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Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - SumOfAllFears - 10-02-2009 11:42 AM
Is this Obama's attempt to squeeze a success out of a failed trip to Copenhagen? If you call a 25 minute meeting a success
Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal
President Obama squeezed a 25-minute council of war into his Copenhagen visit today, meeting General Stanley McChrystal aboard Air Force One before returning to Washington.
The general was summoned to the airborne White House on the day it was announced that four more British and American servicemen had died in Afghanistan. He was on his way back to Kabul from London, where he made a powerful public pitch for more troops to be sent to the battlefields.
Until today, General McChrystal had been in direct contact with Mr Obama only twice since taking up his post as Nato commander in Kabul six months ago - once via video link to the Oval Office and then as a participant in a major Afghan strategy meeting on Wednesday, again via videolink.
Since arriving in Kabul, General McChrystal has written a damning assessment of the Afghan security situation, and an election marred by widespread fraud has undermined the case for propping up the regime of President Hamid Karzai.
Whatever Mr Obama and the general discussed, their meeting will go some way towards inoculating the President from Republican claims that he has been neglecting the business of government for the sake of a sales pitch for his home town.
He has said he will not decide for several weeks whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. One purpose of the meeting, in the forward cabin of Air Force One, may have been to pre-empt further public statements by the general, whose speech in London was intended to counter the arguments of many in the White House for a new strategy aimed at al-Qaeda in Pakistan, rather than the Taleban.
The discussion came soon after it was announced that three more American soldiers had died in Afghanistan in the previous 24 hours.
The Ministry of Defence also said that an airman from 34 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment was killed by an explosion while on patrol near Britain’s Camp Bastion in Helmand province yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "The death of this courageous Royal Air Force Regiment Gunner is a true loss. He will be mourned by his friends, colleagues and all of us serving in Helmand province. We know that whilst our loss is heartfelt, it is nothing compared to the sorrow of his family, to whom we extend our deepest sympathies."
Next of kin have been informed and have asked for a period of grace before further details are released.
One of the US soldiers died after a grenade attack in the east of the country. An ISAF media officer said the other two were killed in an incident west of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan.
“There was an incident. There were casualties associated with that,” the officer added. No further details were immediately available.
A total of 384 foreign service personnel have died in Afghanistan so far this year, including 226 from the United States and 82 from Britain.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - GGniner - 10-02-2009 11:49 AM
rumor is Gates will step down, Hagel will be nominated as a "republican" Defense Secretary. I.e. the Lefts favorite kind then we'll get bi-partisian withdrawal. They've laid all the groundwork to get real intelligence out of Al-Qaeda and have been taking out high level operatives often for the last 18 months or so....and they will throw it away to appease the Left.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - Owl 69/70/75 - 10-02-2009 12:14 PM
(10-02-2009 11:49 AM)GGniner Wrote: rumor is Gates will step down, Hagel will be nominated as a "republican" Defense Secretary. I.e. the Lefts favorite kind then we'll get bi-partisian withdrawal. They've laid all the groundwork to get real intelligence out of Al-Qaeda and have been taking out high level operatives often for the last 18 months or so....and they will throw it away to appease the Left.
Yes, but before complaining too mightily the republicans have to admit that they could have done this 6 years ago instead of embarking on the Iraq invasion before its time. The drone technology was not sufficiently advanced, and the number of drones available was not sufficient, to have facilitated EVERYTHING we've been able to do in the last 18 months, but that would have gone more toward taking a bit longer to finish rather than toward making it impossible. And without the 6 year lull while attention was focused on Iraq, maybe the enemy wouldn't have been quite so well prepared to deal with what we are doing now.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - Owl 69/70/75 - 10-02-2009 12:14 PM
(10-02-2009 11:42 AM)SumOfAllFears Wrote: Is this Obama's attempt to squeeze a success out of a failed trip to Copenhagen? If you call a 25 minute meeting a success
Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal
It's all about appearances. That's what this administration runs on.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - GGniner - 10-02-2009 12:26 PM
takes along time to get the right informants on your side.
They already defeated Al-Qaeda and its sponsors and pushed them out of Iraq back to Afghanistan. OBL and Al-Zawahri both called Iraq the "Central Front" in the War with US/West. For good reason, much more advanced society, strategic location, water sources, etc. Afghanistan is a hell hole in the mountains.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - Owl 69/70/75 - 10-02-2009 12:34 PM
(10-02-2009 12:26 PM)GGniner Wrote: takes along time to get the right informants on your side.
They already defeated Al-Qaeda and its sponsors and pushed them out of Iraq back to Afghanistan. OBL and Al-Zawahri both called Iraq the "Central Front" in the War with US/West. For good reason, much more advanced society, strategic location, water sources, etc. Afghanistan is a hell hole in the mountains.
No disagreement on those points. But it takes a h*ll of a lot longer when you take your eye off the ball for 6 years.
And what really makes it take longer is that we pretty much got out of the humint business in the 90s. We didn't want to sully our noble efforts by dealing with the kinds of scumbags that you have to put up with to do good humint. We thought we could find out everything we needed to know off satellites. We were wrong.
Anyone think it's more than just coincidence that we made it through the tension of the Cold War without terror attacks on the WTC or Pentagon, but since tensions supposedly eased we've had multiple attacks on them?
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - WoodlandsOwl - 10-02-2009 12:55 PM
(10-02-2009 12:26 PM)GGniner Wrote: takes along time to get the right informants on your side.
They already defeated Al-Qaeda and its sponsors and pushed them out of Iraq back to Afghanistan. OBL and Al-Zawahri both called Iraq the "Central Front" in the War with US/West. For good reason, much more advanced society, strategic location, water sources, etc. Afghanistan is a hell hole in the mountains.
I don't think it is exclusively an informant. We might have compromised their communications, maybe "cloned" a laptop without their knowledge that had their codes. We have been reading their email or getting in their websites.
If you look who has been nailed in Drone strikes the past year or so, its mainly been "middle level" AQ Operations/Weapons Wing as well as some mid to high level Taliban Political types.
Most of the people had money on their heads, which leads one to believe its an informant calling in for the reward. However, any AQ counter-intelligence type on a "mole hunt" could easily know which individuals had direct knowledge of specific operative's location at a given time. Enough people have been knocked off to narrow the list of suspects considerably. The Taliban Political types are called in by informants-- someone they have pissed off or a political rival.
Thats why I think its mainly communications. Operative Abdul relocates and as soon as he is in a new location he fires up the laptop and checks email or a website. Maybe he sends/picks up a message that we can decode so we know where he will be at a certain time.
I have heard on good authority that all Drone strikes in Pakistan have be authorized by Obama, which means we have "solid" operational inteliigence because of the collateral damage concerns. And I'm pretty sure that we have on-scene operatives with eyes on the target to do bomb damage assessment, maybe call in another missile strike.
This is one operation that is working. I hope they dont do anything to cut back on the Drone strikes.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - Ninerfan1 - 10-05-2009 02:45 PM
White House pissed McChrystal told truth
So the White House is pissed at McChrystal because he flatly said the Joe Biden approach to Afghansitan wouldn't work. Got to think he's on borrowed time at this point.
Ultimatley I think Obama will disregard McChrystal's assessment because it helps him politically with the left who is pissed at him over healthcare. Snatching defeat from victory in Afghanistan would be just the ticket to appease them.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - SumOfAllFears - 10-05-2009 02:51 PM
There is a good chance if McChrystal resigns General Petraeus will also. This is bad for America because it makes our military look weak. The blood will be on Obama's hands because he is a weak SOB.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - Lord Stanley - 10-05-2009 03:25 PM
I love politics.
Listen to the Generals, they know what is best on the ground.
Don't listen to Generals, they don't know how to speak politics.
Can't have it both ways, current Administration.
RE: Barack Obama holds runway summit with General Stanley McChrystal - WoodlandsOwl - 10-05-2009 08:29 PM
(10-05-2009 02:51 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote: There is a good chance if McChrystal resigns General Petraeus will also. This is bad for America because it makes our military look weak. The blood will be on Obama's hands because he is a weak SOB.
Petraeus 2012?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/world/05military.html?_r=1