It’s a pretty good exchange between George Stephanopoulos and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The subject is General McChrystal’s Afghan memorandum on the need for 40,000 additional troops or they will fail.
Gates never wavers. I will wait to pass the memo on until the President is ready.
George has the stronger point I think. McChrystal wouldn’t ask for more troops if he thought additional people would be suicidal. On the other hand not sending them quickly, might be. But then again, I’m not a General.
UPDATE: Rather than add a new post this actually first well here. The debate to honor the General’s request or sit on it takes more meaning in this context.
Hey, no one is saying Robert Gates is being calous about this … but my question to you my little RVO readers is this. Wait to send troops until we are sure of the mission and possibly risk the lives of soldiers who are undermanned? Or do we honor the General’s request and win this now … but risk higher casualty numbers?
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So they can sit and ruminate on this (if you define ruminating and sitting as: panicking about what to do), yet something that truly can wait and needs much debate, i.e. health care/insurance reform, has to be rammed through the Congress and out the door by the end of the year.
I guess the though of brave, young American soldiers takes a backseat to providing health insurance to illegal aliens and those that just may not even want it in the all seeing, all knowing and all caring Obama administration.
When does naivete and inexperience become plain ignorance or malfeasance?
It;s obviously not in this President’s political make-up or character to care about the troops, especially those in harm’s way. Therefore, he should just bring them home if he’s not going to fully support them, and provide them with what they need to do the job properly. Let the chips fall where they may. Al-Q’aida will flourish, Pakistan will probably fall, Al-Q’aida and the Taliban will be supplied with nukes, Europe will become Muslim, but Obama will have satisfied the yearnings of his base, and his own idealology.