Now this is what I have been looking for – a GO who says what he means. It is a shame that Senior Leadership appears lacking this trait.
SnT
Top Marine Dislikes Afghan Deadline
WASHINGTON — The commandant of the Marine Corps said on Tuesday that President Obama’s July 2011 deadline for the start of American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan was “
probably giving our enemy sustenance.”
The remark was by far the most sharply worded public comment from a senior military commander about the White House’s timetable for ending the war.
The commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, also said that “if you follow it closely, and of course we all do, we know the president was talking to several audiences at the same time when he made his comments on July 2011.” The general apparently meant that Mr. Obama’s deadline was set for a domestic political audience as well as for the Afghans.
But the general, who is retiring this fall, said he thought the deadline might not ultimately comfort the insurgents, who could find that only a small number of United States forces leave Afghanistan next July, a scenario that is increasingly set forth by Pentagon officials and senior military commanders. General Conway predicted that Taliban foot soldiers, who he said have been told repeatedly by their commanders that the Americans would leave en masse, would be demoralized when they realize that the United States is staying.
“What’s he going to say to his foot troops,” General Conway observed about Taliban commanders, when, “come the fall, we’re still there hammering them like we have been? I think it could be very good for us in that context, in terms of the enemy’s psyche and what he has been, you know, posturing now for, really, the better part of a year.”
General Conway, who spoke to reporters at a Pentagon briefing, also made clear, as he has in the past, that
he remains personally opposed to overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that requires gay men and lesbians in the military to keep their sexual orientation secret or leave the service. President Obama and senior leaders at the Pentagon, including Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said that the law should be changed to allow gay people to serve openly in the military. The Senate is scheduled to consider the legislation next month.
“We will follow the law, whatever the law prescribes,” General Conway said, adding that the Marines “cannot be seen as dragging our feet or some way delaying implementation.”
Based on his information from Marines, he said,
“an overwhelming majority would like not to be roomed with a person who is openly homosexual,” but “some do not object,” so perhaps having those Marines share rooms voluntarily with openly gay service members “might be the best way to start, without violating anybody’s sense of moral concern or perception on the part of their mates.”
Asked what he meant by “moral concern,” General Conway said that “we have some people that are very religious.” He added: “I couldn’t begin to give you a percentage, but I think in some instances we will have people that say that homosexuality is wrong, and they simply do not want to room with a person of that persuasion because it would go against their religious beliefs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/wo...er=rss&emc=rss
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