Sources tell ABC News that as of now President Obama will likely announce his decision about a new strategy in Afghanistan at some point between the Afghan run-off election, November 7, and the president’s departure for Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, November 11.There is a chance the announcement may be delayed until the president’s return from the Asia trip on Friday, November 20, but as of now the plan is to have the announcement in that window.
Sources emphasize that no decision has yet been made, but as of now it looks as though the president is leaning towards sending more troops to Afghanistan, though not as many as Gen. Stanley McChrystal requested, 40,000.
Yikes, some how I missed when the tanker trucks backed up to the White House and filled the basement with equivocation.
(h/t Hot Air)
Comment by Carin on 10/28 @ 5:34 am #
I’m shocked.
All right. No I’m not.
But, I guess we should be happy he’s made a decision on a timetable for when he should make a decision. Baby steps, folks.
Comment by Danger on 10/28 @ 5:35 am #
While Rome was burning…..
I will be on the road for a little while but it comes at a good time because I need a break from things (including blogs) right now.
I will try to explain more in the pub later when I have access to my laptop.
Comment by Carin on 10/28 @ 5:36 am #
Keep your head down, Danger.
Comment by Rusty on 10/28 @ 5:38 am #
Our emasculated president. Wanna bet Michelle proposed to him. Jeeze. What a twerp.
Comment by Barrack Milhouse Obama on 10/28 @ 5:39 am #
It was a bit of a shock to discover I couldn’t just hire lobbyists to write War Legislation, if you must know. Learning to make decisions takes a little time, give a brother a break.
Comment by JHo on 10/28 @ 5:45 am #
I’m about to sound just like happyfeet about this guy.
And what Rusty said.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 5:49 am #
If the wait is just for the announcement, then a decision has been made already?! And the delay is for what good military-strategic reason?
Comment by Carin on 10/28 @ 5:58 am #
LTC, no decision has been made. They’ve DECIDED when they’re going to make a decision. Within a three week window.
Comment by Carin on 10/28 @ 5:59 am #
Anyone else have trouble fighting the urge to wave down cars still driving around with their Obama stickers on ‘em?
Comment by newrouter on 10/28 @ 6:02 am #
“And the delay is for what good military-strategic reason?”
baracky’s war on america will need a new bright shiny object to keep the peasants distracted after nov. 3 and healthcare crashes and burns
Comment by Eben on 10/28 @ 6:03 am #
There was a war one time, a while ago, where generals kept asking for more troops and politicians kept dribbling them in. Of course things didn’t get better so we ended up leaving the place via helicopters from embassy rooftops.
Who knows, I could be wrong and underneath his veneer of incompetence and political naivety lies a military genius who will secure a swift and sure victory.
Last one out please turn off the lights.
Comment by SBP on 10/28 @ 6:10 am #
Carin, I’ve noticed that Obama bumper stickers have become rather thin on the ground around these parts.
Comment by Roland THTG on 10/28 @ 6:15 am #
The announcement is delayed because of the Virginia/New Jersey/NYD23 elections. President Muppet does not want to enrage the cons, it would seem.
Tells me a lot about what the decision is.
Maybe he is sending 40,000 community organizers. So perhaps there is an upside.
Comment by newrouter on 10/28 @ 6:27 am #
“The announcement is delayed because of the Virginia/New Jersey/NYD23″
don’t forget ca 10
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/why_a_harmer_win_would_be_huge.html
Comment by the other Ken on 10/28 @ 6:37 am #
The problem here is that all of this yapping about Afghanistan and health care and such is seriously impeding the man’s quest to lower his handicap. Have a little compassion, will ya?
Comment by Salt Lick on 10/28 @ 6:56 am #
There is a chance the announcement may be delayed until the president’s return from the Asia trip on Friday, November 20,
The delay hangs on whether the Japanese declare him Emperor. You can’t have two big news events stepping on each other.
Comment by Salt Lick on 10/28 @ 6:57 am #
Anyone else have trouble fighting the urge to wave down cars still driving around with their Obama stickers on ‘em?
Not in my university town, Carin. They approve of everything he’s doing. And he’s not Bush.
Comment by Carin on 10/28 @ 6:59 am #
Salt LIck, I worry that those who still have Obama stickers on their car might be so functionally retarded that driving NEAR them might be unsafe.
Comment by Salt Lick on 10/28 @ 7:05 am #
The real danger, Carin, lies in the fact that they aren’t retarded, but are somewhat intelligent people. Mao, Castro, Hitler, and Stalin — no retards.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 7:10 am #
Eben – you see a Westmoreland future, I see Petreaus one?
Note: POTUS not included, this offer void in Waziristan and all NW Frontier Provinces. All Zakat is the responsibility of the winning party. See package for further details.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 10/28 @ 7:17 am #
Waiting until after the election.
Typical.
Comment by JD on 10/28 @ 7:41 am #
Darleen – You should email a link to the MadCow show, as she ended her segment with a statement about her desire to get things absolutely right all the time.
Comment by Eben on 10/28 @ 8:48 am #
LTC, I think my position would be better characterized by me seeing an LBJ future and you seeing a GWB one.
Without GWB there would have been no Petreaus victory.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 9:10 am #
Eben,
I am hoping for Petreaus. I also hope that this POTUS will be hands off – his attitude to date suggests that. War is hard work.
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 9:16 am #
“War is hard work.”
It’s especially hard when people are tasked to defend the indefensible. Back of the envelope, it turns out, doesn’t cut it.
Comment by Eben on 10/28 @ 9:52 am #
I also hope that this POTUS will be hands off – his attitude to date suggests that.
Hmm, I don’t know how you perceive that. When McChrystal(?) ask for 40k and God’s Partner gives him 10k today with a promise for more at some time in the future, as he is indicating, will that be hands-off?
Or is he giving you the indication that he will be hands-off so that when he drives the whole affair into the shitter he can claim he had very little to do with it, it was all Westmoreland’s, oops, I mean Petreaus’ fault?
I hate to sound crass but I guess there’s no avoiding it. How many of our kids, and maybe even you, must die while we hope for a man who’s never done the right thing to do that right thing?
Comment by J. "Trashman" Peden on 10/28 @ 10:14 am #
“Equivocation”? Can’t you inferiors see the expert suspense-building involved, and that, duh, it’s supposed to be “killing” you?
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 10:27 am #
Mark Moyar, intermediated by Powerline, on identifying leadership as the crucial factor or component of successful counterinsurgency operations. People, individuals, and the personal qualities those individuals bear make the difference between success and failure. It further comes to light that it takes time and perseverance to find and put in place those men possessing the skills and character to do the job. Would only that Obama had them himself.
Comment by Spiny Norman on 10/28 @ 10:55 am #
Or is he giving you the indication that he will be hands-off so that when he drives the whole affair into the shitter he can claim he had very little to do with it, it was all Westmoreland’s, oops, I mean Petreaus’ fault?
Or Biden’s fault.
o_O
Comment by KarenW on 10/28 @ 11:39 am #
The Republicans had this war going so well before Obama took charge and now he is really screwing it up.
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 11:45 am #
You say nothing Karen W. Try to say something instead.
Comment by Old Texas Turkey on 10/28 @ 11:48 am #
Hey Karen W, before you get to post about screwing up wars, you need to first tell us about how 18 democrats crossed the line to join one republican in filibustering the Civil Rights Act.
Comment by Vlad the Impala on 10/28 @ 11:54 am #
Watch out, Afghanistan. If BHO gives you 40,000 more troops, then he’ll demand that you take only 1 goat per year salary, instead of the outrageous 10 goats per year.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/28 @ 12:07 pm #
We can’t pull out of Afghanistan until our withdrawal from Iraq is complete.
Until we begin to pull out of Afghanistan, it doesn’t hurt to maintain the illusion we might be staying for a long time.
A few more troops is like a last date or two before the timing is right to break up with someone.
Comment by BJTexs on 10/28 @ 12:21 pm #
You really don’t give a flaming crap about soldiers, do you alphie?
Comment by Squid on 10/28 @ 12:22 pm #
Snowy thinks that soldiers are almost as worthless as brown people, BJ. It’s all part of his nuance.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/28 @ 12:24 pm #
Only people who really care about our troops are in a hurry to toss them into a pointless, unwinnable quagmire, BJ?
Comment by JD on 10/28 @ 12:26 pm #
Fuck off, alphie.
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 12:26 pm #
Soldiers, BJTexs? Could you actually demonstrate that it gives a flaming crap about anything at all, outside wasting everyone’s time?
Comment by hot fudge sundae on 10/28 @ 12:33 pm #
“The Republicans had this war going so well before Obama took charge and now he is really screwing it up.”
Well it isn’t so much a war as it is a steady stream of cockroaches coming out of the shadows. Not unlike the function people like yourself serve here.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 12:34 pm #
“Unwinnable quagmire” was all I heard before I left for Iraq in 2007… turned out to be neither. But some talking points end up droned on longer than others.
#26 – hands off in the sense of “when he finally makes a decision, one way or the other, he will wash his hands of the whole thing and figure a way to pass blame if it fails”. Or take all credit should it succeed. Us dumb welfare recipients and killbots would have naught to with success, and all to do with failure.
Comment by SPC Jack Klompus on 10/28 @ 12:39 pm #
“A few more troops is like a last date or two before the timing is right to break up with someone.”
Like you’ve ever gone on a date in your life, you insufferable useless turd.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 1:01 pm #
#42 – not a real flattering assessment of the current President’s military seriousness, eh? Why is he h8ting on O, so?
Comment by BJTexs on 10/28 @ 1:09 pm #
I’ll need to call bullshit on that statement, alphie.
You’ve never expressed any concern for American military lives in either theater. Every comment you have ever made has been about the cost of those conflicts and the civilian casualties that resulted. Not civilian casualties that resulted by terrorism, either. Only those related to American military operations.
Stated concern for soldier casualties? Not. One. Damn. Time.
It’s quite proper for you to simply admit where your sympathies lie. Soldiers collecting military welfare do not matter, nor do brown skinned civilians likely to be decimated by the Taliban should they and their al qaeda buddies resume their hegemony over the Afghan people. You are what you are, alphie.
Amoral. Genocidal. Surrender monkey.
Nothing reflects this more perfectly than your attempt to suggest that Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia was a humanitarian gesture (even though the Khmer Rouge genocide was largely over by the time the troops arrived) and not a raw power grab for the purpose of putting their own puppet in charge of the country.
You are what you are. Embrace your amorality and lack of concern for brown people without dissembling.
Comment by SPC Jack Klompus on 10/28 @ 1:10 pm #
I defer to snotbag’s military strategy genius. I’m sure he’ll be publishing a FM any day now on COIN.
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 2:30 pm #
Hershel Smith at Captain’s Journal comments on the Matt Hoh story that appeared in the WaPo and asks the obvious question “What I don’t get is why Captain Hoh is getting so much attention.” but then presents us a comment cribbed from Neptunus Lex that gives him pause: “Then again, maybe I do understand why Captain Hoh is getting so much attention.”
Mr Smith also posts a video tour of the amenities at COP Keating (taken by a contractor some time back to send home to his mom, he tells us).
Comment by Old Texas Turkey on 10/28 @ 2:31 pm #
There has got to be a major pinch in the snot’s cereberal cortex, perhaps even full disconnection, because after the absolute and epic beating he took on the Maddow/Hamsher thread … most HUMANS would feel (at least) the sting of humiliation and slink away.
This one is not real … it can’t be.
Comment by sdferr on 10/28 @ 2:42 pm #
“This one is not real … it can’t be.”
Only real enough to waste everyone’s time OTT, an act at which it has become quite adept.
Comment by LTC John on 10/28 @ 3:07 pm #
#45 – I invited him to instruct at the CGOSC. I mean, if they let dunces like Petreaus run that place, sheesh.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/28 @ 4:10 pm #
Why is he h8ting on O, so?
As long as America continues to cut and run from Iraq while everyone is focused on Afghanistan…it’s all good.
Comment by JD on 10/28 @ 4:26 pm #
Fuck off, coward.
Comment by SBP on 10/28 @ 4:27 pm #
It’s become clear that NippleNut is clinically insane.
Therefore I will no longer reply to it.
Comment by Rusty on 10/28 @ 5:23 pm #
#50
The object is not to live up to the appelation,’buffoon’.
Comment by Team Stoooopid on 10/28 @ 5:34 pm #
I believe shitcone could be first team all american ignorant without much effort!
Comment by Ignernt Murrican on 10/28 @ 5:39 pm #
Don’t he wish!
Comment by hot fudge sundae on 10/28 @ 5:41 pm #
He ain’t much of a dessert either. A summertime treat for dumb wop kids in seedy bent-nose towns in Joisey. Flavored ice = teh suxxor.
Comment by geoffb on 10/28 @ 9:11 pm #
At Ace. The UN is being their usual helpful selves.
Is it just me or is the term “UN Special Rapporteur” becoming something fashionable to throw into a news item?
Comment by agile_dog on 10/28 @ 9:36 pm #
geoffb,
the term “UN Special Rapporteur”is becoming something, but fashionable wouldn’t be how I’d describe it. More like “Red Flag of hypocrisy and time wasting”
Comment by agile_dog on 10/28 @ 9:57 pm #
And why is the troll kicking always over by the time I find it?
I’m ENTITLED to some troll bashing, damn it!
Comment by geoffb on 10/28 @ 11:54 pm #
I meant “fashionable” to the media and elites not the in general. Plus it is a term I’d not run across until the reporting about one coming to check our “housing situation”. The term cries out to be made fun of in parody and song.
Comment by geoffb on 10/28 @ 11:55 pm #
either subtract a “the” or add a “public” after it.
Comment by LTC John on 10/29 @ 7:30 am #
#52 – I think you are right – it really has become less than useful. Please resume ignoring the Typing Telephone Pole.