Sy Hersh: Military 'In War Against The White House'
So many of the saner people were driven out of the military during the Bush administration, it doesn't surprise me that the people left include a lot of the right-wing, racist fringe elements. Still, it's shocking to hear this:
DURHAM — The U.S. military is not just fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s most renowned investigative journalist says.
The army is also “in a war against the White House — and they feel they have Obama boxed in,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh told several hundred people in Duke University’s Page Auditorium on Tuesday night. “They think he’s weak and the wrong color. Yes, there’s racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it’s true and we all know it.”
In a speech on Obama’s foreign policy, Hersh, who uncovered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and torture at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraqi war, said many military leaders want Obama to fail.
“A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble,” he said. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation, Hersh contended.
“If he gives them the extra troops they’re asking for, he loses politically,” Hersh said. “And if he doesn’t give them the troops, he also loses politically.”
The journalist criticized the president for “letting the military do that,” and suggested the only way out was for Obama to stand up to them.
“He’s either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon,” Hersh said. If he doesn’t, “this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency.”
Hersh called the “Af-Pak” situation — the spreading conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan — Obama’s main challenge.
The only way for the U.S. to extricate itself from the conflict, Hersh said, is to negotiate with the Taliban.
“It’s the only way out,” he said. “I know that there’s a lot of discussion in the White House about this now.
isn't Obama also Commander-in-Chief? And weren't we told, for eight years, that the CiC makes the ultimate decisions and we *must* respect that or else we're with the terrorists??
That's how it worked for eight years. So...who's with the terrorists now?
This "pentagon" better grow up or perish
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Given that senior members of the pentagon are homophobes* the fact that there may be racists there as well shouldn't be too surprising.
*Any military officer, educated and experienced enough to reach leadership position in the pentagon that believes the ridiculous and provably false position that gays serving openly in the military will hurt unit cohesion must be a homophobe
Why, according to my conservative friends "appeasing" terrorists is Un-American!!!
http://openanthropology.files.wordpress.com/2...
Oh, wait...
At the Pentagon...either that or get on your knees for what's left of your one-term presidency.
Period.
When I watch those videos I am reminded of:
1.Bush and Rice ignoring pre 9/11 IQ reports that Bin Laden determined to attack the United States.
2.Richard C. Clarke being told to get lost with his Clinton era warnings and reports on the immediate danger al queda represented.
3.Ashcroft to busy worrying about clothing naked statues and how to harrass porn sites.
4.Bush frozen in a grade school classroom reading My Pet Goat.
5.That Bush had been in office for 8 months (much of it on vacation) before 9/11 and acting clueless about the dangers on our doorsteps.
6.False declarations of victory while wasting much blood and treasure (US and Iraqi) invading a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 nor any intent or ability to attack the US.
7.Wasting blood, treasure, time and opportunities in Afghanistan for nearly 8 years with military half (or quarter) measures that have left an impossible mess.
8.Sucking up to Saudis who represent about 75% of the 9/11 attackers.
Actually, I changed my mind. I doubt Obama or anyone else needs to watch the 9/11 videos to remember why it happened and how we got where we are.
That's really pretty fucking scary if you think about it, and I don't just mean from Obama's political prospective.
End the wars and dismantle the Corporate State of Perpetual War.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
That uppity so-and-so just might rock the boat. Can't have that. Unless its done with a 250 billion dollar boat rocking defense system sub-contracted out to our defense industry and then used to rock the boat of brown people far away til they are dead.
"End the wars and dismatle the corporate state of perpetual war"
And get your brains blown out.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
not by some furriner, but more likely by a "redneck".
Some stuff you can't make up!
how?
WPA 2.0
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
mad max?
far right racist closet teabaggers at top level positions in the military? Who would have guessed that? Obama needs to start letting people go, he can start with General McCoverup
"The army is also “in a war against the White House — and they feel they have Obama boxed in,..."
I can't even count how many ways that is frightening. For so many years bush sent the military into Iraq to fight and die based on nothing but trumped up lies. Meanwhile he left the military in Afghanistan to fight and die without the men and equipment they needed. Now the military opts to go to war against the white house and they feel they have the president "boxed in"? Where is the rationale in this unless it is all about the color of the president's skin and the party he represents?
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
they sound like a political wing. i can't wait to see who they run for president.
it's time to take the hard line and fire their asses.
it's a good lesson to take from rumsfeld and bush.
fire the bigots and fire the leakers.
Thats what these neaderthals understand. Crush one, the rest will hate him forever (but they already do!) but they'll respect him and thats all that matters.
He should've kicked McChrystal when he mouthed off in London, right then and there.
SACK McChrystal !!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
did he hand-pick Mcwhat'shisname? The asshole had the balls to go to London, of all places, to give his supposedly confidental "report" to the president. He should be fired, and Obama should grow a set of balls, or let Michelle finish out his failed presidency.
dandy
for posting this.
I hope Obama has a hidden ace card to be played that comes out of nowhere and leave the military industrial complex perpetual war machine with egg on their face
maybe he has access to bush's list
is any different now than it ever was they need to read a little history. The military has often viewed the government as an enemy to be defeated. Whether it is base closings, weapons systems appropriations, inter-service turf rivalries or what have you the military has always played politics. They are usually a little more discreet about it but that's about all you can say.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
that's why it's called the Military-Industrial-Complex. The military is 'owned' by the corporations just as the Congress is (think of the generals/admirals as Reps and Sens) - they love their macho power and boy-toys, just as the congress loves their political power and cash in the pocket.
Greed and power - two sides of the same bad penny.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
because he began the privatization of portions of the military. privatization picked up under boosh-one, but clinton really did the most damage, including the quartermaster, which was especially heinous because now our military does not even supply itself.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Effective immediately.
I say Obama creates a military outpost at the south pole just for these pieces-of-shite....Gen. Stanley McChrystal being the first to be SHIPPED out...
load it up with regulars, he'll have to use the Xe mercs anyway.
left his old asshole in Copenhagen after the C in C tore him a new one.
Been very quiet on this front.
... has no balls! Why TF didn't he fire McChrystal right from the get go... publicly undermining the CiC in my world of chain-of-command is insubordination. Come to think of it... there's a lot of areas where his balls are nowhere to be found.
As a life long Democrat, this guy better get his act together and deliver or he will be a one time president.... I thought he was smart enough to know he had to set a high bar legacy to make the way for his predecessors... instead he's just another spineless Democrat.
Because Gates (another BushCo pole-licker) has got to go first.
Why Obama kept him on makes no f'ing sense.
The guy was in the CIA for 26 years and was the head of it under George H.W. Bush!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates
He is nothing but a Republican insider and Obama should sack him AND McCrystal.
But if he rolls heads at The Pentagon and does what HE thinks is the right thing (wait for the results of the run-off election in Afghanistan....then decide on more troops), I fear for him.
Especially if we now realize the The Pentagon is racist at its core.
Speaking of "terrorists".....
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
We tried negotiating with the Taliban in the past. It didn't work too well. In part it's the fact that leadership in the US changes like the wind. There's always wind and it goes to and fro. The Taliban changes leadership when someone dies. The actors don't just change faces. You can get the two groups together, but one of those groups is changing every 2-4 years. Tribal leaders don't work well with term limits. It goes against their grain.
Obama can win if he humiliates McChrystal and forces him out, then decisively orders a US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Sounds good to me.
and I want him to get those Bu$h supporters out of their positions if they're insubordinate and if they're not supporting their military commander in chief, the President of the United States, Barack Obama!
This doesn't surprise me. It is my understanding the halls of The Pentagon are still swarming with Bush$Co appointees and are still happily reporting back to their NeoCon masters. Given the behavior of the Republicans since Obama has taken office, it wouldn't surprise me that these people are under strict orders to sabotage any Democratic Administration that would inherit the Presidency. The fact our President is black on top of it, only fuels their fire. As someone said farther up the thread, Obama desperately needs to clean house.
Negotiate with the Taliban??? Isn't it the policy of the United States Government to NOT negotiate with terrorists? Is Hersh out of his mind?? We simply need to get all boots off the ground and park a satellite or two over the country and keep a very close eye on them. Send in a few drones to pop some bad guys once in awhile to remind them to mind their manners. As long as we keep resources on the ground in any part of the Middle East, this country will continue to hemorrhage blood and treasure. Which is exactly what 'they' want. And all for what? OIL. I would rather see the west coast, the east coast, ANWR and the Bakken Formation in between torn wide open before letting some Muslim countries bleed us dry, which is exactly what they are doing.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
When the Taliban came to Texas back in the late 90's for "meetings" with Unocal? regarding a pipeline the meetings failed.
The Taliban were threatened. "We will carpet Afghanistan with money or bombs".
Even if, after, what???....another ten years of bloodshed and loss of life on both sides...even if we COULD build a pipeline...imagine the money it would take to build it AND to protect it??!!
It's insanity.
This country is about to become a third world country economically. Obama needs to extricate himself from the mess George W. Bush and his Neocon friends created. Period.
I'd like to see him get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and launch a new investigation into the events of 9/11. It would also help our country if we were more even handed in our dealings with Israel and the Palestinians. Right now Israel and the U.S. (I'm ashamed of Obama for this) are fighting the U.N. decision related to war crimes committed by Israel during their bombing of Gaza.
God how I wish I could wake up to some GOOD NEWS just once!!!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
The Taliban isn't going anywhere. Why not negotiate with them to help destroy Bin Laden and Al Quieada? We'll be in a Viet Nam-style quagmire if we don't begin the process of negotiation. Besides, the Taliban had nothing to do with 911, so why are we fucking with THEM in the first place?
dandy
Taliban are right wing religious fundamentalists of the middle east - behold what the Republicans have become and what is yet to become down that road. Some Taliban are extremists, as are right wing fundamentalists everywhere. they want the invaders to go home.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
but isn't Obama the military leader? Isn't what McChrystal's doing called insubordination and can't he be court-martialed for this insubordination? And doesn't that apply to anyone in the U.S. armed services, regardless of their rank, serial number, or name?
That's the Afghanistan run-off. For now, Obama has stated that the US needs to have a 'trusted partner' before expanding operations. The election - however it ends - gives some time to restrategize.
Why is everyone looking in the wrong direction there are THREE big LOSERS here and these are the Losers that are calling the shots.I do not have them in any particular order but if one has stayed abreast of the media for the last 3 years you can recognize the hand writing on the wall. You have the the traitors of America the Republican Party yes these disgraced Racist Nazis have been pushing for WAR for the last four years, bet if you look hard enough you will find the Gutless, Spineless American TRAITOR cheneys finger prints all over this as well as the Scum Bag Rumsfeld. This is the party of WAR they are tied into the Military Industrial Complex at the Hip. These TRAITORS will beat the war drums these Racist Nazi should be investigated.
Next is the Right Wing Think Tank these Nazi, Fascist, Socialist are the ones that designed there Iraq war and were using every LIE, Twisted TRUTH, and manipulation to get into IRAN, these low Life TRAITORS starting with Perhl and kristal and the rest are TRUE TRAITORS and LIARS.
Now we came to the last of the culprits the Military Industrial Complex, President Eisenhower warned us ot these low lfe scum and trash the live on PZREPETUAL WAR< what does the Republican Party live on Prepetual WAR, what do ther RIGHT WING THINK TANKS live on WAR.
This is a excerted effort by the Racist Nazi, Fascist, SOCIALIST of the Right Wing Hate Machimne to destabilize America they want WAR.
Remember we are past 9/11 and NO attacks we were nine months into the Right Wing Hate Machine Republicam Party when we where attacked.
Who has the most to lose thre Republicans, The Right Wing Hate Machine think tanks and the Military Industrial Complex.
I take the unknown sources as TRAITORS and as with all TRAITORS should be removed and SHOT, This is the Party of Hate that is all Republicans stand for is Hate, Lies Deception, Misinformation, Twisted Truths and more Lies. Republicans are TRAITORS and the Proof is they are NOT calling for the Generals resignation.
Actually, saying that there aren't enough troops in Afghanistan is an anti-Bush position. Bush is the fool that starved the Afghanistan war of troops because he thought that Iraq would be a nicer place if he took a wrecking ball to it. Bush was the fool that thought that the Iraquis would put flowers in US gun barrels and sing Kumbaya together, just one big happy family, once Sadam was gone. Turns out that that Iraq is just chock full of nasty SOBs, each one meaner than the next. I didn't know that, but you'd think someone in the CIA or in the State Department might have known. If they did, you can be sure Bush fired them or sent them to North Dakota. Meanwhile, Bush wouldn't tax his rich friends, because the alleged fiscal conservative thought that less taxes would magically pay the bills. Bush was truly versatile - he could screw up domestically and internationally, while simultaneously taking a nap in Crawford.
Alan Grayson for President, Elizabeth Warren for Vice President, and Paul Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury!
I would be willing to bet the farm that the biblical capitalists, Revisionists, Dominionist, christian nationalists, all sitting in the Pentagon, State, Congress, and Justice Dept. are behind this. They do not believe in the Constitution--they believe in biblical law. The right wing think tanks, the mega churches on military bases, the Evangelicals, all hate Muslims,love the wars and harbor the belief that they are reproducing faster that we, (a big reason abortion is big again) have all been working for a long time to eliminate everything non-christian and secular from this country.
This is their chance, this is the perfect storm. A President that they hate, and will discredit any every turn, the lies,the economy, the fear mongering, the Cheneys going on TV an telling us how unsafe this Muslim, Communist, Marxist, Socialist black man is making this country.
And now--a leaked report, speeches by the General, Congress members and Palin bashing our President on foreign soil. They think they are close, they can smell the sheep--all penned into their alternate reality. The think tanks are getting ready, and the money is there, the militas are getting ready, Oathkeepers are getting ready. They are buying guns like candy and ammo too. The Secret Service an not keep up with the threats. I know this will end--I'm not sure how.
all of those lovely 'C-Street" Family Members in the Congress are ready and willing to do gawd's will....
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Americans to live in Canada, or Britain, right? They like to give out work visas to college grads without criminal records, right?
I need to have some options ready.
I was in the Air Force years ago and walked by a car with a general flag, I didn;t salute because I thought it was stupid, and was admonished for it. How the hell does this general go on 60 Minutes and blindside the president? H should be out of there.
Immediately.
I have always thought so.
Because he did not show the resolve and presidential strength of, say, President Truman when he FIRED McArthur for INSUBORDINATION, I have noticed quite clearly that this president is in profound political trouble.
I am surprised the treasonous Pentagon hasn't mounted an all out military coup on him. Oh I forgot, they have the BANKERS doing that for them.
that Rumsfeld said was unaccounted for in his speech on Sept 10,2001?
Was that just an urban legend that it ever happened at all or was that tossed down the memory hole?
I wouldn't necessarily trust the military-industrial complex and blindly take everything everybody says at face value, that includes the generals.
There is too much money and too people who would put their career before the good of the country.
I haven't forgotten that those anthrax bio terrorist attacks in 2001 were committed with anthrax from a U.S. military facility, either.
Get rid of these right-wing extremists that Bush put in and bring back the people who left or were forced out, along with some fresh young talent. Tell Gates to make it happen. This is YOUR Pentagon to command, President Obama.
O has been so middle of the road & wishy washy in seriously weird times. This is why I was screaming for him to come in hard & fast, start war crime proceedings, & get us out of the Middle East as fast as humanly possible. Bow he's complicit in all of it, & he's going to reap what he's sowing.
He may very well have painted himself and the right wing radical Republicans into a corner of their own. After all it was the Bush administration that lost the Afghan 'war' by not sending enough troops to start and keeping the troop numbers too low for 8 years. And Steamroller Stanley looks a fool for first saying he needed 30,000 more troops to win and then a week later saying 40,000 and then a week later saying 60,000. He just kept upping it until he finally got to a number that Obama wouldn't commit to. And here's the real kicker - IF THE PENTAGON COULD find 60,000 troops to send and Obama OK'd it Steamroller would just up the number again and again because he knows damn good and well he can't "win" with even 500,000 boots on the ground because the Bush administration and the right wing Pentagon LOST THE WAR YEARS AGO!! Obama most likely knew exactly who and what Steamroller is before he assigned him as commander in Afghanistan and put him there to neuter him. And Steamroller not exactly being the brightest bulb in the chandelier just finally figured that one out and ran crying to his pals at the Pentagon and all this BS that they're spewing now is just trying to get wittle Stanleys balls back. If Obama goes down over not sending enough troops then the right wing wackos and Stanley are going down with him for not being able to do the job with what they have since it's already twice what they had in place BEFORE Obama became President. And the Dems REALLY NEED to hammer on that fact!!!
"You go to war with the army you have not the army you wish you had."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumdum, the hero of the right wing loonies at the Pentagon under the Bush administration
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