Captain Cupcake (not these cupcakes, which actually exist to serve a purpose) proves yet again he is unfit to hold the office.
Pamela of Atlas Shrugs, on noting that Obama has snubbed the Dalai Lama just to keep China happy, uttered the perfect sentence we can all use now to describe Obama’s latest 180.
“‘Mr Obama has changed his position on Tibet since his election campaign.”
NOW, play along. Mr Obama has changed his position on ___________ (insert latest issue here) since his election campaign.
The latest waffling comes on the war in Afghanistan. General Stanley McChrystal is being faulted for airing his opinion that Afghanistan can’t wait forever. In fact, the longer Obama vacillates, the deeper and more difficult the situation becomes. Right on cue, critics jump up and say McChrystal is either naive or unready for the hard-ball of DC politics. I think it’s the other way around. Ed Morrissey sees no problem in the general’s public opinion(s) –
McChrystal didn’t act insubordinately by speaking his mind. This is not even close to the situation which forced Harry Truman to cashier Douglas MacArthur in the Korean War, when MacArthur dared to publicly challenge Truman’s authority and judgment. McChrystal may have acted in an impolitic manner, but at this point, I doubt McChrystal cares much for political niceties. He has waited weeks for an answer to his analysis and request for more troops and resources, and he’s apparently not worried about being honest about his assessment in public.
Up to now, Barack Obama has made good moves in supporting the war in Afghanistan and adopting intelligent positions on resourcing and strategy. But as I wrote earlier, he’s reached a point where he has to decide whether he’s willing to go in for the long haul and actually win this fight over a period of years, or whether he will cave to his Left and refuse to make that kind of commitment. Hopefully, Obama will stick to his commitment made during the campaign to fight the war to a successful conclusion and break the backs of radical Islamists in the Af-Pak theater, but he’s going to have to actually make a decision instead of voting ‘present.’ If a speech by McChrystal that states nothing but the obvious gets this far under his skin, I suspect that decision will be a retreat. [Emphasis – Admin.]
Excuse me, but don’t generals reach their rank by showing – (wait for it) – leadership? Obama definitely needs some instruction in that area, especially if truthful analysis of facts on the ground gets under his skin. Remember, Obama isn’t interested in real victory, only the image of it. Places under the bus are being prepared for both him and his CO, General David Petraeus (who basically said the same thing a few weeks ago).
Will Obama’s campaigning never end? Why does he hide behind words instead of stepping up and BEING THE PRESIDENT? Erick continues:
Obama is a product of the left and the left, as Goldberg notes, has taken the idea of the moral equivalence of war and run with it through social policy…
Thus we find ourselves staring in the face of military defeat in Afghanistan, which will lead to a cascading series of events up to and including a collapsed Pakistan followed by an Islamofascist war against India run out of Islamabad.
…no doubt Obama’s mind, the real war is in danger of sabotaging the metaphorical wars of moral equivalence that Obama would rather be fighting.
Because we are wasting our time in Afghanistan, we cannot waste our resources on health care, global warming, etc. Each liberal issue is more important than our national security. The shift away from Afghanistan must happen. Dionne is signaling that it will happen. He is floating, in this trial balloon, the idea that we are wasting our time in Afghanistan and that we should be prepared to treat all wars on the same budgetary footing — especially morally equivalent wars that are, to the left, of even greater importance.
For this to happen, the White House must undermine popular General Petraeus and paint General McChrystal as insubordinate and out of control.
The White House is already starting the machine.
Remember: Mr Obama has changed his position on ___________ since his election campaign.
Jules Crittenden foresees “Chaos-stan”
The big question now is whether this is going to be about Obama’s ego, or about winning in Afghanistan. If any general is ill-advised to shoot his mouth off, this business may also teach the administration something about blowing off generals at (unnecessarily extended) critical moments and insisting that political parameters trump military ones in wartime.
and Steve wisely counsels that Obama should listen to his generals.
Since it is becoming clearer that America as descending into a shambled mess, with Obama resolutely at the helm, steering us straight into hell, is there any nation willing to stand by us in the fight for freedom?
Elizabeth thinks there… is… another.
It is interesting to think, isn’t it, that if America is brought low (a no-longer unthinkable notion, unfortunately) and the crazymen that we’re hot to appease in Iran, or North Korea or Venezuela get together to do crazy things, the only fully-functioning and war-ready Democracy left to help the world will be…Israel.
Tiny, despised, fierce Israel.
I love irony, but that’s not an irony I want to see played out.
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