Top US general miss-steps

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LC04Ak02.html


Last week, United States President Barack Obama's out-of-control military brass once again leaked a statement contrary to the president's position. This time the statement came from army General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, who officially requested to keep a combat brigade in the northern part of the country beyond the August 2010 deadline.

Floating this idea just two weeks before the Iraqi national elections is dangerous for Iraqi democracy, for US soldiers on the ground and for the future of US-Iraqi relations.

Pentagon scramble
Quickly responding to his soldiers marching out of step, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that there would have to be a "pretty significant" deterioration in the security situation in Iraq before he would consider delaying the planned withdrawal.

But much of the damage was already done. Those supporting an extension immediately created an echo chamber in the media. Thomas Ricks, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, published an op-ed in The New York Times and another in Foreign Policy urging Obama to delay the withdrawals of combat troops scheduled this year, and cancel final troop withdrawals scheduled for the end of 2011.

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Obama has consistently said he would comply with the August 31 deadline to remove combat forces from Iraq. He repeated this dozens of times on the campaign trail, stated it clearly at Camp Lejeune last year, and also repeated this policy in his Cairo speech. Vice President Biden affirmed this policy numerous times, saying in February, "You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer." And just last week, the White House reaffirmed its intention to call an end to operation Iraqi Freedom by August 31.

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Outrage in Iraq
Flying in the face of these consistent messages of assurance by the White House and congress, Odierno's statement has harmed the president's credibility in Iraq and caused the first major storm of criticism inside the country since Obama's election in 2008.

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On the eve of Iraq's March 7 elections, the president needs to reaffirm the US-Iraqi withdrawal agreement and issue a clear warning to military officers who seek to take the war into their own hands.
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more proof that the neo con military brass in standing on Obama's neck

[democrank]

1. More, more wars!

More, more wars! More, more wars!

[bvar22]

2. Here is a good read on the same topic:

Commanded in Chief
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/engelhardt

[HughMoran]

3. I was wondering where this story came from

They were reporting this as if there was pressure within the Administration to not pull out or some such shit on NPR this morning. Talk about awful reporting and taking the right-wing bait. Some reporters need to be fired.