"We need to finish the fight in Afghanistan... George Bush and John McCain have been weak on terrorism. It's time to finish the fight in Afghanistan."
—Barack Obama 2008
The longer the man on the left ignores Afghanistan, the more letters the man on the right will have to send grieving parents.
The difference is that the man on the left doesn’t care, and the one on the right will grieve along with the parents.
The U.S. casualty count since Barack Hussein Obama refused Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s emergency request for 40,000 troops in Afghanistan has increased by eight following a coordinated attack by Taliban forces in Kamdesh District of Nuristan Province, a remote mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan. (Map of Afghanistan with Nuristan highlighted below.)
As many as 200 militants assaulted two US/Afghani outposts manned by 48 American soldiers and 24 Afghan soldiers who were outnumbered nearly three to one during the four-hour firefight that was finally ended by US airpower.
It was the largest loss of life in the theater since nine Americans died in a battle 15 months ago.
And while our young men and their allies were fighting and dying Saturday, their Commander-in-Chief also faced a hard evening.
AP reports:
WASHINGTON — There was no fancy outing as the Obamas celebrated their first wedding anniversary since they moved to the White House.
Instead they kept it simple, with a dinner out Saturday night at an elegant, American-fare restaurant near Georgetown. The evening was balmy and the moon almost full.
President Barack Obama stayed in all day before taking a motorcade with Michelle Obama to 
the Blue Duck Tavern to mark their 17th wedding anniversary.
The anniversary dinner came after a whirlwind week that saw the Obamas fly to Copenhagen to make an unsuccessful pitch for their hometown of Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics.
Lyrical and lovely, no?
YLSIL: That’s not fair, GA; you shouldn't criticize POTUS for celebrating with his family.
GA: Oh that’s right; there’s a no-bitch zone surround BHO. Funny, I remember President Bush who ate and slept the war against terror Overseas Contingency Operation in Iraq and Afghanistan being laughed at and ridiculed for stating he would no longer play golf out of respect for the troops in time of war.
But enough of that; this CnC spends more time talking about everything from volunteerism, nutrition, thermostats, electric cars to college basket playoffs on TV than he does commanding the OCO in the Middle East.
McChrystal is hardly alone in his concern; the British Chief of the Chief General Staff, Gen. Sir David J. Richards, has issued a wake-up call to the public by warning of the "terrifying prospect" of a defeat in Afghanistan.
In an unprecedented comment, Gen. Richards described the conflict as "this generation's war" and added that failure by NATO would have an "intoxicating effect" on militant Islam.
By and large, McChrystal must feel like Col. Travis at the Alamo or Maj. James Devereaux on Wake Island; he calls for backup, because the situation may well be in doubt without reinforcements.
But when the red phone rings at the White House, the military is instructed to leave a message.
Talk on the Tarmac
So convinced of his own importance and driven by his arrogance, Obama had a photo op aboard with Gen. McChrystal aboard Air Farce One so he could say that he’s met with his commander at least twice during his 10 months in office.
‘Course you know what the 25 minutes consisted of…. it was Truman/MacArthur in reverse. Obama telling his lead general to keep his mouth shut. According to sources close to the administration, Gen. McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.
That’s why Barry ordered him for some tarmac talk while he was micro-managing the Olympics in Denmark; he was not serving his Constitutional duties, but his handlers and cronies.
So where is Gen. David “Surge” Petraeus in all this?
Unfortunately, the successful Iraq commander who made our left-wing enemies in this country (and Congress, including Obama) eat crow, is ducking for cover.
From the NYT:
General Petraeus’s aides now privately call him “Dave the Dull,” and say he has largely muzzled himself from the fierce public debate about the war to avoid antagonizing the White House, which does not want pressure from military superstars and is wary of the general’s ambitions in particular.
Why?
Because despite being responsibility for a two-front war, Obama is more concerned about Petraeus as a potential political adversary in 2012 than the war.
I think that’s obscene, but I’m not a petty, insecure, narcissistic coward who is uncomfortable with “victory” as is the President of the United States. Sadly, quashing the successful commander stills an importance voice for our troops and the much needed surge.
If not McChrystal or Petraeus, who is POTUS listening to?
There are two it seems. First, it’s former Marine Commandant and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. James L. Jones (Ret.)—Obama’s National Security Advisor —in all this?
It’s speculated that Jones' record suggests he is "someone who, unencumbered by strong ideological leanings, can evaluate ideas dispassionately whether they come from the left or the right. This is probably why Obama picked him."
He is also known for this quote:
Speaking to Marines in July 1999, shortly after assuming the post of commandant:
It’s OK to have fun in the Marine Corps. I like to say we are an imperfect people working in an institution that tries to be perfect. That is a noble thing, but you have to realize there is no perfect. We’re human.
Not exactly Chesty Puller is it?
Second is JCS Chief Adm. Michael Mullen.
Faithful readers will recall my post regarding Mullen:
“
Chairman of the JCS Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said he was ‘shocked’ by the piracy of a Saudi Arabian supertanker 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya in the Arabian Sea.
“’I'm stunned by the range of it, less so than I am of the size,’ he said.
“I can't express how Mullen's admission fills me, as an American in my post-9/11 world, with rage and disbelief.
“If I were George Bush I’d immediately sack Mullen and get someone, anyone who doesn't sound like a whimpering goddamned civilian.”
I imagine Mullen is exactly the kinda guy Barry likes in charge… “shocked and stunned” just like he is.
for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.” --- Nobel Laureate and sometimes president B. Hussein Obamagets to the heart of why many of us found the Peace Prize selection both risible and offensive. Risible in the sense that Obama had been President for 12 days when he was nominated and hasn’t accomplished anything on the world stage since — no new treaties, no peace brokering, and certainly no change in the Bush “war priorities” that they explicitly criticized when they awarded the 2002 prize to Jimmy Carter. Offensive in the sense that it smacks of lecturing America on our foreign policy rather than focusing on real efforts for peace, a number of which the Nobel committee overlooked, although by this point it’s so unsurprising as to be only barely offensive.
The Nobel “Peace Prize” is a joke; started by Alfred Nobel—the inventor of dynamite—who became vastly wealthy on things that go “boom”, established the Nobel Foundation in an effort to buy his way into heaven to atone for the untold legions he helped kill. 
Recent Comments