The Marines were well behaved and gave him a warm reception because they respect the office the man holds. It does not appear from the faces in the crowd that they were too happy with the man or his plans. These brave young men and women are well aware of what Obama and Biden have said about the war. They are aware of the Democrats and their assertions that we had lost the war. These Marines were respectful but they did not look too happy. They know a poser when they see one but to introduce the blind to the differences, here is a video depicting how King Hussein and his VK (Vice King) opposed the surge and how they reacted to President Bush:
My friend Wild Thing has a great post with pictures to show the differences between the way Bush as Commander in Chief was received and how Obama as Community Organizer in Chief was received. It is obvious that the men and women who put their lives on the line know who supports them and who does not.
You see, the Marines heard Obama, his lips were moving but the words coming out did not register well. I am sure they had the same trouble with one particular part as I did:
Next month will mark the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq. By any measure, this has already been a long war. For the men and women of America’s armed forces – and for your families – this war has been one of the most extraordinary chapters of service in the history of our nation. You have endured tour after tour after tour of duty. You have known the dangers of combat and the lonely distance of loved ones. You have fought against tyranny and disorder. You have bled for your best friends and for unknown Iraqis. And you have borne an enormous burden for your fellow citizens, while extending a precious opportunity to the people of Iraq. Under tough circumstances, the men and women of the United States military have served with honor, and succeeded beyond any expectation. [emphasis mine] Clips and Comment
No King Hussein, they have not succeeded beyond any expectation. They have succeeded beyond what you and your Vice King as well as you party expected because you ALL expected them to lose and your party declared them losers. Those of us who actually support the military know they have done exactly what we expected them to do and that is win. We know what victory is and the fact that you failed to mention it is quite telling about you. I bet you knew that word when you were running for office. The men and women performed exactly as we on the right, their true supporters, expected because we expected victory all along and that is what they have given us.
You posers on the left have no clue and the military is something that you all despise. Did King Hussein really increase defense spending or did the inclusion of war items, which have been off budget, give the appearance of an increase? Democrats are calling for drastic cuts and the only ones who want increased spending are those in the pockets of defense contractors. Couple this with the NON TRANSPARENT non disclosure memo the DOD folks had to sign agreeing not to disclose budget items and we can see there is something amiss.
The military is not important to the left and they often try to find ways to rid us of as much of it as possible. Barney Fwank, the Congressional dancing queen, continually recommends cuts to military spending (a Constitutional expense) so that we can have more social programs (not a Constitutional expense).
Obama and his minions believe our military has achieved more than was expected because they only expect victory when they run for office. At all other times the left wants to surrender to our enemies.
The men and women in our military know this and this is why 80% or so support Republicans.
Those Marines were respectful but they know it takes more than a community organizer to actually win a war.
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