Obama’s War-Mixed Messages
The series of stories below from the Washington Post confirm that the vision of escalation of war in Afghanistan differs within Obama’s cabinet. It is also an indication of who actually is driving the train, and it is not the Commanded-In-Chief.
Obama apologists, including Senator John Kerry of former Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) notoriety [despite the short timeframe he led that organization], are trying to narrow the mission as Kerry told Charlie Rose in an interview this week. The administration is going to try selling both a willing Congress [not a hard sell] and American electorate [very hard sell] on a short term commitment of having our troop’s pullout of Afghanistan by mid-2011.
Kerry aside, since he no longer can be taken serious given everything he says is politically motivated, including what he said back in the day, what we really need to be concerned about is the fact that Bush holdovers in the Pentagon, led by Bob Gates, are really driving the train on Afghanistan (and Iraq), and have been since Obama took office, plus making statements to the press (and other media) after Obama’s West Point photo op that does not quite jive with what President Obama said at West Point, or his apologists outside the puzzle palace, including John Kerry, are saying NOW.
ROBERT L. HANAFIN
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
GS-14, U.S. Civil Service-Retired
Editorial Board
VT News Network &
Our Troops News Ladder
Obama’s War
Obama is attempting to change the metabolism of a war that has sputtered along for more than eight years. His order to deploy 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan by summer, and then start withdrawing them a year later, constitutes an acknowledgment that the situation is dire.
Obama: U.S. security is still at stake
AFGHAN WAR TO ESCALATE
30,000 more troops; pullout begins mid-2011
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama announced Tuesday that he will send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan by next summer and begin withdrawing forces in July 2011, making his case to the nation that Islamist extremism in the region remains an enduring threat to the security of Americans.
Editors Note: Okay, the President has done his best to define and narrow his vision of the mission assigned our troops sent to Afghanistan, and the media is finally come to the reality that both Iraq and Afghanistan are now Obama’s Wars. However, comparing the media coverage above and below from the same source: the Washington Post, it needs to be clear to the American electorate (voters) that not everyone in Obama’s administration is on the same game plan or vision when it comes to timelines or narrow focused missions in Afghanistan. What is clear here is that Obama does not have the loyalty of Bush holdovers in the Pentagon, and quite possibly the troops may be placed in a position of following the orders of their Commander-In-Chief who many may not respect or following the lead of Bush holdovers in the Pentagon. This could well place not only our troops but the Obama Presidency, and democracy itself at peril. VT.Ed.
Gates: ‘No deadlines’ on troop withdrawal
Afghanistan drawdown could take 2 to 3 years, defense secretary says
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 4, 2009
The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, scheduled to begin in July 2011, will "probably" take two or three years, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday, although he added that "there are no deadlines in terms of when our troops will all be out."
Even Kerry now uses terminology such as, “we will know if the Obama SURGE fails or succeeds by 2011;” a far cry from a troop pullout by mid-2011, and Kerry does this by putting full faith in the assessment and needs of General McChrystal, and to think I supported this flip flopper in 2004 – shame on me!
Point: Would the John Kerry of VVAW fame, or infamy if you prefer, have placed full confidence in what General Westmoreland and other top leaders were telling the American people when he made his speech before Congress? The Pentagon Papers would have proved Kerry a fool then and listening to Generals once loyal to G.W. Bush and the Republican Party is just as foolish today.
Regardless, John Kerry is not the same Kerry who spoke before the Senate and said these hypocritical words, ""How do you ask someone to be the last American soldier to die for a mistake?"That was over 30 years ago and a lot can happen to any man or woman in 30 years. Mind you I remain indebted to John Kerry and VVAW from preventing me from being the last American soldier to die for a mistake and keeping my name off that Wall in Washington, DC.
Here i
s a challenge to what is left of the Vietnam War generation -where are the John Kerrys of that war when we need leaders to be saying,
Who’ll Be ‘The Last Soldier To Die for a Mistake’ in Afghanistan?
The Swifties for Bush had a lot of things wrong about John Kerry, most of it exaggeration or character assassination, but now I do believe when they said Kerry was a flip-flopper, I know what they mean. Now is the time when WE THE PEOPLE can do without fligfloppers of any political ideology or interests.
Thank God that a new, energized, generation of John Kerrys are emerging leaders of a Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Group Against THEIR Wars – young men and women who at least for now have no political campaign ambitions.
Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.
My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.
Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.
I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.
I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.
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