“Once in 70 days”
That’s how many times President Obama has talked to General Stanley McChrystal.
Obama is for “engagement” and “dialogue” with everyone else in the world except his own military commanders.
Posted in: War
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Obama: “Enough of the chitchat about me, let’s talk about you! What do you like best about me?”
I heard a pundit on the radio last week sum up the “Obama Doctrine” in 9 words:
Undermine our Friends,
Embolden our Enemies,
Disparage our Country.
All true. God help us.
The Dinosaur Media will ignore this too. Move along, nothing to see here; mmm, mmm, mm!
Oba-Mao isn’t into protecting our soldiers or fighting the war we should be fighting …
It is considered rude to hold face-to-face discussions using a teleprompter. He has tried to using his Blackberry as a teleprompter but he doesn’t want to be seen wearing his glasses (or smoking) in public.
Ain’t his thang.
Hey he’s on his way to Copenhagen with Oprah and Michelle so Chicago can host the Olympics. He sure doesn’t know his priorities!! Our warriors should refuse to fight damn it. If we’re not out to win then bring them home. Please pray for our country/warriors daily. We’re in deep do-do.
Obama knows nothing about foreign policy or being the head of the armed forces, which is one of the most important job of POTUS. You would think his “advisors” would clue him in just a bit, wouldn’t you?? There is no doubt that he will be a one-term President and will go down in history as the worst president EVER. But can we survive 3 more years of his incompetence?
Dang! I wish I had that luxury with my ex wife.
The POTUS has never met him face to face! Unbelievable!
I was thrown by that statement, too. Then I thought, how many times has Pres Obama speak to the Joint Chiefs and Sec Def Gates?
Can’t imagine any President having regular conversations with theater commanders. There are quite a few. Yes, talk here and there but we have a chain of command that should be used.
The most dangerous president ever!
All I have to say to GEN. MC CRYSTAL, welcome to the O-BOZO ADMINISTRATION… Now go sit in the corner and BE QUIET!!!
No surprise from me. Clinton and even Carter weren’t known for conferring with the Pentagon in general and never with field commanders. However, during World War II, Roosevelt didn’t deal with Eisenhower or Patton, he left that to General George Marshall who he dealt with almost daily. It’s called the Chain of Command. As long as Obama is communicating with the Joint Chiefs of Staff,he is following the Chain of Command as he should be. Anybody who has served in the military or in law enforcement should be aware of this. Don’t get excited, it doesn’t mean a thing.
I have to say that I agree with zyzzyg on this one. It’s not important for the theater commander to speak directly to the President. His communication should come through the SecDef and the Chairman of JCS. Otherwise, we’d all be kvetching about BHO violating the chain of command and micromanaging things on the ground. (Which he is even less competent to do.)
It’s okay. The president wouldn’t have meet with his Afghanistan commander in 70 day no matter who won the election.
They can’t get the guy off of air force one. He is too busy flying the wings off of his new toy, that wisks him in ultimate luxury to all of his speech-giving locations, to be bothered by speaking to his military underlings.
If only we could say the same about posts from Thomas.
If Obama is having daily briefings by the SECDEF and JCS, I hope he is carefully considering their advice and considerable intelligence information. He is a lightweight in the area of foreign policy—-wait, he’s a lightweight period.
Those military guys are just too butch for the Obamessiah.
I agree that he should be going through the chain-of-command. Otherwise, it would look like he was interfering like he does in everything else. However, I have no confidence in the Secretary of Defense.
Won’t meet with Generals.
Cancels the greatest fighter plane ever made, the F-22 Raptor.
Wants “stimulus” and socialized medicine passed right now, immediately. But drags his feet on winning wars.
WORST..PRESIDENT..EVER!!
I just don’t see what the big deal is about this, John. *shrugs.* I mean, we were screwed in 08. Right?
This reminds me of Billy Boy Clinton who didn’t want to get his daily intelligence briefing form the Head of the CIA.
Bet he speaks with Bill Ayers and Rev. Wrong on a weekly basis…
As long as he gets daily briefings, I’m okay with him not speaking to theatre commanders. To have a president, who couldn’t tell the difference between an feint and a frontal attack, micro-managing anything military is not good. Let the joint chiefs run the show. Civilians who micro-manage wars, generally lose. Let’s hope he gets daily briefings, other than NYT editorials. Lord knows, with so much on his plate now, I wonder if he has time. It would be great working in the WH. The tenant is rarely home.
Somebody call the Sheriff, we was robbed, and we already knew we were screwed.
Well, there’s was at least one president that spoke regularly to one of his Generals.
I persoanlly don’t think it’s a bad idea for the Commander in Chief to have one on one’s with the person who probably has the clearest view of the situation before them.
I wonder what “preconditions” there were for that one meeting …
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Concur.
But didn’t Gates say yesterday that he hasn’t spoken with Obama yet about the issue contained in the recent memo?
If I were President right now, I’d be asking for conf calls with McChrystal, Petraeus, and Gates.
I don’t want Obama micromanaging McChrystal either, but I also don’t like the idea of him letting his Chief Of Staff and National Security Advisor running things.
Worst – President – Ever – Mmmmm,mmm,mmmm!
Hold on a second. You have a theater of war that’s going in the wrong direction and the guy who is making the recommendations is twice removed from direct contact with the guy who’s ultimately responsible for the situation?
As far as Theaters of War… what other Theaters require as much immediate attention and the same kind of attention that Afghanistan does? Which other Theater produces combat casulties?
This is not to say that Obama talks to McChrystal in isolation. But it seems to me that with a critical situation such as this, the President would want to hear directly from the man directly in charge of the situation.
I think this just emphasizes his disconnect from matters of foreign policy and war. He’s getting DIRECTLY involved with the 2016 Olympics. Flying to friggin’ Copenhagen in fact….. But he won’t fly with the Sec Def to talk to Gen. McChrystal.
Personally I rejoiced whenever my higher headquarters ignored me. Silence is implied consent.
Then again…. maybe Obama realizes that he probably couldn’t even carry on a intelligent conversation with Gen. McChrystal. Obama would get lost in the first 5 mins.
He is keeping those soldiers in Afghanistan so they won’t come home and do a military coup. The soldiers here will be needed to surpress the fanatical public as they march on DC.
People address those things they consider important first.
I believe there is a balance that ought to be maintained.
What happened the last time a war was run from the White House? Do we know whether Pres Obama is recieving reports from McChrystal? Yes, talking directly is helpful, using the chain of command is helpful, and reading reports is helpful.
Balance is good. And taking Pres Obama to task over this is imbalanced.
“Balance is good. And taking Pres Obama to task over this is imbalanced.”
I thought I was quite clear that I AM imbalanced! haha! I profess no impartiality! I am not objective when it comes to Odumbo! I’m not a monument to justice! I want him out of office in disgrace! Impeached! Deported back to Kenya or wherever he came from!
Yes, unless they’re not responding to a request for additional resources.
Then their silence is an implied denial. Denials are often appropriate, but denials should be made clear. Denials shouldn’t be merely implied for vague.
zyzz; uh i believe we won the iraq war, and uh, i guess when we went into afghanistan we won that war also. now we are nation building and fighting the viet nam war all over. you can’t go into pakistan in force and get the taliban, and every time you bomb a taliban stronghold, you have bombed civillians. yes, taliban are civillians because they aren’t an army. this should be the lesson we learned from viet nam. don’t nation build! if the enemy is an insurgent enemy wearing no militia uniform, everyone is the enemy, so kill them all.
Obama is a dumbass. He really believe our enemies are just like him and his Chicago style pay-to-play buddies. He thinks he can offer some of our enemies money and other goodies and get what he wants.
He doesn’t realize there is a large and growing segment of our enemies that just want to kill us and they are not worried about money.
It’s not difficult to engage a theater commander without micro-managing him. SecDef and CentCom can be a part of the engagement.
I have a question: Would you rather have The B.O. force a meeting with General McChrystal every day or every week?
That would make this just another Vietnam, where Johnson and his moron advisors, namely Moyers, set policy on how to lose the war.
I don’t know which is worse. The B.O. meeting with the General or not.
“The strategy review will take “a matter of a few weeks,” Gates said on ABC’s This Week. He said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, is supportive of the process.”
Let’s see, the Commander in charge of the operation, who is in-country and not in Washington, and has about 30 years of first hand military experience, said he needed more soldiers to complete the mission he had been given. The “strategy review” has already been completed by him. What can you and Obama add to the review?
Gates said yesterday that he had not even shown the President the request and probably won’t for a couple of more weeks.
Mr. Gates, how many servicemembers are going to lose their lives because you are playing politics? Now I know why Obama kept you.
Why not pretend you are Eric Holder and to hell with what the President wants, (or at least what he says he wants to our face) and give the General what he needs?
From what Obama has said, he does not even have a strategy for this war. That might be a good reason to speak with the General fighting the war. I have to agree with others, fly to Copenhagen to talk about Olympics or fly to Afghanistan to speak with the general who is directing the men and women facing combat? Hmmmmmmm.
Oh, wait. We forgot he is THE CHESSMASTER! He is waiting to see what happens in Afghanistan so he can claim to have planned it that way all along.
Smooth.
I don’t recall seeintg anyone saying Obama should have weekly meetings with Gen. McChrystal. It’s just odd that anyone responsible for a critical situation (that would be Obamna) would not seek the benefit of speaking directly to the person with the most direct contact with that situation (that would be McChrystal) in order to get the best information possible.
Also, I find it interesting that it’s ok for Congress to grill Gen. Petraeus but it’s not appropriate for the president to confer directly with a general in that same role. Why wouldn’t congress just read the SecDef’s reports for all the information they need?
“General, Please call me Senator since I have earned it”-parphrase from Babs Boxer.
GSP
“Dissent is Patriotic!-hrc”
Errah, I guess we can now answer the question of “What does the President know and when he knew it.”
An enemy combatant is usurping the office of Commander-in-Chief.
Well (some) folks, don’t you wish you held your nose and suspended your political purities and gotten out of the house and voted with some street sense last November? (His 1st year in isn’t even up yet!!)
James Greenidge
(no buyers remorse voting for [not my man] McCain)
Queens, NY
James,
From my perspective, I’ve seen more anecdotal evidence of life-long Democrats voting Republican for the first time in their life in 2008 (for McCain/Palin), than I’ve seen of Republicans sitting out or voting 3rd party in 2008.
One would think by this time, Obama would have traveled to Afghanistan to meet with guys like McChrystal and see what’s going-on firsthand. At least he could have sent his Teleprompter!
If Afghanistan is too hard for PBHO perhaps we can invade Denmark? They would never expect it! Yes Dear Friends we MUST secure our supply of Copenhagen Smokeless Tobacco and the 2016 Summer Olympics–a twofer.
Consider the words of the man who became first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, written to the man who was the Presiding Officer of the Constitutional Convention and became the first President of the United States….
On July 25th, 1787, John Jay wrote to George Washington, then Presiding Officer of the Constitutional Convention:
John Jay was the First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, among many other things, and it was this letter that caused the following requirements to exist in our Constitution:
The suggestion that “a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government” led to:
and
The suggestion that the Consitution “declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American Army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen” led to:
There is a clear distinction made between “Citizen” and “natural born Citizen”.
“Citizen” was required to be a Representative or Senator, and President if you were a Citizen in 1788 when the Constitution was adopted.
For anyone who was not a “Citizen” in 1788, the requirement to become President was a more stringent requirement: you had to be a “natural born Citizen”. It was the clear intent of John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, that “Foreigners” be excluded from the office of Commander in Chief.
Barack Hussein Obama II was born the subject of a foreign nation. John Jay warned against just such a foreigner becoming Commander in Chief.
Folks,
This is a matter of priority.
Bringing Olympics in Chicago is more important than George Bush’s war…..
Every day, scores of people are dying due to lack of Health Insurance.
Gotta fix that next.
You say, our soldiers are dying on the battle field? They would have been embraced by the locals there had they been not raping women and killing children! (ask Kerry).
Besides, If only Bush had given conciliatory speech to Afghans after 9/11, we would not be in this mess today.
Obama is for “engagement” and “dialogue” with everyone else in the world except his own military commanders… (I get your point but you forgot something) and people who cling to their guns/religion, opposition Congressional leadership, energy producers, taxpayers, the UK, Israel, Germany, Colombia, small business owners, doctors who supposedly perform unnecessary amputations and tonsilectomies, the transcripts office of Occidental College and Columbia University, Foxnews, etc…
I understand the issues involved, but even were it irrefutably proven true, we best drop any ideas of going further. Believe me to the core, any attempt to remove Obama outside an election will make Watts in the ’70’s look like a campfire, and it will also be suburbia out to the boondocks burning along with the cities. Also, if our encouraged enemies saw this, we could never recover the loss of esteem around the world.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
James,
So in your mind, the threat of riots is more important than supporting and defending the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution of the United States?
If you love tranquility better than the animated contest of freedom, may your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were my countryman…
Let me get this right….he first disparages the Special Olympics, flies to Europe to convince them to hold the Other Olympics in Chicago, the drive-by-murder capitol of the world, and doesn’t have time to form a strategy for Afghanistan (which he should have had a year ago) to keep our kids from dying every day over there. He is a traitor. He is aiding and comforting the enemy.
BTW, when President Bush was in office the deaths of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were front page news and gleefully tallied by the MSM. Now they are mentioned somewhere in the middle of the paper in small print.
I can’t write anymore, it makes me too upset. I have one going back next year.
…or with the citizens of the people he supposedly assumes to represent and lead. His idea of “engagement” with the American people is to regard them as his worst enemies and to do whatever is possible to crush them politically. His idea of “dialogue” means his telling us what we need, and us listening and agreeing with him. The disgust I have for Obama and his party is unmeasurable.
Has George Stephanopoulos continued his sunday morning listing of deaths or has he dropped that routine since Obama has replaced Bush, and it’s no longer needed?
No, I’m not pushing that under the carpet. It’s just that it’s hard to wax poetic after your suburban ranch home and neighborhood and business have been torched by a tidal mob. I can’t tell you the fury of the bitterness and rancor that would be unleashed in the black/brown community if Obama were ousted by the birth issue. It’s bad enough that most believe that the Constitution is hypocritical, but ridding Obama based on birth (insulting the Motherland!) would rip so much trust and hope I can’t even perceive it. You talk about a mass recruiting drive for terrorists, such a political move would make Tim McVey look tame. That’s a national security issue and a half. Banish Obama on breaking the law or sheer ineptness some another way.
James Greenidge
Queens, NY
Billy Boy and Carter were the only two presidents in history to lose their nuclear command code cards. Will Obama be the third? Good chance I think. They found Carter’s card at the dry cleaners. Billy Boy’s was never found.
James,
In my opinion, it appears that…
It’s already a national security issue.
Obama represents the interests of Marxists and Jihadists. Every day that he is allowed to continue ururping the office, our country is weakened.
If justice prevails and Obama is removed, yes, there would probably be racists who riot. Racists who spit on the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and judge Obama by the color of his skin, not the content of his character.
Let justice be done. And let those who riot and destroy property face their own justice and punishment.
Let justice be done.
Anything less is to sacrifice this country upon the altar of Obama.
To this day, I ask myself, “How does a community organizer obtain military commanders?”
I have to agree with James here – Obama is probably the most inept, delusional, embarrassing, unskilled, corrupt, dishonest, bought-and-paid-for president that ever passed gas in the White House BUT – removal would be dangerous due to those in society who are nearly as delusional as he is.
No – the best plan to deal with this fraud, this pathetic waste of skin, this moron in a $1500 suit is to fail him hard. Take back the house and senate with real By-God conservatives, hold his czars up to the light and let the American people see them for the effluence of hatred, stupidity, and dishonesty that they are. Destroy his insane policies and leave him weeping in the rubble. Reverse his moronic legislative misdeeds and remind The People of the damage to their country this fraud caused with his selfish agenda. Humiliate him in his own house, strip him of every marxist notion that drools out of his pie-hole. Leave him a shuddering humiliated wreck at the end of his four years.
Then hold this broken pathetic miserable excuse for an “American” up for public example and remind your children daily “If you don’t study your constitution this is what you’ll end up with”
Kinda like Carter, except that jerk was too stupid to shut t.f. up and disappear. racist antisemetic moron…
Commander in Chief? Obama doesn’t have the moral authority to lick clean the aching swollen feet of the lowest ranking grunt stomping the bush in Afghanistan. Speak to his CinC ONCE in 70 days? DURING A WAR? Obama doesn’t have the skills to hand out donuts on the pier while Real Men (and Real Women) go Over There to set things to rights.
I still think there are two reasons Duh Won is delaying.
1. He doesn’t want to lose his anti-military, anti-American kook base.
2. He doesn’t want his new Muslims friends he made with his Cairo speech to be upset with him.
My thoughts exactly Smadge.
Uh, WHY? What changes in two more weeks? Will the situation magically change? I doubt it, so Gates needs to get off his azz and do his job.
I’m pro-military (WWII Gold Star sister) and am furious about Afghanistan. SSgt grandson has already been to Iraq 3X and probably in Afghanistan next. Could an Iranian missle strike Bagram? Our troops there are in serious danger – especially those on the ground who have to “play nice” with their hands tied.