Mission Impossible

Mission Impossible
By convicted felon Oliver North | December 03, 2009

The commander in chief's recent lecture at the U.S. Military Academy has to go down in history as one of the strangest presentations ever offered by a war-time president. The robotically-delivered address is defended by administration officials as the culmination of a carefully thought-out "strategy review," in which Mr. Obama proffered the "rationale" for deploying additional troops and explained "The Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Unfortunately, it failed to do any of this.

Though he was standing before West Point's Corps of Cadets, the president's remarks were devoid of strategic vision, lacking any definition of victory and empty of the rhetoric elected leaders employ to rally democratic people to a cause requiring the sacrifice of blood and treasure. The speech did however provide another Obama "first." Giving the enemy a timetable for withdrawing American troops while simultaneously committing additional combat forces to a war zone is unprecedented. No commander in chief has ever done such a thing before -- because it makes no sense from either a political or military perspective.

To his credit, Mr. Obama said, "I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan." These additional troops, trainers and mobility assets are desperately needed. But he offered no rationale for how he arrived at a number that is 25 percent less than what his hand-picked commander, General Stanley McChrystal requested. Then he devoted five additional passages to defending his statement that, "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

Since Tuesday, Mr. Obama has stopped talking about the war in Afghanistan and moved on to "Creating Jobs" -- a topic he raised four times in his West Point speech. He left Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Admiral Mike Mullins, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a host nameless "administration spokesmen" to explain the extraordinary announcement that we will "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."

The contortions required to support this statement were particularly evident in Congressional testimony this week -- particularly for Mr. Gates. When the Defense Secretary appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) said to Mr. Gates: "You said in April 2007, with regard to Iraq, ‘I've been pretty clear that I think the enactment of specific deadlines would be a bad mistake.'"


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,206919,00.html?wh=news



unhappycamper comment: I have nothing against convicted felons.... Only this convicted felon.