Obama Gets Afghanistan Advice From Mothers of Fallen Soldiers [View All]

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Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The commander-in-chief hugged a grieving mother, telling her to be proud of her fallen son, a Marine killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Lisa Xiarhos also had a message for President Barack Obama: “Be strong and get the job done,” she recalls telling him. “Don’t back down. Send more troops. Support the ones that are there and do whatever you can.”

As Obama reviews U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan, meeting with generals, Cabinet secretaries and diplomats, he has received informal advice from those most touched by the eight- year conflict: the parents who sacrificed children, the spouses who lost their mates, and the soldiers who left behind limbs.

On Oct. 8, a group of wounded veterans came to the White House for a game of wheelchair basketball, laying their prosthetics against a fence before rolling onto the concrete court. The president marveled at their mechanical dexterity and then shot three-pointers with them. Twenty-five hours later, he was in the White House Situation Room with his war council to discuss a request for additional troops by General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adSj7NtaigGQ