Generals fret while president plays a round

Sept 30, 2009

By Monica Crowley

President Obama has been taking time out of his busy schedule of stalling on Afghanistan to spend hours on the golf course each Sunday. Will somebody please inform him that if he still wants to behave as a community organizer with loads of time on his hands, the community that needs direction is our military in Afghanistan. And that his generals are on Line 1.

In an astonishing admission on Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, Mr. Obama’s own choice to lead the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, said he has only spoken to the president once since taking command there.

Stunned, CBS reporter David Martin made sure he had heard the general correctly: “You’ve only talked to him once in 70 days?”

“That’s correct,” Gen. McChrystal replied.

You can cut the irony with a knife because it was Mr. Obama and his fellow liberals who relentlessly attacked President George W. Bush for having no strategy for victory in Iraq and not listening to dissenting views from his generals, Congress and others.

Of course, Mr. Bush did continually hear out differing viewpoints, speak regularly to his commanders and ultimately settle on the surge strategy for Iraq, but that didn’t stop Democrats from blistering him anyway. Perhaps it’s finally dawning on Mr. Obama that the presidency is difficult and that Mr. Bush did the best he could, given the range of choices.

For two years, Mr. Obama spoke of Afghanistan as a “war of necessity” that was neglected for “the wrong war” and the “war of choice” in Iraq. If elected president, he said, he would prioritize Afghanistan, immediately effecting a “stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy.”

We can be forgiven, then, for believing that he actually hadsuch a strategy.

In March, Mr. Obama announced that the new strategy was in effect, but he didn’t identify any specifics beyond accelerating the troop buildup already ordered by Mr. Bush.

In June, he appointed Gen. McChrystal to “carry out the new strategy.”

Read more at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/30/obamas-war-plan-do-over/

1 Comment »

1. They Dined While Soldiers Died…

   Isn’t that pretty much the mantra that we heard from the left attacking Pres Bush when he was presiding over the war on terror? Except then it was “He lied and [somebody] died”.

   Now our soldiers are under Pres Obama’s watch and their lives are …

   Trackback by Snapped Shot — October 4, 2009 @ 8:01 pm

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