Obama Administration to Drop Troop Levels in Iraq to 3,000

I (and 99.999% of the the public) don't know what's a good number for troops retention in Iraq, but I do know this...

The commanders in the field know what it should be better than any politician, and when administrations tell the military to go f**k themselves, it's obviously a political ploy to the base...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Bull****, They work for him not the other way around. Being in uniform doesn't make your decisions always the best/ Look at history and you will see plenty of examples. The military didn't want to do the mission that got OBL from somwe accounts. Give it up ragging the guy all the time. Obama has done well by our military over and over again. There are always some who disagree. Patreaus (apparently the greatest of all generals) said the surge would solve the Afghanistan situation. Someone apparently forgot to tell the enemy that Patreaus is a general.

..and yet it was only when the top brass started listening to the guys on the ground that we made real progress in Iraq. The people who are there every day understand the situation FAR better than the pols. on The Hill will ever understand it. They need to be listened to and if there's a strong concensus about a course of action, then that needs to be taken into account and not ignored. For my .02, this sounds like repeating one of the same mistakes that we made early in OIF - approaching the situation from a political angle and ignoring the feeedback from the ground troops. Only now instead of putting Iraqi politicians in charge of making the decisions, they are putting D.C. politicians in charge. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.

__________________
Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

Sometimes the POTUS is right and sometimes the Generals are right and sometimes the troops on the ground are right. But the POTUS is CIC all the time. Obama has done well.

It is so simple to understand. Obama wants to get out of Iraq while the military doesn't.

Just read some of my posts in the Iraq thread, in the last few pages you will see where the military high command have almost begged them to request our troops to stay beyond the Dec., deadline.

I have 3 on Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And in just a few minutes one can know the situation on the ground in each country.

Just avoid my opinions and read them each time I post in any of these 3.

Iraq has to stand on it's own. And has to start now!

Afghan is a different story. I am not a HAWK, but sense it is near 10 years sense the twin towers attacks, there has been a lot we forgotten that has come back to give meaning to this War on Terror.

Which our grand-children will be involved in unless one of several nuclear countries decide it is time to use one or more.

__________________
"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation... One is by sword... The other is by debt."

John Adams 1826

0 works for me.

Absolutely correct. The most important lesson a great leader can learn is to realize you do not know everything and be capable and willing to listen to those more knowledgeable than yourself.

Unfortunately, too many politicians have an ego that runs deeper than Marianas Trench and are often unwilling to listen to the experts.

__________________

The POTUS is NEVER right when he goes against the commanders on the ground...

NE...VER...

And you will never convince me that the commanders thought "A" and were wrong and the POTUS thought "B" and was correct...

The POTUS can ONLY be right when he listens to the commanders on the ground instead if spitting on their opinion...

The only exception to that rule is when the CiC himself has VAST military experience and has been through what needs to be decided...and even then he wouldn't disagree with the commanders on the ground...

Ans as far as "military experience" goes, we have a POTUS that wouldn't make it the Kiss Army let alone a real one...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

It's the Presdents job to set objectives in war and the military to figure out how to carry it out. So you think Lincoln should not have told McClellen what to do? Really?

The OBJECTIVE is NOT "Let's have 3000 troops"...

The OBJECTIVE is a secure Iraq...

If Lincoln asked McClellan to secure victory and McClellan says "We won't be able to do it if you only allow us 3000 troops", Lincoln would NOT have said "Well do it anyway! I have my political base to think about!!"...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Well we disagree and the killing of OBL proves me right.