"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of President Obama's top advisers said Sunday the Bush administration failed to ask critical questions about the war in Afghanistan, leaving the Obama administration starting from scratch -- and leaving the war "adrift." White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says President Obama is asking new questions about Afghanistan War. "
The president is asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN's "State of the Union." Among the things the Obama administration wants to know from Afghan leaders: "Do you have a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need?"
The United States faces "a much more complex decision" than just determining the appropriate level of troops, Emanuel told CNN chief national correspondent John King in a rare interview. "It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift, that we're beginning at scratch, just at the starting point ... and that there's not a security force, an army, and the types of services that are important for the Afghans to become a true partner," Emanuel said.The only thing "adrift" is competence in the Obama White House.
They're totally enept at this point. But let's review the tape.
Things in Afghanistan did start to take a turn for the worse in 2008, but the current morass began in March of this year.
After asking General McChrystal to give an assessment, one in which he called for more troops, Obama and his clan instead demonized the General and to this date has failed to send reinforcements.
The Angry White Guy, "Since Obama took office over 318 American lives have been lost in the war on terror. We have a general asking for more troops, 40,000 to be exact to suppress the Taliban and Obama does nothing. Oh Obama says he’s going to study it… he’s going to look at it… he’s going to think about it and he is going to delay and cost more American lives."
Obama's current dereliction of duty and incompetence is the issue not what Bush did or didn't do a year ago.
It's nice to know that while our guys are dying and scraping with little support from their Commander in Chief, his Chief of Staff is pulling out the weasel clause.
October 18, 2009
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1 Comments
MacRanger,
Reply DeleteYou're precisely right when you say that they are adrift right now, and they are in over their heads.
As I say here, Emmanuel is trying to rewrite history, and he conveniently forgets that putting NATO in charge was the considered strategy, and without NATO, US troops would be even more severely overstretched. Thanks to President Bush, we have NATO in Afghanistan, and if we didn't have them right now, we'd have even fewer options on the table.
When will Emmanuel get around to apologizing to the countries who have lost troops in Afghanistan? When is he going to admit that we aren't beginning at scratch, not by a long shot, but that we had a strategy in place that General McKiernan was running until they fired him and too ownership of the war?
My guess is, he's in over his head on the subject, and that's the last he'll be heard on it.