The Note (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
ABC News' Brittany Crockett and Teddy Davis Report: The Washington Post's Bob Woodward said Wednesday that the Obama administration's suggestion that the U.S. is "starting from scratch" in Afghanistan is an "extraordinary' statement which will prove hurtful to military families."...
Pen and Sword (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander in Afghanistan, has put on quite a show of insubordination in the past month or so in an attempt to cram his escalation plan down the throat of the America public. He has waged open information warfare in the media, right wing and otherwise, against President Barack Obama. I wonder how much longer Obama will up with it. More to the point, I wonder if he can stand...
American Power (Free subscription) | 10/25/2009
From Michael Ledeen, at the Weekly Standard , " We Have Met the Enemy ... And it is Iran ": Speaking publicly about the role of Iran in Afghanistan--which is substantial, and about which we have considerable information--seems to be taboo for our current leaders. This is neither new nor surprising. Iranians, and Iranian-trained terrorists from organizations such as Hezbollah, have been killing...
SWJ Blog (Free subscription) | 10/20/2009
The Long Road to Indecision - Tom Donnelly, Center for Defense Studies After White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s performances on the Sunday talkies, it’s getting harder and harder to avoid the conclusion that the Obama Administration is looking for almost any reason it can find to limit any further commitment to Afghanistan. The latest line, per Emanuel but channeling Sen. John Kerry,...
National Review Online (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
A mericans have been aware of significant civil-military tensions since the early years of the Clinton administration. Although such tensions are not unprecedented, they have produced concerns about the health of civil-military relations. Most of the most highly publicized disputes between the uniformed military and the Clinton administration reflected cultural tensions between the military as an...
This Week With Barack Obama (Free subscription) | 10/11/2009
The debate over the best way forward intensifies in Washington. Two key voices on the Hill and two experienced military leaders weigh in on the direction a new war strategy should take: Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI); Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.); and Gen. Richard Myers (Ret.). Plus a roundtable: Ron Brownstein, Paul Gigot, Katty Kay, Bob Woodward.TranscriptHome Page
RealClearPolitics (Free subscription) | 10/06/2009
The Pentagon's pre-emptive strike came with the leak of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's confidential review of the Afghan war to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. McChrystal's painting of the military picture was grim. "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 10/05/2009
As much as I may agree with Gen. Stanley McChrystal when it comes to Afghanistan, I must say that my old friend Jim Jones was correct when he told CNN’s John King that “it is better for military advice to come up through the chain of command.” We can all agree that the president’s handling of Afghanistan has been deficient at best. Officers on the ground in Afghanistan wonder...
BLACKFIVE (Free subscription) | 10/05/2009
Bruce Ackerman, distinguished professor of law or something like that at Yale, writes in the Washington Post: A General's Public Pressure By Bruce AckermanSaturday, October 3, 2009 2002 The president, the Constitution tells us, is the commander in chief. But is it true? In a speech in London on Thursday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal Eric Shinseki publicly intervened in the debate over Afghanistan Iraq....
Zandar Versus The Stupid (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
This morning, BooMan argues that Obama will not got for any sort of Afghanistan surge as in Iraq , and in fact is now engaged in trying to sell a withdrawal (emphasis mine): It appears that the administration is mainly working with the Washington Post in their effort to prep the country for a scale-down of our effort in Afghanistan. That is not to say that the Post is supportive of a scale-down. If...
George's Bottom Line (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
National Security Advisor Jim Jones tells Bob Woodward “I don’t have a deadline in my mind” for completing the strategic review of President Obama’s Afghanistan policy, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on 'This Week' that a decision would come...
BooMan Tribune (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
It appears that the administration is mainly working with the Washington Post in their effort to prep the country for a scale-down of our effort in Afghanistan. That is not to say that the Post is supportive of a scale-down. If anything, the case is the opposite. But, tonight, the Post has another article by Bob Woodward based on an interview with National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones. They have...
FreeThoughtManifesto (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
Petraeus, McChrystal, and the Surgettes By Tom Engelhardt, September 25, 2009 Courtesy Of Anti-War News Front and center in the debate over the Afghan War these days are General Stanley "Stan" McChrystal, Afghan war commander, whose "classified, pre-decisional" and devastating report — almost eight years and at least $220 billion later, the war is a complete disaster —...
Joe Scott 3: Body Politic (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
Deep Throat was the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information to Bob Woodward at the Washington Post about the involvement of President Richard Nixon’s administration in what became known as the Watergate scandal. The information led to the famous 1974 book All the President’s Men written by Woodward and Carl Bernstein. After more than 30 years of denial the identity...
The Blog (Free subscription) | 09/23/2009
Regular readers of this space know that Michigan Senator Carl Levin is one of the smartest and least intellectually honest members of Congress. (See here , here , here , and here .) His favorite trick is simply to leave out inconvenient arguments, embrace what he likes and completely change the meaning of the language in question. His statement from Monday, September 21, on the report by General Stanley...
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