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September 29, 2009

Video: Secretary Gates tells George Stephanopoulos, "I will sit on McChrystal's report until the President is ready"

Topics: Political News and commentaries

In this exchange, George Stephanopoulos and Defense Secretary Robert Gates discuss the subject of General McChrystal's Afghan memorandum on the need for 40,000 additional troops and the alternative that we will fail there and lose Afghanistan to al-Qaeda and the Teliban.

In this first video, Stephanopoulos and Gates discuss the urgency of General McChrystal's request for troops, with Gates subsequently parroting Obama's "need for a strategy" excuse for delaying

Here we see that Gates' dutiful response (obviously covering for Obama) to Stephanopoulos' prodding for a timeframe on the president's decision is simply, "I'm going to sit on it until the President is ready."

So, when is Barack Obama going to take time out of his busy (sic) schedule (he has time to go to Copenhagen to push for a Summer Olympic bid for Chicago) to read what his Generals are telling him? The general he appointed to manage the war in Afghanistan has laid out the strategy he believes will win the war, yet Barack Obama appears to be more concerned about politics. Interestingly, the very same people that said the Iraq surge would fail are the ones now saying a surge, as described by General McChrystal, will fail in Afghanistan.

Yet clearly, loosing Afghanistan would be a disaster for the West, given that Pakistan would likely subsequently fall to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And given that it was President Obama who tasked McChrystal with doing a comprehensive review of the war in Afghanistan, why isn't he now acting on McChrystal's recommendations?

Related: Raphael Alexander: The implications of 'losing' Afghanistan

Hat tip - RadioViceOnline

Posted by Richard at September 29, 2009 7:40 AM

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• Video: Secretary Gates tells George Stephanopoulos, "I will sit on McChrystal's report until the President is ready" - Sep 29, 2009