National Security Insiders Equally Divided Over Obama's New Afghanistan Strategy
’S National Security Insiders are divided down the middle over whether President Obama’s plan to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year will give the military enough time to accomplish its goals during the spring fighting season. In an instant poll conducted within 15 minutes of Obama’s speech, a narrow majority also said Obama's plan to withdraw all 33,000 surge troops by the end of next summer risks jeopardizing recent gains.In his prime-time speech on Wednesday night, President Obama announced his plan to bring home 10,000 troops by the end of the year. A senior Pentagon official familiar with the plan told National Journal that one brigade of 5,000 troops will leave the country this summer and another 5,000 will withdraw by the end of the year. Obama plans to pull out the remaining 23,000 surge forces by no later than next September—several months sooner than expected.
( RELATED : Full Text of Obama's Speech )
Exactly half of National Security Insiders disagreed with Obama's near-term strategy to bring home so many troops during the Afghan fighting season, a notorious offensive launched by militants during the hot spring and summer months. Obama’s plan is “illogical” for several reasons, one Insider said. “The fighting season goes on through October. Why pull out in the middle of it? He surged to win and exit, now he is inviting a protracted war because there are fewer troops to reinvest."
The other half said the strategy would enable the U.S.-led coalition to continue its fight against militants. Several acknowledged the increasing pressure by Obama's liberal base and even some Republican lawmakers to accelerate the drawdown of the increasingly unpopular and costly Afghan war. "Given the political realities on the ground in the United States, this was a courageous move for the president," one Insider said. "He will take fire from all sides for this decision."
Some Insiders were less sympathetic to this political pressure, and said Obama was more concerned with his reelection campaign than success in the war-torn country after a decade of conflict. "It illustrates that domestic politics weigh more than international security. The fact that he dismissed the advice of his ... top military advisers is incredulous to me," one Insider said.
( RELATED : Obama's Choice: A Partial Exit, With Reelection in Mind )
Obama’s new strategy, which will leave around 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan next fall, is based on a faster timetable than what military commanders advised. The Pentagon wanted to keep the remaining 23,000 troops in Afghanistan until the end of 2012, and a senior official there said top commander Gen. David Petraeus feels like he lost the internal debate over the timing of the drawdown and does not support the current plan.
Peter Pace Viet Nam Combat - News
"Wishful thinking of the kind where politics trumps national security. Also, deja vu all over again read: Vietnam circa 1973. Except then the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese had no ability or inclination to follow us back to America.
Seay said it created a war-like atmosphere and Mease himself even connected it, and the bison's plight, to the Vietnam War. I don't know if I would go that far. It certainly looked like an effective way to move bison over open ground.
[xxiv] China is planning high-speed rails to Laos, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan have agreed to cooperate with China to build a China-Iran rail link from Xinjiang, passing through Kyrgyzstan,
Until he made it [in 1979], you couldn't do a film about the Vietnam War. That's what we discovered.” Contemplating further his failed attempt to bring the story to the big screen, the director stated, “Most of the things in the film were things the
Their cousin, Chip, returns home from Vietnam damaged but still an eccentric, roving restlessly from Seattle to Mexico. Matriarch Audrey wants only happiness for her brood, which is ultimately derailed by Ryan's growing dissatisfaction, Anita's failing
General Peter Pace Challenges Keuka Graduates | Keuka College News
Thanks to his eighth-grade English teacher, General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, learned that conduct was part of his grade in life. That teacher was the late Marion Cutler, a 1952 Keuka graduate.
“Ms. Cutler taught me the difference between capability and conduct,” said Pace.
Years later, serving as a Marine in Vietnam, pausing to consider his conduct prevented Pace from ordering an airstrike that would have decimated a village of innocent women and children.
“Take time to set your moral compass,” Pace urged Keuka graduates during the 103 commencement Sunday. “You will be morally challenged when, emotionally, you are least prepared to deal with it. Decide for yourself what you and will not do … so that when a challenge does come, you take the three to five seconds to think through (it).”
After giving him a “D” in the first quarter of his eighth-grade English class for “always mouthing off with some kind of joke,” he said, Cutler’s face would pop into his head in later years when tempted to say something inappropriate.
“The way you conduct yourself impacts everybody around you,” said Pace, who was awarded an honorary doctorate Sunday, along with the late Cutler, who died in March. Pace accepted his award “on behalf of the 2.4 million (soldiers) in our armed forces that make days like today possible.”
The Sunday ceremony was the final one for College President Joseph G. Burke, who is retiring after 14 years. Burke was awarded the title President Emeritus by Melissa Brown, Class of 1972, and chair of the College’s governing board.
Other commencement highlights included:
An honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree was presented posthumously to Marion Cutler. Cutler was one of General Pace’s favorite teachers growing up in New Jersey. The two exchanged letters often after Pace assumed his Joint Chiefs’ responsibilities and remained close up until Cutler’s death in March. George Slocum, who celebrated his 50 anniversary of employment at the College in April, also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and a standing ovation from students, faculty and staff. Though Slocum is “retiring” from the College, he will continue to hold down his part-time job cleaning at the U.S. post office in Keuka Park, where he has also worked nearly 35 years.
Peter Pace Viet Nam Combat - Bookshelf
Current Biography Yearbook 2006
Pace, who has 39 years of military service, including combat experience in Vietnam and Somalia, will likely be judged in his role as chairman of the Joint ...Three Quarter Cadillac
Lessons learned in Vietnam that eventually defeated the Viet Cong insurgency ... Peter Pace, USMC, vice-chairman. Among the questions he raised: “Today, ...Why Marines Fight
Peter Pace must have made a choice at some point. When, and why? ... That was 1967, and Vietnam was bad and apparently getting worse. Lieutenant Pace went ...Congressional Record
After returning from his combat duty in Vietnam, Peter served in a number of different ... In the late 1970's, then-Captain Peter Pace held the position of ...Newsweek
Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who attended almost all the ... Post- Vietnam and -Watergate, in the prosecutorial atmosphere of ...Casual Information Directory
General Peter Pace - Wikipedia
Hyperlinked biography of the U.S. Marine Corps general currently serving as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Peter Pace News - The New York Times
News about Peter Pace. Commentary and archival information about Peter Pace from The New York Times.
Peter Pace
General Peter Pace was sworn in as sixteenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of ... Combat "V"; Navy Achievement Medal with gold star; and the Combat ...
Defense.gov News Article: Pace, Fellow Marines Renew Bonds ...
Marine 2nd Lt. Peter Pace walked into this maelstrom of combat. ... Gen. Peter Pace, left, greets Lester Tully, his squad leader from Vietnam, during a ...
Gazing at the Flag: General Peter Pace ~ Biography
General Peter Pace was sworn in as sixteenth Chairman of the Joint ... Medal with gold star; and the Combat Action Ribbon. General Pace and his wife, Lynne, ...