OBAMA: IRAQ=BAD WAR---Ally ally ox in free.
AFGHANISTAN=GOOD WAR---9/11 and all---must win.
BUT CONSIDER THE DITHER FACTOR WITH TROOP LIVES ON THE LINE:
**********************************************
Obama takes heat on Afghan timing
By: Mike Allen
November 15, 2009 04:07 PM EST
SHANGHAI, China – President Barack Obama made no effort to conceal his
irritation when his press corps used the first question of his maiden
Far East trip to ask what was taking him so long on Afghanistan.
Jennifer Loven of The Associated Press had asked: “Can you explain to
people watching and criticizing your deliberations what piece of
information you're still lacking to make that call.”
“With respect to Afghanistan, Jennifer,” the president scolded, “I
don't think this is a matter of some datum of information that I'm
waiting on. … Critics of the process … tend not to be folks who … are
directly involved in what's happening in Afghanistan. Those who are,
recognize the gravity of the situation and recognize the importance of
us getting this right.”
The cool president’s heated response reflected second-guessing from
the press and Pentagon about a process that has spanned eight formal
meetings with his war cabinet, totaling about 20 hours.
The White House has been deliberately portraying the process as
thorough, emphasizing the opposing views the president has considered,
as a way of positing a contrast with President George W. Bush’s
invasion of Iraq.
But former Vice President Dick Cheney has accused the president of
“dithering,” and the military brass has used leaks to push for a quick
decision, with the original hope that additional troops would be in
place well before the traditional spring fighting season.
In a tough column in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times headlined “Obama must
rethink rethinking Afghanistan,” Doyle McManus said the deliberations
were “starting to look like dangerous indecision”: “In George W. Bush,
we had a president who shot first and asked questions later. In Barack
Obama, we have a president who asks the right questions but hesitates
to pull the trigger.”
While foreign trips often provide presidents with a respite from a
pressing issue, Afghanistan has shadowed Obama during his four-country
swing. He has continued to work on his plan on the road. And in their
few opportunities to ask Obama a question, U.S. reporters have pressed
the president on Afghanistan rather than inquiring about Asian
alliances.
Obama will likely have one more war council when he returns to
Washington later this week, even though Wednesday’s session had been
billed as the last one. The president is said to have most of the
information he needs, but is working through some details.
Aides have also begun to express open irritation at the second-
guessing.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who attends the
deliberations but says he does not “have a seat at the table,” told
POLITICO that the impatience on the momentous decision is a symptom of
today’s “A.D.D. political culture.”
“It’s related to politics,” Axelrod said. “No matter what decision he
makes, if he were to send troops, the first brigade would not arrive
until next spring. So this notion that he is delaying is simply not
true. He’s been strong in asking [questions]. He understands what the
parameters are for this decision and he’s not going to be pushed into
it in order to deal with any kind of transient political controversy.”
Referring to the previous administration, Axelrod added: “When the
lives of Americans in uniform are at stake, when enormous resources
are at stake, the president has a responsibility to make a thoughtful,
well-informed strategic decision. It’s something that hasn’t always
been done, and we’ve paid a terrible price for it.”
At a briefing in Tokyo at the trip’s start, White House Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs expressed his frustration, reeling off a list
of news reports claiming to know where Obama was headed.
“First, there were stories that we were coalescing around a certain
amount of options, right?” Gibbs lectured. “Then a week later, we were
sending 34,000 troops. All of you e-mailed me about that. A day and a
half later, we'd settled on 40,000. That was all in about a 10-day
period of time, all with the backdrop of the president had already
made a decision, despite the fact that I had stood up here many times
and said he hadn't.”
In a further blast, Gibbs added: “I can't imagine that people who
listen to whatever sources said the President had settled on a
decision. I would challenge each and every one of you … to call the
people. … Ask them why a decision hasn't been made, after telling
everybody and taking up lots of ink and recyclable paper about a
decision that's already been made.”
Axelrod also jabbed back hard at criticism from former (and future)
Republican president candidate Mitt Romney, who charged that the
president “can't make up his mind on Afghanistan.”
“I know that Governor Romney has never had responsibility for any
decision akin to this, so he just may not be familiar with all that it
entails,” Axelrod told CNN’s John King in a “State of the Union”
interview from Singapore. “But I think the American people are being
well-served by a process that is assiduous and in which every aspect
of this is considered. Because, after all, lives of American
servicemen are involved here. An enormous investment on the part of
the American people, -- we ought to get it right.”
In answering the AP reporter, Obama said the decision will be made
“soon.”
“I am very pleased with how the process has proceeded,” he said. “And
those who participated I think would acknowledge that it has been not
a academic exercise, but a necessary process in order to make sure
that we're making the best possible decisions.”
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=F9AAFCAC-18FE-70B2-A8568801E08452AC
****************************************
"...eight formal meetings with his war cabinet, totaling about 20
hours."---Amazing that a decision was not made when time presses. We
have got to get the new troops delivered, with their equipment (a much
longer process) in time for the Spring Offensive.
Consider from the above: "In Barack Obama, we have a president who
asks the right questions but hesitates to pull the trigger.”
After the campaign and his months in office I have come to the
personal conclusion that Obama is a childlike wus. He is just not up
to decisions of major foreign policy import---all he can do is
apologize for being American.
GP
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
