Cheney speaks out on Afghan strategy
I am glad to see Cheney set the record straight on the Afghan policy. My recollection is that the Bush administration had already begun the process of upgrading the counterinsurgency policy. It is too bad that the Obama administration is trying to politicize events surrounding that change in policy and is now searching for away to change it yet again.Former Vice President Dick Cheney returned fire Wednesday after the Obama administration claimed it had to form an Afghan war strategy from scratch because the Bush White House hadn't any key questions about the war and left it "adrift."
In a speech to the Center for Security Policy, Cheney disputes the account of Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, saying instead that the Obama administration's embrace of a counterinsurgency strategy in March "bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them."
"They made a decision -- a good one, I think -- and sent a commander into the field to implement it," Cheney said in prepared remarks, referring to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was chosen in May by President Obama to lead the fight in Afghanistan.
"Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced," he said. "It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."
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Emanuel told CNN that the president is "asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side."
"It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift, that we're beginning at scratch, just at the starting point…and that there's not a security force, an army, and the types of services that are important for the Afghans to become a true partner."
Cheney expressed unequivocal support for McChrystal's request, echoing comments made by fellow conservatives, and savaged Obama for his war deliberations.
"Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission," he said, calling on Obama to fulfill a promise he made in August to armed forces in a speech at the VFW to give them the support and resources need to get the job done.
"It's time for President Obama to make good on his promise," he said. "The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger."
"Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," he added. "Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause."
Bush and Cheney's Afghanistan strategy was
ReplyDelete"Iraq first, Afghanistan second"
So now that Cheney and Bush left a big mess for others to clean up , he's trying to act like the Bush administration has always had Afghanistan at the top of their priority list???
So what was the Bush Administrations strategy for Afghanistan? Read on
By Robert Burns, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's top officer acknowledged on Tuesday that for all the importance of preventing Afghanistan from again harboring al-Qaida terrorists, Washington's first priority is Iraq.
"In Afghanistan, we do what we can," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "In Iraq, we do what we must."
His statement, delivered with emphasis in a prepared opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee, prompted some Democrats to say it showed what they have argued for years: that the Bush administration has become so bogged down in Iraq that it cannot make more effort in Afghanistan.
"I find it troubling that our ongoing commitment in Iraq prevents us from dedicating resources in Afghanistan beyond what is necessary to prevent setbacks, as opposed to what is required to realize success," Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the committee, said after the hearing.
Mullen, testifying with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the effort to stabilize Afghanistan, said that war is "by design and necessity, an economy-of-force operation. There is no getting around that. Our main focus, militarily, in the region and in the world right now is rightly and firmly in Iraq."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-12-11-3963072919_x.htm