Image courtesy of ABC News.
According to this well written piece from David Porter, also carried at HuffPo – US Army General David Petraeus is working to override US President Barack Obama.
(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.
But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn’t convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.
Obama’s decision to override Petraeus’s recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.
A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama’s decision.
Petraeus was visibly unhappy when he left the Oval Office, according to one of the sources. A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying, "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."
Petraeus, Gates and Odierno had hoped to sell Obama on a plan that they formulated in the final months of the Bush administration that aimed at getting around a key provision of the U.S.-Iraqi withdrawal agreement signed envisioned re-categorising large numbers of combat troops as support troops. That subterfuge was by the United States last November while ostensibly allowing Obama to deliver on his campaign promise.
Gates and Mullen had discussed the relabeling scheme with Obama as part of the Petraeus-Odierno plan for withdrawal they had presented to him in mid-December, according to a Dec. 18 New York Times story.
First, let me start out with the basics, in capital letters:
DEAR GENERAL PETRAEUS, HE FUCKING OUT RANKS YOU. NOW, SHUT THE HELL UP AND DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB! YOU INSUBORDINATE, SELF-AGGRANDIZING, EGOTISTICAL MANIAC! THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (WHOM YOU SERVE & NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND) ELECTED BARACK OBAMA TO BE YOUR FUCKING BOSS!
HOW DARE YOU DISHONOR THE MILITARY YOU CLAIM TO LOVE??? HOW DARE YOU? YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED! YOU SHOULD BE RELIEVED OF YOUR COMMAND! GO SOMEWHERE ELSE AND OPEN UP YOUR OWN MILITARY JUNTA.
IF GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR DID NOT OUTRANK A PRESIDENT, THEN YOU SURE AS HELL DO NOT. YOU HAD BETTER BE MORE THAN A GODDAMN, DEFENSE CONTRACTOR LACKEY! CARRY OUT YOUR ORDERS AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH UNTIL YOUR OPINION IS ASKED FOR.
Here is how these "Senior Military Officials" at the Pentagon plan to get their way:
senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama’s withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy.
aka: insubordination, mutiny, dereliction of duty, disobeying a direct order
We’ve seen this tactic and are seeing it now. Very serious (usually white) men in uniform going on CNN and telling us in no uncertain terms that Democrats are pussies and all our "cherished American way of life hangs in the balance" if we don’t drop our pants right now and give these death-addicts a blank check to kill millions of people and buy trillions of dollars of weapons.
I am sick and tired of being robbed by the Pentagon. I am sick and tired of our troops being deployed so that the Pentagon can justify billions more taxpayer money for cluster bombs, depleted uranium, nerve agent, drug deals, poisoned water, slaughtered civilians and untold riches for the Defense Industry (with a few tasty morsels for these same obliging military officers after they retire).
I was in the US Army and I served my country with pride. These thieving murderers – and that is exactly what they are, have fucked our country over for long enough! They are not incompetent, they are lying.
Spread the word, people. Fight them. Call CNN, call your Senators and Representatives. Go to Change.gov and make the Iraq Troop Withdrawl a front-burner issue.
President Obama announced a 10% Defense Spending cut for this year. I think that every time Petraeus or one of his stooges opens his or her flapper on TV about the troop levels in Iraq, the number goes up – Obama should raise the cuts by 1%. Let these bloodthirsty thieves know that there is a chain of command. Hold them to their promise to defend the uphold and defend The Constitution. And let them get a job on their own instead of as a reward for funneling taxpayer money into the pockets of their future employers.
Goddammit, I’m pissed!
– gadfly
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