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Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! October 10, 2009 SmokescreenBy Greyhawk![]() (Part four in a series that began here) When you want to know at least one side of the story of the political battles in Washington, Joe Klein is as good a source as any: In fact, most of the hoo-hah about Obama's Afghanistan strategy review has been a matter of smoke and mirrors.... Setting aside the absurdity of John McCain as leader of neocons, the idea that Republicans would love nothing more than to depict President Obama as soft on national security is undeniably true. (McCain himself is probably best described as a proponent of sufficient troops for the mission - his advocacy now is no different than his position on Iraq: Mr. McCain's "early and consistent call," which began in the fall of 2003, was long dismissed by the White House, which insisted that the president was following the advice of his commanders. Mr. McCain returned from each of his trips to Iraq arguing that the commanders needed more troops, and lambasted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as "irresponsible" for urging a quick turnover of the effort to Iraqis. If President Obama is upset at all by the Senator's current behavior, that's something else he and his predecessor can commiserate on at the next POTUS reunion.) The political right, however, was ill-prepared to assault Obama using McChrystal as bludgeon. In fact, they had already begun a campaign to depict the general as the president's lackey, endangering the troops with politically correct ROE. This absurd narrative was just gaining slight traction when seemingly from out of the blue the "McChrystal vs Obama" theme became available. Attempts to reconcile the two perhaps hit their peak of absurdity with this depiction of General McChrystal as yet another Obamabot struggling not to be "thrown under the bus". With so many on the right having knocked themselves out of the discussion early, it's hardly surprising that the political left was the side that took the bait offered with the leak of the general's Afghanistan assessment - and the 10,000 leaks from seemingly out of control anonymous "administration officials" that followed it - and jumped most eagerly into the perceived fray, defending their president (who had expressed neither opposition or discontent with his general, or even a desire for outside help in dealing with the matter) most vigorously from what they saw as a blatant attack by a career soldier who somehow never learned his place in the chain of command. Now, however, they're discovering the error of their ways. And by golly, it's that mean ol' neocon McCain who was actually behind this whole thing! ![]() Buried a little further down in Klein's piece (well below "two brigades, or 10,000 troops, will probably be sent to secure Kandahar city and environs, and two other brigades will be sent to train and advise the Afghan security forces.") is a little line you'd hardly notice... Several of the principals involved in Obama's strategy review have told me that their ultimate position on troop levels will depend on whether a plausible government, newly committed to reform, emerges when the Afghanistan election process is finally completed. Maybe you weren't even supposed to notice that. Just as no one was really supposed to notice this last August: The timing of Gen. McChrystal's primary assessment remains in flux. It was initially due in mid-August, but the commander was summoned to a secret meeting in Belgium last week with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and told to take more time. Military officials say the assessment will now be released sometime after the Aug. 20 vote. But it's the real story on what's been going on in Washington. Karzai, you see, aint' showin' the proper respects. Maybe he's even skimming off the top, and you let someone get away with stuff like that right under your nose, you look weak. And sometimes in cases like that you obviously got to lean on a guy. If he thinks you need him more than he needs you, then you got to send him a message, remind him who's boss. It's strictly business, see? And maybe there are signs that business is working pretty good, or else you really would have seen a much bigger story surrounding the firing of the American representative to the UN Afghan mission over the issue of election fraud instead of odd comments like this: With American officials increasingly accepting the idea that Mr. Karzai will be the next president despite a large number of well-documented irregularities in the election, Mr. Galbraith's stance put him at odds with both the Obama administration and the United Nations. And nothing from the US Ambassador to the UN on the subject even as she did the weekend talk show circuit immediately afterward, and chatted about troop levels instead. But who knows, maybe that story will turn out big after all. Maybe it was just briefly eclipsed by all the fixation on the story of a general who was over the line. (Something the general didn't appreciate one bit, I'm sure*.) Maybe Hamid ain't really got the message after all. But for now, at least now that we know the whole McChrystal vs Obama thing was actually just John McCain making trouble, we can get back to business. Hellavagood game though - and every American got to play a part. Previously: Smoke signals * "...one tragedy of being an honest and decent person is that you will allow influential actors in your system of government to spread misperceptions of your presumed disloyalty precisely because you are loyal to the system." Posted by Greyhawk / October 10, 2009 7:43 AM | Permalink 1 TrackBackTrackBack URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16804 A few more cards on the table - as evident from this Times (London) account (headline: "White House seeks to explain its hesitations on Afghanistan") the Obama administration has come as close as it likely ever will to acknowledging the story behind th... Read More 1 CommentLeave a comment |
March 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003 [Greyhawk]
"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world." Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...
Updating... more to follow.... MILBOGSAndrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun. Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit. Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio? Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking. Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way. Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch! Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location: Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.
BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon. Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt... Iraqi BlogsSalam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house... American BlogsGlenn Reynold's has a ton of links. Newpapers
Updating... more to follow.... |
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
![]() I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com ![]() |
Excellent summary. And thanks for the objectivity - it helps when I've only been able to track the news sporadically over the last 5 weeks (work has been crazy).
Anyway. Political spin and jockeying (not to mention knee-jerk and opportunistic journalism) are amazing things, huh?