'I'm not spending a trillion dollars' on nation-building, says Obama

Jonathin Alter's "The Promise", bout Obama's first year in office had an interesting chapter on the Military's efforts to 'jam' the president into supporting unlimited troops for an unlimited time in Afghanistan, despite the president's desire for a very concrete time line. the process by which they go about this is a very interesting study of politics at work. worth the read.

in part:

The Obama administration was determined to change that. “For the past eight years, whatever the military asked for, they got,” Obama explained later. “My job was to slow things down.” The president had something precious in modern crisis management: time. “I had to put up with the ‘dithering’ arguments from Dick Cheney or others,” Obama said. “But as long as I wasn’t shaken by the political chatter, I had the time to work through all these issues and ask a bunch of tough questions and force people to sharpen their pencils until we arrived at the best possible solution.”


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The Obama administration was determined to change that. “For the past eight years, whatever the military asked for, they got,” Obama explained later. “My job was to slow things down.” The president had something precious in modern crisis management: time. “I had to put up with the ‘dithering’ arguments from Dick Cheney or others,” Obama said. “But as long as I wasn’t shaken by the political chatter, I had the time to work through all these issues and ask a bunch of tough questions and force people to sharpen their pencils until we arrived at the best possible solution.”

www.newsweek.com...

also,

www.globalresearch.ca...

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

IMHO,

I think the Obama administration should do one of two things.

Either let the military run the war and go for a win [That's what Generals and military train for] or if the administration does not give them what the military needs for that win then we should just GET THE HELL OUT!

from everything I've read, Obama DOES want to get the hell out. But the military is so deeply embedded with the financial interests who profit off of them, that they will manipulate ANY president into stretching the war our as long as possible. That is what is happening in Afghanistan right now, with top military officials already fudging on their promise to have the war 'over' and troops out by next summer.

They were so used to Cheney/Bush giving them blank checks that they were surpised when Obama tried to hold them accountable. But a REAL withdrawal wont happen until the people demand it, in the streets.