Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Growing Rift Between President Obama And His Generals

White House photos 2/27/09 by Pete Souza

The Rift Between Obama And His Generals On ISIS -- Zack Beauchamp, VOX

There's no mistaking what President Obama's Wednesday speech at MacDill Air Force Base was: a gigantic slap in the face to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. But to be fair, Dempsey slapped first when he publicly dissented from the administration's position on deploying combat troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Obama's latest speech shut him down.

The font of the disagreement was Dempsey's Tuesday testimony at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, during which he said he'd "recommend" a US combat deployment to fight ISIS under certain circumstances. In a short, fiery portion of his Wednesday remarks — the above video — Obama restated his opposition to this plan in no uncertain terms. "I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq," the president said definitively.

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More News On The Growing Rift Between President Obama And His Generals

Barack Obama silences generals on US ground troops in Iraq -- The Telegraph
White House Responds To Dempsey’s Comments: Obama ‘Will Not Deploy Ground Troops In Combat Role’ -- CBS
Can Obama Keep His Generals in Check in the War Against ISIS? -- Eli Lake, Daily Beast
Obama, generals part ways on ground war in Iraq -- Trib Live
Obama’s isolation deepens over Isis -- Geoff Dyer in Washington, Financial Times
Mark Levin: "A Revolt Going On With Top Generals And Obama" -- Real Clear Politics
Obama vs. the generals -- Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post
On Ground Troops in Iraq, Obama and his Generals Appear at Odds -- Ernesto LondoƱo, New York Times

My Comment: The backtracking and denials from some Generals of what they may have said is now starting .... Odierno did not call for U.S. ground forces to fight Islamic State, spokeswoman says (Navy Times). I guess they have figured out that in this battle .... they are going to lose to this White House.

On a side note .... the group that I have found to be very silent on the White House ISIS strategy in the past few weeks is the U.S. intelligence community. Now if they start to leak stuff .... that is when you know that President Obama is in trouble.

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