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Five months later, in August of this year, speaking at the VFW, the President made a promise to America’s armed forces. “I will give you a clear mission,” he said, “defined goals, and the equipment and support you need to get the job done. That’s my commitment to you.”
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In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision – a good one, I think – and sent a commander into the field to implement it.
Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.
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Originally Posted by Richard View Post
Pure Polecatus Washingtonium speak - striped, spotted, whatever...the eternally accusative language of we-they finger-pointing.
And so it goes...
Richard's $.02
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I have to disagree. Some of Cheney's points are very substantive. However, I get the impression that if he offers any negative viewpoint on Obama's policy or discusses Obama obvious waffling on Afghanistan, you consider it to be finger-pointing. Basically you're setting a stage where nothing can be said of a negative nature or it's discounted. What's left then?
Did Obama make promises to carry the fight on in Afghanistan? Is he waffling? How is that finger pointing? They ask the Bush administration not to go public with their findings on Afghanistan and then blame them for what? That the Obama administration cannot make a decision where there is risk. Same situation as the Somalia Pirates, but on a larger scale.
IMHO the threshold issue remains "are Cheney's negative comments substantive". If so, finger pointing is not the issue.