President Obama: Fire General McChrystal, Patraeus [sic] & Gates

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The Jawa Report:

Dear President Obama,

Since late this summer General Stanley McChrystal has been asking for more troops for Afghanistan lest we lose the war. Early last month those sentiments were expressed in a formal request for 40,000 additional troops. General Patraeus and Secretary of Defense Gates have publicly endorsed Gen. McChrystal’s request.

Since that time you have been considering whether or not to provide those troops and whether or not the use of those troops in a counter-insurgency strategy — similar to that employed in Iraq — is wise or not. If press reports are to be believed, then top members of your administration have serious doubts as to whether or not the strategy as outlined by Gen. McChrystal and endorsed by Gen. Patraeus and Sec. Gates will work.

Your inaction on this request speaks volumes and one can only draw one logical inference from it: you do not trust the judgment of Gen. Patraeus, Sec. Gates, or Gen. McChrystal.

If you trusted their expertise, then you would have immediately begun to implement their strategy.

Since it is glaringly obvious that you do not trust the judgment of your top commanders in the field or of your own Sec. of Defense, then why don’t you fire them?

If they are so wrong, then they should be fired.

Personally, I don’t think Obama has the stones in his shorts to fire anyone (his wife on the other hand…).

Obama has never had to do anything truly important that included personal responsibility and risk, that is why he is unable to make decisions.

It’s ‘Petraeus’ just in case your internal spellcheck rang.

Dems demonstrate again their backward priorities

As a military brat, a Marine, and a civilian I have always distrusted the Democrat Party and their values.

Once again, they prove just how f’d up their priorities are:

Twice as many Democrats say health care reform should be President Obama’s top priority as say the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be his top concern, according to a new Gallup poll.

Gallup asked people this question: “Which of the following should be Barack Obama’s top priority as president — the economy, health care, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy, the federal budget deficit, or something else…?”

The numbers help explain Obama’s slowness in reaching a decision on what to do in Afghanistan. There simply aren’t very many people in the president’s party who believe the war should be his top priority — just half as many as those who say health care should be his top concern. When it comes to pressure for a decision coming from his own party, there just isn’t much.

via For Dems, health care reform more important than war in Afghanistan.

When I see numbers like that I don’t see an explanation of Obama’s slowness. I see their attitude towards our military, their sacrifices and the what they really believe when it comes to helping others.

Obama a tough guy, at least with Fox News

The strange disparity between the heavy-handed community organization at home and the ever cockier untouchables abroad risks making the commander in chief look like a weenie – like “President Pantywaist,” as Britain’s Daily Telegraph has taken to calling him.

The Chicago way? Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight? In Iran, this administration won’t bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won’t bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won’t bring a knife to a machete fight.

Mark Steyn

In memory: Major David G. Taylor, U.S. Army

Major David G. Taylor and family

Three years ago today a friend from my younger years was killed in Iraq.

I remember you, David. Thank you.

Here are mentions of David around the web, please take your time to get acquainted with him and his family.

• The Iraq Page
• DefenseLink
• An Online Memorial
  

and from the high school we attended together:

• Heidelberg American High School
• Major David G. Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund
• Army Ten Miler Run in honor of Major David G. Taylor

And finally these words of wisdom from the eulogy delivered by his brother:

These are Dave’s life lessons:

1. Life isn’t fair– get over it!

2. Freedom isn’t free, someone has to pay the price, and it might as well be you.

3. Things often get worse before they get worse.

4. No whining.

5. Take care of your own business.

6. Sometimes you just need to find your backbone to do the right thing.

7. People who do the right thing aren’t heroes, they are just doing the right thing.

8. You are probably not entitled to any thing you didn’t work for.

Major David G. Taylor

David was a soldier’s soldier who would not like this part of the service. He was mostly modest– he really was– and he believed that the best soldier was the soldier who fought quietly for his country–not out of any Hollywood styled sense of patriotism but rather because it was an inherent duty and part of his obligation as a citizen living in this country…

David once mentioned to me that there are those people who merely talk about America and our wonderful freedom, rights and privileges and then there are those who step up and put their money where their mouth is…;he simply believed that evil had to be challenged and somebody had to take the lead.

I wished more people lived a life based upon the same values as David’s.

I know I fail to many times a day.

Today I will try harder live a better life.

Harry Reid does not speak for this Nevadan

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And I intend to do everything I can to retire this pathetic SOB.

Harry Reid plan: ‘Vaporize’ 2010 GOP opponent

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is prepared to run a sharply negative campaign if that’s what it takes to win reelection next year, with a top adviser predicting that the Nevada Democrat will “vaporize” his Republican challengers with attack ads.

Trailing in the polls and under constant attack from the GOP, Reid’s campaign has just launched a warm-and-fuzzy million-dollar ad campaign to reintroduce the veteran senator to his constituents. But Reid’s team also wants to be the one that introduces lesser-known opponents to the electorate — and will be ready, when the time comes, to unleash a torrent of ads branding challengers as untested and unprepared for the job.

Now in the campaign’s sites: Sue Lowden, a wealthy gaming executive, former state senator and former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, and Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas businessman and the son of legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

“I expect him to vaporize Lowden or Tarkanian or whoever is the opponent,” said a Reid adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss campaign strategy.

The Reid adviser said the campaign’s oppo files on Lowden and Tarkanian are “growing by the day” — and that the only question for the campaign is when to start using them: Wait until the GOP has a nominee, or start tearing the candidates down in advance of the Republican primary.

He has to do this because he cannot defend his record, his votes, his statements, nor his ignorance of what the people of Nevada want.

Reid, his advisers say, has learned his lesson from Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who lost his seat in 2004 after failing to push back hard enough against intense GOP criticism.

But they still support the troops…

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

via U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects

When the government runs things you can be sure they’ll screw it up

The U.S. government failed to send promised college tuition checks to tens of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before they returned to school this fall, even after being warned that it was inadequately staffed for the job.

The Veterans Affairs Department blamed a backlog of claims filed for GI Bill education benefits that has left veterans who counted on the money for tuition and books scrambling to make ends meet.

via Veterans’ promised tuition checks AWOL

They want to run health care, the car industry, banking, and just about everything else. I assure you, things will only get worse if Obama and the Democrats are allowed to do so.

Quote of the Day

It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.

via The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak

Bumper sticker of the day

Knoxville, Tennessee. In the parking lot at Downtown West.

UPDATE: Reader James Dempsey writes: “The bumper sticker in your post is from LaRue Tactical (http://www.laruetactical.com/), a great company doing great things for American and Allied servicemembers. As the anniversary of Sept. 11th approaches, it is worth going to La Rue’s webpage and reading the biography of MSG Horrigan.”

It was parked in front of Salon Visage.

via Instapundit

Quote of the Day: ‘We’re better off with Ted dead’, Reid

Q&A with Sen. Harry Reid about re-election campaign, approval ratings, son

Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy’s death affect things?

A: I think it’s going to help us. He hasn’t been around for some time. We’re going to have a new chairman of that committee, it’ll be, I don’t know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd, (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He’s an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn’t get it done.

Translation: “We’re better off with him gone because we have an agenda to keep.”

IMHO, Senator Harry Reid, the überdouche from Searchlight, Nevada, is an embarrassment to everyone in Nevada.

He left the building a long time ago.

Don’t miss the Dump Reid web site. Here’s a post from today.

Warship honors Marine who died protecting comrades

BATH, Maine AP – The Navy’s newest destroyer bears a name that’s familiar to Marines. The ship that’ll be christened on Saturday at Bath Iron Works bears the name of Cpl. Jason Dunham, a Marine who jumped on a grenade to save his comrades in 2004 in Iraq.

Dunham’s parents, Deb and Dan Dunham, will be at the Maine shipyard along with other Marines who served with him in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Dunham, who’s from Scio SY’-oh, N.Y., earned the Medal of Honor for his actions on April 14, 2004.

His unit was searching a line of cars for insurgents when he was attacked by one of them. His last words were a warning: “Watch his hand!” Dunham covered the grenade with his Kevlar helmet and his body. Two fellow Marines survived. Dunham died eight days later.

10th Amendment: Texas may refuse ObamaCare

I miss living in Texas. They actually have read the Constitution and wish to follow it:

Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be “disastrous” for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as “Obama Care.” But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a “number” of states might resist the federal health mandate.

“I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying ‘no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare,” Perry said. “So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats.”

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as his emerging re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary. Earlier this year, Perry refused $555 million in federal unemployment stimulus money, saying it would subject Texas to long-term costs after the federal dollars ended.

Interviewed after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Perry spoke out against President Barack Obama’s healthcare package less than 24 hours after the president used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to sell the massive legislative package to Congress and the public.

via Perry raises possibility of states’ rights showdown with White House over healthcare.

American Heroes you should know

Don’t hold your breath to hear about these two heroes on the news tonight as long as a loud-mouthed a$$hole from Harvard University has the spotlight.

Fallen soldier to receive Medal of Honor

Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, who was killed in Afghanistan June 21, 2006, will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat, his father, Paul Monti, told Army Times in a telephone interview Thursday.

Here’s an account of the incident in which SFC Monti lost his life:    

On 21 June 2006, SFC Monti, then a staff sergeant, was the assistant patrol leader for a 16-man patrol tasked to conduct surveillance in the Gowardesh region. The patrol was to provide up-to-date intelligence, interdict enemy movement and ensure early warning for the squadron’s main effort as it inserted into the province.

As nightfall approached, the patrol was attacked by a well organized enemy force of at least 60 personnel. Outnumbered four-to-one, SFC Monti’s patrol was in serious danger of being overrun.

The enemy fighters had established two support-by-fire positions directly above the patrol in a densely wooded ridgeline. SFC Monti immediately returned fire and ordered the patrol to seek cover and return fire. He then reached for his radio headset and calmly initiated calls for indirect fire and close air support (CAS), both danger-close to the patrol’s position. He did this while simultaneously directing the patrol’s fires.

When SFC Monti realized that a member of the patrol, Private First Class (PFC) Brian J. Bradbury, was critically wounded and exposed 10 meters from cover, without regard for his personal safety, he advanced through enemy fire to within three feet of PFC Bradbury’s position. But he was forced back by intense RPG fire. He tried again to secure PFC Bradbury, but he was forced to stay in place again as the enemy intensified its fires.

The remaining patrol members coordinated covering fires for SFC Monti, and he advanced a third time toward thewounded Soldier. But he only took a few steps this time before he was mortally wounded by an RPG. About the same time, the indirect fires and CAS he called for began raining down on the enemy’s position. The firepower broke the enemy attack, killing 22 enemy fighters. SFC Monti’s actions prevented the patrol’s position from being overrun, saved his team’s lives and inspired his men to fight on against overwhelming odds.

Another story you are not likely to hear because war is not something the President nor the media will discuss during a prime time press conference is one of Marine First Lt. Travis Manion:

On April 29, 2007, this transition team was patrolling the outskirts of Fallujah in Anbar province, one of Iraq’s deadliest battle zones. The platoon was just ending a search of a suspected terrorist house.

Suddenly a Marine got shot when enemy snipers ambushed the patrol with small arms fire.

Manion and a colleague pulled their wounded comrade from the line of fire. After giving first aid, Manion led a counterattack.

When a Navy doctor was wounded, Manion recovered him too while facing fire from five shooters.

A roadside bomb stymied reinforcements from the Iraqi army, leaving Manion and his patrol under attack from three sides.

Now the officer made the gutsiest call of his young life. He jumped into an exposed position to attract more gunfire so the wounded Marines could be rescued.

After getting off several rounds, Manion was struck and killed.

Manion’s heroism didn’t surprise Poudrier. Early in their work together, the major noticed prized illumination grenades attached to the lieutenant’s assault rifle.

“I said, ‘I could use a few of those,’ ” Poudrier recalled. “He said, ‘Go ahead sir, take mine.’ Right off the bat he was very selfless, and that first impression set the tone.”

In the months before his death, Manion constantly faced danger. This was largely due to his leading by example, says Poudrier. “A couple of times Travis had some really close calls as the target of attacks, when he had to dive across the road to get out of the way,” the major told IBD. “I told him not to get too gung-ho, don’t get yourself shot. But he put himself in harm’s way first. That was just how he operated.”

In an e-mail home shortly before his death, Manion remained hopeful despite facing great hardships.

“As in anything in life,” he wrote, “true success does not come from battles easily won.”

These are the men who should have been paid millions for their service, and given the respect due a professor or head of state, but alas, they will only be remembered by those they touched. The will be remembered for the sacrifices they made and the virtues they had which few in our media-driven culture can claim.

Thank you, SFC Monti and 1stLT Manion for what you believed in and what you were willing to do about it.

Quote of the Day: Enabling Obama

Talk about a “tell us something we don’t know” moment:

Not one questions about Iraq. Not one questions about Afghanistan, where American troops have had the worst month of fatalities in eight years. These guys, and women, are not journalists. They’re enablers.

via What’s the deal with the White House press corps?

I have a question for those in the media who were present at the press conference last night.

Can we have a show of hands of those who voted for someone other than Obama?

And by a show of hands, how many of you are registered as something other than a Democrat?

Quote of the Day: Another day another Obama lie

Gitmo’s supposed to close in six months. They’re delaying the report on what to do with the prisoners until … the current prison closes?

via Hot Air

One “Blame Bush” story you won’t hear on the news tonight

Gateway Pundit: Soccer Returns to Baghdad… National Team Plays First Game Before 45,000 Fans

Uday Hussein was not able to attend.

zeitgeist by drudge, snark by jcrue

He does a better job than most – DRUDGE REPORT

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Iraq: Never doubt what the American military can accomplish

Michael Ramirez, Political Cartoons, Editorial News.

Iraq: Win

My father-in-law had the nerve to say returning to Iraq was a mistake. He didn’t appreciate my response.

“Asked any Iraqis about that?”

Then he went on immediately to Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Repubicans and the whole shallow tired liberal litany against BushCo in less than a minute.

To which, I replied, “I’ll take that as a ‘no’, huh?”

Quietest dinner EVAH!!!

Gateway Pundit: Dem Leaders Avoid Thanking Bush For US Victory In Iraq Today

It doesn’t matter what the military accomplishes, they will always be someone victim in all this so someone can get more votes.

They told me if I voted for…

McCain, terrorists would be held indefinitely as part of administration policy, and they were right!

(This meme brought to you by Glenn Reynolds.)

Andrew Malcolm explains:

In yet another sign of political perfidy, the White House of President George W. Bush has drafted a presidential executive order that would allow that double-dealing Republican chief executive to hold suspected terrorist detainees indefinitely.

According to the president’s intentions, such suspects could be detained for long periods of time, virtually indefinitely. Is this really what the nation voted for last November?

Oh, wait. No. According to an exclusive Washington Post/Pro Publica report this afternoon, it’s the refreshing new Democratic administration of Barack Obama that’s now preparing this new executive order to hold certain terrorist suspects indefinitely.

This is an obviously inspiring sign of the new style of leadership the Democrat promised and is finally bringing to the White House. As one blogger put it, George W. Obama. And it shows the kind of powerful political pragmatism with which the ex-senator from Illinois approaches this job at such a crucial and globally turbulent time.Strangely, it was leaked to the Post on a slow summer Friday afternoon when it wouldn’t gain much attention.

According to the Post report, the 44th president is now starting to think that closure of the internationally-reviled Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Obama announced with so much fanfare on his first day in office last winter, may be impossible to actually accomplish before the one-year deadline he set for himself before actually planning where else to put these prisoners.

In other words, fanfare aside, status quo ante. Democrat or Republican, same deal. Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney will be so pleased that the Obama-Biden folks finally accepted his advice to protect national security.

Another sign, finally, of real change after eight long years of the very same thing.

Can I get a ‘McSame” from Code Pink? How about you all at MoveOn.org? Hollywood? Oh wait, sorry for interrupting the slobber fest over MJ for something serious, move along…

And when does Bush/Cheney receive their apology for the derision of a complete fool and rookie statesman during his two year campaign for the White House? Honestly, I don’t think the current President has the integrity nor the character to apologize for being so damn wrong about our national security and our enemies.

Mark this up for another Liberal playing politics with our national security to get votes.

Hot Air covers this story with the same excellent analysis: The rank dishonesty of the Obama administration:

Obama has essentially endorsed the detention policies of George Bush without the courtesy of apologizing for slandering him over the last two and a half years. Obama and his allies screeched endlessly about indefinite detentions, and not just in Gitmo, either. They specifically railed against the holding of terrorists without access to civil courts in military detention facilities around the world, specifically Bagram, but in general as well. Not even six months into his term of office, Obama realized that Bush had it right all along.

I got a delivery for the American people.

Did he even have the grace to admit that? No. Instead, the White House took the cowardly method of a late-Friday leak to let people know that Obama had adopted the Bush policy all over again. Barack Obama just appeared at a press conference this last Tuesday to discuss Iran, energy policy, and ObamaCare, where he could have told the national press that he had changed his mind on indefinite detention. Instead, he kept his mouth shut, and had his media staff whisper it into phones to a couple of White House favorites in the press.

It’s a shameful performance, and the measure of the man in charge.

Quote of the Day: Obama the Innocent

From someone I despise but have to agree with today and when it was said:

Obama’s gyrations on Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are not the actions of one imbued with superior intuitive judgment, but rather the machinations of a political opportunist looking to avoid having his fingerprints on any issue that might be controversial, and require real judgment, while preserving his freedom to bludgeon his adversary for actually taking positions as elected office demands.

via Hot Air

How many times did he refer to himself?

Nothing to see here, move along...

I get sick to my stomach watching him and his sycophants bask in his greatness: What Obama didn’t mention:

A couple of surprising words were missing from President Barack Obama’s 55-minute news conference on Wednesday: “Iraq” — and “Afghanistan.”

Also MIA: “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” and “war” — as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The omissions were partly a result of the short attention span of the press, which did not ask about those topics after the president did not mention them in his opening statement.

But the silence on those subjects also provides a striking illustration of one of the singular differences between Obama and his predecessor.

Yeah, his first thoughts of of himself, and the questions for which he prepped – it is only when forced to do so, he will throw a shout out to our troops and the people around the world who know their freedom is not a birth-right, but something to be earned.

It’s 3:00 AM, Mr. President

Via Gateway Pundit: Please quit hitting the snooze button, sir.

Obama: Still don’t know much about history

Obama the post turtle

Or is it he’s willfully lying?

Judge for yourself: Narrative Dissonance

“I mean, in a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above–above the world, he’s sort of God.” These drug-addicted words come from Evan Thomas, a longtime editor at Newsweek. He uttered them on Chris Matthews’s MSNBC show. Such words would wreak havoc on any person’s ego, even Barack Obama’s. It also would enrage his enemies.

After all, the president has told us that he is a mere student of history, and that he is.

But history these days is no longer a discipline inclined to defend the truthfulness of its claims or the reasonableness of its arguments or the plausibility of its conclusions. More and more, history has become a competition between and among narratives, self-consciously disdainful of what we used to think of as fact. In this intellectual competition, the losers almost always win or, at least, they win the “moral argument.” Not in real history, mind you, but in many a Western professor’s classroom. And, sometimes, in an American president’s mind.

It’s scary how ignorant the president is about the Middle East or how he uses selective history to suck up to Israel’s neighbors.

This is not the first time the president’s lack of historical education has been seen.