Gates: Obama ‘framed’ withdrawal from Iraq ‘just right.’
By on Dec 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Gates: Obama ‘framed’ withdrawal from Iraq ‘just right.’
Yesterday, President-elect Obama said that “16 months is the right time frame” for withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, noting that he would “listen to the recommendations” his commanders on the ground. Asked today if he considered himself “at odds” with Obama on the timetable, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he “would subscribe to what the President-elect said yesterday in Chicago.” Pressed by reporters on the length of the time frame,” Gates said that Obama “framed it just right yesterday.” Watch it:
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obama was right, dummya was wrong. who woulda thunk?
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:50 pmGates works for Obama.......no argument or he's gone.....bush did it and Obama will too.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:50 pmIf McCain won, would Gates say that 100 years is the right time frame?
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:52 pm16 months is still too long. Bring 'em home yesterday.
And to the wise-ass who asked about teleportation: stop being stupid.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:54 pmWhile Gates would obviously agree with Obama, there should be little question that Obama did have this pegged right. It now appears that the Iraqis also agree with him -- and they don't have the specter of firing hanging over their heads.
I only hope that we are mentally prepared for the upswing in sectarian violence that will occur when we do leave. It is inevitable given the Sunni, Shia and Kurd divisions in the country that are overlayed by militia and other dimensions as well.
Hopefully, we will recognize that we never should have invaded Iraq in the first place and we will resist getting re-entangled in their civil war after we depart.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pmThis is going to make NeoCon heads explode all over this country....
Obama 1
Bush 0
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:10 pmBuckie Boy, right on.
Obama is the One
Bush is a zero
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 pmWhat I wonder is how all of the contractors are going to get out of Iraq. I certainly hope that our government does not pay to bring them home, considering what we pay the Contractors for their services.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pmOT-
Rodan (Trajan) Mr P and their new LGF2 buddies are really going after us today. They must be bored bashing LGF and now have their guns on us. I also have detected an increase in trolling. It seems the Mr. P era might be back!
http://littlegreenfootballs2.com/2008/12/02/think-progress-bashes-catholic-church-over-opposition-to-gay-marriage/
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 pmOne of these days I might just try walking on water.
Do us all a favor and take it to the continental shelf, wear cement boots, and leave the life preserver at home.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pmThis is all a bit like arguing about the number of angels who can be brought home from the head of a pin, innit?
First, there's the remarkably disingenuous qualification regarding the troops to be withdrawn: all "combat" troops. Presumably that means striker brigades and the like. It takes NO account of the numbers of 'contractors' who'll still be boots on the ground. Nor does it count the numbers of troops who'll be left behind guarding, maintaining and flying the aricraft on those 'temporary bases.'
and then there's the matter that 16 months is as far off as 16 years, when the issue is security and stability in a war-zone. Not only could conditions in Iraq deteriorate in mere minutes, but new crises (think Mumbai, only in Tel Aviv; now THERE'D be a shitstorm) will certainly intrude.
Then what does "out of Iraq" mean?
We all know that he's already said he wants to expand the GWOT in Afghanistan. Taking troops out of Iraq, only to send 'em on an increasingly dangerous and foolish enterprise in Afghanistan (or worse, on foolhearty missions into Pakistan) does not "bring them home," which was a clear implication of Obama's non-pledge to 'end the war.'
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:27 pmtoking librul -
In your own words:
"We all know that he’s already said he wants to expand the GWOT in Afghanistan.We all know that he’s already said he wants to expand the GWOT in Afghanistan."
O.K. no change of plan here!
Next sentence:
"Taking troops out of Iraq, only to send ‘em on an increasingly dangerous and foolish enterprise in Afghanistan (or worse, on foolhearty missions into Pakistan) does not “bring them home,” which was a clear implication of Obama’s non-pledge to ‘end the war.’"
Did your mean 'foolhardy'? 'Foolhearty' is not in my fractured dictionary!
Obama only said that he was going to end the war in Iraq in order to finish what W had started in Afghanistan. The only person to pursue "a foolish enterprise in Afghanistan" was our dear W. He started to dismantle the forces there in September 1992 in order to move them to Kuwait for the Iraqi invasion and occupation before the job was finished in Afghanistan.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 pmReally are you drunk?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pmdb,
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:04 pmI'm as sober as a church mouse.
Sorry. It is really hard to tell. With all respect you say a lot of weird shit which makes not so much sense but might if you were drunk
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pmWe don't really have the stature to not secure Afghanistan. That's like leaving Germany after a world war. Will it be pretty? No. Not to subjugate it like the USSR wanted to, just make it a viable state.
We can debate punishing Saudi Arabia for 9/11 vs. nobody wins wars, because we aren't there as the opponent. We already are in Afghanistan, just not doing well and it compromises the troops there.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:02 pmBesides Bin Laden, Afghanistan was military. Somewhat misguided, but military. Spending in one week of Iraq equals a lot of Afg.
Iraq was a vile business venture, using the richest source of funding.... not oil, the U.S. government.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pmdb,
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 pmPerhaps we have a language barrier. I am 24 years older than you. I lived in a time when you could have an electric motor repaired rather than replaced. Dad would pop out all of the tubes from the TV and I could trek down to the drugstore and find the marginal ones without being mugged for the 5 bucks I had for new ones. We also used terms like 'Anguish Languish' for English language. Look up "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" on Google for a classic.
WaltTheMan Says:
I lived in a time when you could have an electric motor repaired rather than replaced. Dad would pop out all of the tubes from the TV and I could trek down to the drugstore and find the marginal ones.
Watch out!! You will get "moderated" by questioning Obama's "change". Progressive thought has now become as locked down as Conservative, except then it is not Progressive anymore.
BTW, I grew up in Truman's time, had 78s of Tommy Dorsey, remember Bill Haley and The Comets before "Rock Around The Clock", 19 cents a gallon gas, Egg Cremes, collected comics, watched Light's Out on a 12" Philco TV, and saw my dad throw his shoe at the TV when McCarthy came on.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 pmBFPA,
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 pmI grew up in FDR's time. Went around with my little red wagon, picked up newspapers and cans and off to the recycle center. Everyone took part in the war effort from four to seventy.
So still all I wanted to know was if Lush was intoxicated...
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 am