Terror, War & Twilight (9/28/09)

Good news!  Barack Obama has "officially taken possession of" the McChrystal report on the state of the GWOT in the Af-Pak theatre of operations.

Bad news: he's going to let it sit on a shelf until its very pages yellow and disintegrate:

The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has submitted a request for more troops, a spokesman said Saturday, but the Pentagon will hold it while President Barack Obama decides what strategy to pursue.

General Stanley McChrystal hand delivered his long-awaited request to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, said spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis.

“At the end of that meeting General McChrystal did provide a copy of the force requirements to Admiral Mullen on the U.S. side and Admiral Stavridis on the NATO side,” Sholtis said after McChrystal returned from the meeting at an air base in Germany. …

The White House says it wants to review the entire strategy for the region before considering McChrystal’s request.

“Right now the focus is on the strategic assessment itself. It (the troop request) will be shelved until such time that the White House is ready,” a defense official said in Washington.

Didn't the White House already conduct such a review of Af-Pak strategy six months ago?  Why, yes, I believe they did.  It was, in fact, that strategy that was given to Generam McChrystal to carry out.  What's changed since then?  Well, the military situation has deteriorated, which is why General McChrystal, backed by General Petraeus and Admiral Mullen, has requested reinforcements.  More pertinent is that King Hussein's hard-left base has turned against what they themselves called "the REAL war on terror" not so long ago, as was inevitable.  And even if The Chosen One didn't agree with them, he'd never have the stones to publicly cross them on cutting & running.

Obama wants retreat and defeat, but he doesn't want to be SEEN as wanting retreat and defeat.  So he'll sit on McChrystal's report until the Afghan situation becomes hopeless, and then throw up his hands and declare that withdrawal is "the only choice".  Oh, yes, and it's all Bush's fault for "taking his eye off the ball in Iraq".

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Parenthetically, if you doubt B.O.'s lack of enthusiasm for the war on ANY front, consider how many times he's spoken with this Af-Pak theater C.O.:

The military general credited for capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq says he has only spoken to President Obama once since taking command of Afghanistan.

“I’ve talked to the president, since I’ve been here, once on a VTC [video teleconference],” General Stanley McChrystal told CBS reporter David Martin in a television interview that aired Sunday.

“You’ve talked to him once in seventy days?” Mr. Martin followed up.

“That is correct,” the general replied.

Once.  Uno.  Ein.  Wa.  Bush met with his military commanders almost daily.  Obama?  Once.

Almost like General McChrystal was set up as Red Barry's unwitting patsy and designated scapegoat when his vaunted "new strategy" failed.

No wonder the general is contemplating bailing once the fix is irretrievably in.