I have written before abut Obama’s political, impractical priorities. Right out of the gate he gave passing attention to fiscal problems and devised a federal giveaway known as TARP. He dallied with cap and trade, with bringing the Olympics to Chicago, and with Climate Change at Copenhagen. Then because he wanted to make sure he was reelected, he dived into the murky waters of health care reform. Unlike any other issue, any other legislation, he worked on this feverishly; it was personal. Expert at creating acrimony and division, like Moses, he parted the population over the measure but finally won the day.
Yesterday at the conclusion of the G8 aod G20 meetings, Obama listed this country’s accomplishments under his administration that make us better global citizens. My reaction was not one of pride but of rage. While his Administration was out working on all of these accomplishments, while the President was glad handing, globe trotting and working the crowds over health care, his soldiers were working with personnel shortages, equipment in need of updating and repair and low morale.
Now I again address his priorities because the number one priority he should have during time of war would be his soldiers in the field – the men and women on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. The death toll over there is rising in shocking increments. It has slowly dawned on the Commander-in-Chief: too many have been dying in wars that were supposed to be winding down. It’s good to know that Obama is not impervious to a body counts. The McChrystal article in Rolling Stone was just the icing on the cake.
True executive that he is, policy adjustments accompanied by personnel change has been thought the way to stop the bleeding. But if McChrystal has failed, it has been Obama’s failure. He was his man in the field – his choice for the job. After McChrystal’s first missteps that brought him to Obama’s office, he should have been closely monitored like any other employee who has had difficulty with structure within the organization. Do we even know who approved of the journalist from Rolling Stone following McChrystal so closely?
Obama’s lack of exposure to and experience in the military has finally come home to roost. No matter what else he accomplishes on his list of priorities, he will always have the blood of his soldiers on his hands – men to whom he paid little attention in his first months in office. This June, 100 soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
It was never presidential dithering; it was negligence.
DarcsFalcon
June 29, 2010
If his agenda is what many people suspect it to be, then it’s more than dithering or negligence, it’s murder.
samhenry
June 29, 2010
I believe it is murder.