Robert Gates

The General Stanley McChrystal Problem For President Obama

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Unfortunately, General Stanley McChrystal is complicating the problem for President Obama on Afghanistan policy.

The General has been extremely vocal publicly regarding what he sees as the essential need for 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

The Obama Administration is in the midst of what may be the most important decision making of this Presidency. Should the President get this country more deeply involved in a country where the war is being lost, and historically, no one has ever been able to win control?

Retired General James Jones, the National Security Adviser, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have both roundly criticized McChrystal for such public advocacy, and there are rumors that Obama is furious with the Afghanistan commander for making this such a public issue. In many ways, it reminds one of General Douglas MacArthur challenging President Harry Truman in public about Korean War strategy, leading to his dismissal by Truman in 1951.

Under our system of constitutional government, the President, whether we agree with his strategy on military policy, is the final determinant of our military strategy. So McChrystal is wrong, but this major public flap could lead to Obama firing McChrystal, or the general resigning, in either case creating a massive political problem for Obama.

This just adds to the growing sense that Obama has definitely lost his honeymoon and is being besieged on all sides, after nine months in office.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ View Of His “Boss”, Barack Obama

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a carryover from the Bush Administration and a Republican who served in the CIA under six Presidents, has come out in fulsome praise of his “boss”, President Obama.

He said he enjoyed working for him, saw him as very analytical, and desirous of learning everything he can about a situation or issue. Basically, he is saying that Obama is very smart, a nice change from the previous President.

While he did not say this, it is obvious that Obama is very different from his predecessor, George W. Bush. Gates did say that Afghanistan had been a “holding action” under Bush because of the war in Iraq.

It should be pointed out that Gates was not the Secretary of Defense when decisions were made about both Afghanistan and Iraq. Had he been there, instead of Donald Rumsfeld, maybe the history of the involvement in both countries would have been different, and we would not now be faced with the crisis we face, not only in Afghanistan, but the growing threat of Iran, which was only emboldened by US involvement in Iraq.

It is ironic that right wing critics attack Obama, but refuse to recognize that it was Bush who put us in the mess we are now in, which Obama needs to extricate us from as soon as possible!