White House fears liberal war pressure

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Politico

White House officials are increasingly worried liberal, anti-war Democrats will demand a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress in the eight-year conflict, according to senior administration sources.

These fears, which the officials have discussed on the condition of anonymity over the past few weeks, are rising fast after U.S. casualties hit record levels in July and August.

The aides also expressed concern that Afghan election returns, still being tallied, will result in a narrow reelection for President Hamid Karzai that could result in qualms about his legitimacy — “Tehran II,” as one official put it, in reference to the disputed Iranian election.

The result: some think Afghanistan - not health care - will be the issue that defines the early years of the Obama administration.

“There’s no question that the drumbeat is going to get louder and louder on the left, and you’ll see some fall-off on the right,” said Matt Bennett of the think tank Third Way, the moderate voice of the progressive movement. “His supporters on the Hill are fighting a really serious political battle to keep the criticism under control.”




Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26654.html

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snip

Cost could become an issue, too. With deficits high, there will be heavy pressure on Obama to find savings somewhere in 2010 — and war critics see Afghanistan as a good place to start.

[PassingFair]

1. OMG!! Account for your children!....the LIBERALS are coming!

WTF?

:crazy:

And since WHEN has the "Third Way" been a
"moderate voice of PROGRESSIVES?"

:crazy:

[closeupready]

27. "Third Way" is the Blue Dog battle cry.

n/t

[PassingFair]

29. You are SO right!

http://www.thirdway.org/leadership/senate_chairs

[hobbit709]

2. They should fear it.

We are against war.

[CoffeeCat]

6. I'm not against war...

WWII was a necessary and just war.

I'm against unnecessary wars designed only to enrich the corporations that demand war--after they
have paid off our politicians--in order to ensure that their wars happen.

[BlueJessamine]

9. + 1. N/T

[hobbit709]

12. That's the only wars we see nowadays

Afghanistan-oil pipeline
Iraq-oil

[Wizard777]

22. Oh how quickly they forget the spice wars. That was when countires went to war over cinnamon,

Tea's, incense, herbal medicines and the sort. If global warming continues. In the future we will be going to war over fresh water. Resource wars always have and always will exist. The war on drugs is a modern day spice war in reverse. We're not fighting to gain herbs and flowers to use. We're fighting to keep people from gaining and using herbs & flowers.

[hobbit709]

26. The Opium Wars

When the Brits forced the Chinese to get hooked on opium.

[abumbyanyothername]

40. Spice Wars

:rofl:

I thought it was a new British Pop Music Video Game or something.

[Wizard777]

50. That would be a Scary Spice of a game for them.

:rofl:

So I think I see where you're coming from on that.

[Wizard777]

19. More people were killed on 9/11 than in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Why couldn't we just over look that too? We dream about a perfect world full of perfect people. We actually went to war with the one guy that was going to try to create that perfect world full of perfect people to stop him from doing that. I mean how evil is that? That's a funny thing about war. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

This is where we're damned if we don't stay in Afghanistan. Al Qaida will topple Pakistan's fragile government and gain control of Pakistan's nukes. Then they will nuke Israel. Then we won't be able to get a Democrat elected as a county dog catcher. Afghanistan is really about Pakistan. The only way to get out of afghanistan without having to worry about when the axe will fall is destroy Pakistan's nukes. THEN and only THEN can we exit the theater with little or no future concerns.

[RoccoR5955]

30. 9/11 was an inside job n/t

[Wizard777]

37. Most wars are. Including WW II. Hitler faked an attack on Germany by Poland.

FDR has been accused of allowing the attack on Pearl Harbor to get America into WW II. they call that treason. We have far more proof of Bush allowing 9/11 to happen.

[rockymountaindem]

54. False parallel

Hitler did stage a totally fake "attack" on German territory by concentration camp inmates dressed in Polish uniform. On the other hand, the insinuation that Roosevelt knew the attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent and did nothing is a total crock.

[Wizard777]

59. I agree with that. But if they are going to say that about FDR.

We pretty much have proof Bush allowed 9/11 to happen. What they are incorrectly saying about FDR. Bush actually did. That's all I'm saying.

[Toasterlad]

32. But We're Not Fighting the People Who Attacked Us on 9/11

Remember how Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11? And remember how, shortly after the Iraq war began, the Bush administration declared that finding Bin Laden was not a priority?

The Bush government was DELIGHTED to have Bin Laden at large; he made an excellent scarecrow to keep the masses in line. If the man's dead, as many seem to believe, I have no doubt BUSHco were aware of it, and yet all too eager to keep up the pretense that he was still plotting Amer'ca's doom in his Batcave of Hate. Meanwhile, we fight in Iraq and we fight in Afghanistan, not for justice, but to ensure that we have a way to get the last few gallons of known oil left on the planet safely into the world's cars and trucks, and make a mint while doing so. Well, not a mint for EVERYONE, just those responsible for the phony wars.

"Then why haven't the wars ended with the Bush administration?", I hear you ask. "Why would Obama continue these wars if they were only intended to make a few people very rich?" To which I respond: "Why, indeed?"

[Wizard777]

47. No I'm asking who attacked us on 9/11? If not Al Qaida with their leaders in Afghanistan.

Then who did? Are you buying into Bush's bad pilot theory? In WW II we didn't blame just the pilots that bombed Pearl Harbor. We blamed all of Japan. The emperor and every last man, woman and child. Granted Al Qaida's leadership has moved into Pakistan. But Afghanistan is the perfect staging area for any conflict with Pakistan to keep their nukes from being controlled by Al Qaida. Unlike the Iraq war crimes and torture. Afghanistan is the area I'm willing to say let the past be damned. We must move forward. The future consequences of not being there are too dire. You don't want to live in a world with a nuclear capable Al Qaida. So I guess that makes the good news. You won't live in that world for too long. When the nuclear fall out is in your face. It's too late to say, fuck terrorist harboring Afghanistan.

[abumbyanyothername]

44. Why do you think that we are any more strategically sound

now than we were we when decided to put nukes into Pakistan's hands in the first place because we were worried that a Soviet ally, India, had nukes?

The whole Al Qaida mess is just a CIA op gone bad and going worse.

These are the people who want to stop funding incompetence in the classroom. Well, maybe I would agree if we could also have competence testing for our misnamed "intelligence" community.

[Wizard777]

48. True. But Afghanistan/Pakistan is no longer a mess we can ignore and hope it cleans it's self up -

while we do. That's a Reagan Bush era Republican mess we need to clean up now. It's already been ignored for far too long.

[snooper2]

31. So letting the Taliban back in power to rape 6 year old boys...

and marry 9 year old girls is fine with you...


nice....

[hobbit709]

33. So what's the difference between the Taliban and our stooges?

Unless you are willing to annihilate a major part of the population, you are not going have any luck in changing their culture. And even then history shows that it doesn't work too well.
The Afghan War had nothing to do with who was in charge over there and what they were doing to their own people. It was, once again about OIL.

[snooper2]

49. There are moderates in Afghanistan - many of them...

Being suppressed by religious nutcakes...

First thing is education...I guess you have no problem with Taliban fighters destroying schools for girls and only madrass education for boys. Education is key to helping that country....

Oh, and I have no problem annihilating the segment of the population that is keeping that country in the tenth century...

[Wizard777]

52. Our Stooges are going to rape 6 y/o boys regardless. We'd rather have them in Afghanistan doing that

Why do you think they started the sex offender registry any way? So we'd know who they are and where to find them when it came time to send them off to foreign lands to rape, plunder and pillage.

[CoffeeCat]

3. They "fear" the left?.

Gee, I was always under the impression that Obama was a Progressive.

I guess we're just a fringe group of nuts and bolts--to fear and to throw a bone toward once in a while--just
to iteratively get us to the polls in the next election.

So sick of this.

America is fractured, almost beyond repair. Our economy is swirling down the drain. Corporations have taken
over our government that no longer serves "We The People".

We've got a Constitutional scholar sitting at the helm--allegedly "fearing" the people who are sick of illegal, fake
wars, corporations buying off our politicians and the Constitution being usurped.

This isn't right!

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Where the hell dd you get the idea Obama was a progressive?

The only candidate to his right in '08 was "Family" Hillary.

[Toasterlad]

14. I Think The Poster Was Being Sarcastic.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Yes.

[QC]

4. The White House is always worried that Democrats might start to act like Democrats.

That says a lot, none of it good.

[kath]

38. +1

[EFerrari]

53. Is this Rahm again? Sounds like him. n/t

[Autumn]

5. I should hope so,

these wars should be ended.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. "Third Way, the moderate voice of the progressive movement"???

"Third Way, the voice of corporate-friendly pseudo-liberalism," more like it.

[redqueen]

39. Yep. More and more Dems are waking up to the scam.

The corporatists have reason to be afraid.

[rurallib]

8. Does anyone know what our mission is in Afghanistan?

seems like it is getting changed as often as the mission in Iraq was.
We went to Afghanistan to get Bin Laden. He is long gone from there, thanks to GW.

[hobbit709]

15. The mission was to get a pipeline from the Caspian through to the Indian Ocean

[whathehell]

20. Weren't those plans quashed, though?

It's something I heard, so I'm just curious.

[hobbit709]

21. More like botched.

Just like they botched the plan to steal the oil in Iraq.

[Solly Mack]

11. lolol

"...the moderate voice of the progressive movement"

lololololol

[Toasterlad]

13. Since When Has the Obama Administration Payed the Slightest Bit of Attention to Liberals?

"Fear". Please. "Contempt" is the correct word.

[undeterred]

16. Good. Thank you Russ Feingold.

[T Wolf]

17. As "better than McInsane" as Obama is, his administration is failing on some key issues. If

the wars are still rolling along next year, and especially in 2012, the Dems will be in trouble.

Throw a fucked-up health care "reform" effort in the equation and many of the Democratic wing of the party may just say, "Enough."

We did not elect them to be "not as bad as the pukes". They were elected to significantly change the course of the nation.

The war was the main issue that drove much of the Dem support. The crashing economy was handed to them to deal with. Then, they also chose to "fight for" health care/insurance reform. No matter what "progress" they make on other fronts, these three major issues will determine (1) how enthusiastically the left supports the party and (2) how much of their more-highly-valued "middle" sticks with them.

Their fate is in their own hands. They have no one to blame if they lose power except themselves.

[lonestarnot]

18. If they can't foresee losses, they must have found Mike's rock.

:evilgrin:

[TornadoTN]

46. I'm glad to see someone else gets it

I've been going out of my mind for the past few months over this very scenario. People are starting to pay attention (at least inside our own party) and this is not the "change" that we voted for in 2006 and 2008.

The Republicans smell blood in the water and they are going to work hard to capitalize on that and go in for the kill. The more I've been disappointed in our leaders and the more I've tried to lobby our representatives to act like "Democrats", the more I've been rebuffed by them for supposedly "not supporting our party".

After 2008, we said that the GOP was the party without an identity and ideas. Now it's looking like our own is in just as bad of a position.

[swilton]

24. An Oxymoron

Progress on the War in Afghanistan. It's about time they started worrying about this and why they were elected.

[no_hypocrisy]

25. Oh yeah, our legions are massive.

We'll overwhelm the WH with our numbers.

:sarcasm:

[NorthCarolina]

28. Thank God for Liberals ... America's Moral Conscience nt

[TankLV]

34. No - we want an END to ALL bush* Wars NOW - not "prematurely" - LONG OVERDUE!!!

Now the ONE thing Obama CANNOT, in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM, or his supporters here, claim that he ran on something OTHER THAN ENDING THE WAR NOW!!!

His supportes BELITTLED and CONDEMNED Hillary because she wasn't going to pull out fast enough!

But OBAMA was the one who RAN ON ENDING THESE WARS - ALMOST IMMEDIATELY!!!

NOT "extending them indefinitely"!!!

I am so fuckng sick of his flip-flops!!!

And GODDAMN RIGHT we will pressure him to LEAVE THESE ILLEGAL WARS OF CHOICE - NOW!!!

NO MORE FUCKING EXCUSES!!!

[mike_c]

35. U.S. OUT of Afghanistan, NOW!

Good Gawd, they're playing political games with peoples' lives, the treasury, and U.S. foreign policy. They don't want to end it before Obama has chest-pounding rights? The hell with that!

Get out NOW!

[MannyGoldstein]

36. The "left of the left"

A.k.a "traditional Democrats

[rucky]

41. When has any administration ever "feared liberal pressure"?

Since LBJ, maybe. I'm confused.

[redqueen]

42. Seems to me that more and more Dems are waking up to the 'third way' scam.

I think those who approve of the corporate takeover of this party have reason to be afraid.

[MidwestRick]

43. They should fear the left...

this administration can't afford to lose any more of us to any issue. This is one issue we won't budge on. GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST NOW!!!

[No Elephants]

45. Actually, the right is beating the drum for leaving Afghanistan. The WH is

trying to use Democrats (aka "the left of the left) as a scarecrow to frighten away its critics, or to try to win its critics to its side, united with the WH against Democrats.

The idea is, Democrats, especially the "left of the left" are no threat bc they have nowhere else to go on Election Day. However, the WH needs independents and/or Republicans to win re-election. So, unite them with the WH against the left of the left.

Somehow, I have a feeling this could backfire.

[EFerrari]

51. WTH do they mean, "doubts" about Karzai's legitimacy?

We all know the election was crooked. There's no room for doubt.

[Mari333]

55. criticism under control????!!! I think not, you pikers

when you are implementing Bush policies in Afghanistan (and Iraq) of US imperialism , you will get criticized..dont even THINK we wont and dont even THINK you can control it. You must be blind to think we will buy the propaganda by now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

56. "Premature"? Hell, after 8 years, they still can't find a reason to be there at all.

But, of course, Obama tells us that it's not a war of choice, but of necessity. Which means he has made a choice to continue a lost war for reasons of political expediency.

[cherokeeprogressive]

57. "a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress "

So let's keep up this charade so President Obama can somehow come out of it looking good?

FUCK THAT

I'm getting tired of this bullshit.

Three conditions need to be met before President Obama gets my vote in 2012: ZERO troops in Iraq. ZERO involvement in Afghanistan. ZERO detainees in Guantanamo.

On the Iraq issue, changing the definition of what a combat troop is doesn't cut it. Zero means NO TROOPS. One GI or Grunt carrying an M-16 in Iraq means "FAIL".

I'm confident about the Guantanamo thing though. After all, its closure was guaranteed by an Executive Order issued hours after President Obama took office. President Obama's promise is that in 142 days from today, the detainee center at Guantanamo will be permanently closed. I will not tolerate his backing out of it.

"a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress" Does President Obama have some need to show that his dick is bigger than The Idiot Son's? If the only reason we're there is so that he can "show signs of progress" before it comes to a "premature end", then that's the only conclusion I can draw.

Yeah, yeah, he PROMISED that he'd increase the number of troops in Afghanistan... So fucking what? Was I supposed to vote for McCain because I didn't agree with that?

Out of Iraq. Out of Guantanamo. Out of Afghanistan. RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

[Mari333]

58. +1