E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSGood soldiers? “The nation’s top military officer and its top diplomat made clear yesterday that President Obama rejected the advice of his generals in choosing a quicker path to winding down the war in Afghanistan,” the AP reports.
The Washington Post: “U.S. military leaders said Thursday that President Obama’s decision to remove forces from Afghanistan in the middle of a fighting season poses some risk to recent battlefield gains but publicly supported his plan to bring home 33,000 troops by the end of next summer. Neither his civilian advisers nor his military commanders won all that they had sought in Obama’s withdrawal decision, which will bring home 10,000 troops this year and another 23,000 by September 2012. But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander in Afghanistan, said in testimony on Capitol Hill that they believed the president had heard their proposals and set a policy they can carry out.”
The New York Times adds, “Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said Thursday that President Obama’s new schedule for drawing down forces there was “more aggressive” than he had recommended and increased the risk that the military would not meet all its goals. But General Petraeus, pressed for his personal views at a Senate hearing on his nomination as director of central intelligence, said the president had to consider many factors beyond the battlefield and that he fully accepted Mr. Obama’s plan. It would bring home 33,000 troops by September 2012 and withdraw the remaining 68,000 by the end of 2014."
Politico writes up Obama's appearance at the LGBT fundraiser in NYC: "President Barack Obama called for equal rights for gay couples Thursday, but stopped short of voicing support for legalizing same-sex marriage at a gala LGBT fundraiser held in the heart of a state whose legislature is on the verge of taking a vote on the issue. The president couched the notion of rights for the nation’s gay community in the framework of civil rights, casting his own election as part of an evolutionary process in the nation over the last two-and-a-half years, one that also involved economic woes and overseas wars."
First Lady Michelle Obama did pushups with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa.
Leave a Comment:
So the commander in Chief directed a more aggressive draw down than his top generals have advised. so how do we spin this? Is he considering the lives of the troops in harms way in a no win conflict, or is this a political ploy as some would say?
Doesn't matter. If he drawn the troops down at a slower rate, his critic would have lambasted him for spending money nation building in Afghanistan that we could spend here at home. If Obama drew the troops down at a faster rate, he would be accused of "cutting and running." With his current course, he will be accused of not listening to the generals and spending too much money "nation building." Whatever course Obama took, there was an easy line for critics to use against him.
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of
leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own
bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from
foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.
Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally.
Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the
burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.
America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
Americans deserve better."
SENATOR BARACK H. OBAMA, MARCH, 2006
And the GOP/TP is shifting the burden of bad choices (by the GOP/TP) onto the backs of the poor and seniors. So you have a choice to make alwaysfaithfull, do you shift the burden to your mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, or to your children and grandchildren, what a conundrum. It's obvious you don't want to shoulder any of the burden.
Mo - sad to see that you want to argue a point on emotion. What about all those victims of murder, assualt, rape and theft. Don't they figure into your argument?
Since you obviously like emotional arguments, what are you going to tell your aformentioned victims how the left failed to address spending and that America finally started to print worthless paper and couldn't find anyone to pay for ANY social programs. Quite a conundrum there as well.