PRIME TIME PREZ IS PROUD IT TOOK THREE MONTHS TO DECIDE

I wrote an article two months ago calling the President to task for his indecisiveness in responding to General McChrystal's request for 40,000 reinforcements in Afghanistan. I was pretty annoyed that the alleged "leader" of our country would take so long with a decision that was costing my fellow military men and women's lives each day he delayed. Little did I know at that time that this colossal failure would delay an additional two months in finally making a decision to send 30,000, instead of 40,000, combat troops. Does anyone else get the feeling that he altered the number being sent just so he wouldn't have to explain why it took him three months to agree and grant the request of the far more experienced General on the ground?

Let's put this in a little perspective. On August 30th General McChrystal requested 40,000 additional combat reinforcements in Afghanistan. In his letter he detailed that these troops were necessary immediately stating,

"Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

So the almighty Obama, in his infinite wisdom and military experience, was told by the expert on the ground, a General he appointed to this position, that they needed troops and they needed them now to win this war in Afghanistan. Note that Obama ran his campaign on the premise that this was the righteous war that Bush had ignored and if he were elected he was going to set the ship straight and concentrate on Afghanistan. With all of these facts in line the POTUS spent three months questioning and analyzing the General's request, rather than granting it. Three months of the twelve in the quote above, which, according to General McChrystal were the key months they needed them in order to regain the initiative. Does anyone else have a problem with this??? Does anyone else have a problem with Obama (no military experience whatsoever) spending three months analyzing a military commander's request for troops, along with a group of his fellow politicians, none of which have enough military experience to pick up the General's uniform from the dry cleaners. This reminds me of a great quote from Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men...

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way."

There are more things wrong with this scenario than I can even touch on in one article. It seriously blows my mind. Who are they to hem and haw for three months over a request that was sent by the "duty expert" that he himself appointed to the position?

Why am I talking about all of this today, you ask? I write this today because arguably the most disgusting aspect of this entire chain of events is that when the almighty finally came to his decision, he, rather than be ashamed at his horrific display of incompetency, was so proud of himself that he had to go on national TV (again), to announce it to the country. A lot of people laughed of the "Obama-Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic" article written by Dr. Sam Vaknin last year, but his behavior thus far in his young presidency definitely supports this theory.

One more point of idiocy in this whole debacle. If we are going to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan for a push, why would our President make this announcement on national TV and detail it as much as he did? Maybe we should send the Taliban a list of all of the units which will be going, their dates of arrival, manpower, and all tables of equipment and weaponry as well. I hope that I don't annoy Americans by saying this, but this type of transparency is detrimental to the mission. There are a lot of things the general American public doesn't need to know about what my fellow military members are doing in Afghanistan. To be quite blunt, this type of knowledge in the enemies hands gets our brave men and women killed. Last night the Taliban, without needing to use any type of intelligence assets, found out that 30,000 reinforcements are coming to take back control from them. Additionally, and more importantly, they time tables from the President. They now know he plans to start pulling my comrades out of there in 18 months.

Wow!!! I wonder what they'll do??? Does anyone else with an IQ above 80 think they might blend back in with the populace and/or into hiding for about...hmmm...thinking of a figure...thinking...18 months???

The truth is, with decision making and leadership such as this, Obama has no plan or desire to win this war. Every decision he makes is made with politics in mind, not the good of the nation. Being a U.S. Marine, I find this behavior to be despicable. 30,000 of my brothers and sisters are now going to be sent away from their families, many before Christmas this year, to perform an act of symbolism for the Narcissist in Chief over the next year and a half...but you know what, those brave men and women will do it proudly, as they are the only honorable Americans in this charade.

Leader of the Free World's Indecisiveness Proves He's Not A Leader

So I've learned many things in my young life...well, maybe not so young anymore. Nonetheless, I have learned enough from 16 years in the Marine Corps to feel confident discussing some of the finer aspects of leadership. I attempted to give our POTUS a heads up with an article I wrote earlier this year, but he must not have gotten the memo. He's probably still using the old cover sheets on his TPS reports as well (for the Office Space crowd).

Watching the current "leadership abortion" take place with the decision making in Afghanistan has caused me to once again give our Commander in Chief a lesson in leadership. If you want to read the first lesson I still have it archived here:

http://silentnomoremajority.blogspot.com/2009/05/military-lesson-in-leadership-for-potus.html

This lesson involves a simple period of instruction on decision making. Decisiveness is one of the 14 Leadership Traits which are stressed and instilled in it's leadership. Decisive, as defined by Webster's Dictionary:

Main Entry: de·ci·sive
Pronunciation: \di-ˈsī-siv\
Function: adjective
Date: 1611
1 : having the power or quality of deciding
— de·ci·sive·ly adverb
— de·ci·sive·ness noun

"Having the power or quality of deciding." So, at least according to Webster, not the little TV midget from the 80's (sorry PC police, I meant little person), this would require that the person decide, i.e. make some sort of decision!!

Let me simplify this a little more for you, Mr. President. As a leader you are faced with many decisions. By far the worst decision you can make when faced with each dilemma is no decision at all. When you are facing a tough decision and you actually have the fortitude to stand up and make a choice, one of two things happen:

A. The choice will be correct and you will receive positive feedback, a little more clout, experience, and trust among your superiors and subordinates.

B. The choice will be incorrect, you will receive negative feedback and be educated on the proper way to complete the task next time. You will take a hit on your clout and trust, albeit temporarily, as long as you continue to be decisive and gain experience your correct decisions will begin to outweigh your incorrect ones.

The lesson here is that even when you make a decision and it turns out to be incorrect, you still gain experience, knowledge, and wisdom for future decisions. What do you gain by making no decision at all? Well, as a politician, by not committing strongly to one side or the other, he is able to "straddle the fence" and attempt to keep both sides of a debate on his side, thereby helping his re-election campaign. Other than that, there is nothing to be gained by making no decision. Making no decision gives you no clout, trust, experience, wisdom, etc. It will award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul (for Billy Madison fans).

So, as my military peers wait in Afghanistan for much needed reinforcements, and their families lose sleep at night wondering if you, The President of The United States, are going to do anything to protect their loved ones, I request you take this lesson (this one is free of charge) and utilize it. Send the reinforcements or pull them the hell out of there...but DO SOMETHING because your current indecisiveness is costing young American "leaders" lives.

And They Want Us To Trust Them With Our Healthcare??

It never ceases to amaze me that so many Americans blindly jump to support any new government run program which promises to make their life easier. It takes a minimal amount of research into past government social programs to prove that this is almost never the case. The government has; time and again, proven itself to be one of the most inefficient entities at accomplishing any task. From idea to implementation, our federal government will always find the slowest and most costly way of getting things done.

Take for example the recent (if you want to call it that) report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander on the ground in Afghanistan. On August 30th he detailed a report to President Obama which, above all other things, requested 40,000 more troops be dispatched to the region immediately to prevent the current U.S. forces in the country from losing their foothold, thus causing the mission there to fail.

Today is October 1st. No decision has been made yet. Our President and his administration are still considering the request 30 days later!!! The military expert, with eyes on exactly what is taking place in Afghanistan, has stated that our mission there will likely fail without 40k more troops on the ground and President Obama is still contemplating the request over a month later.

There are so many things wrong with that scenario I don't know where to start. Thirty days to make a decision on mission accomplishment and lives of young American servicemen?? I must deduce from the time spent pondering the request that Obama is actually considering not granting it. If that is true, why have a Commander on the ground if you are not going to trust his recommendations? I believe if I were Gen McChrystal I would resign my post if I were treated in this disrespectful of a manner. Is Obama, with his vast military experience, going to actually tell the General he is wrong on his assessment?

Meanwhile, back in the actual combat zone, our troops are undermanned and waiting for their reinforcements. They've been waiting a month, and will continue waiting much longer, for even if the decision is finally made to send them, they don't just show up there overnight like in a game of Risk. If the decision is made not to send reinforcements is Obama going to pull the military out of Afghanistan? If he is not going to give the military the tools they need to accomplish their mission, then he can't exactly leave the remaining there to be sitting ducks. Or maybe he can...he is, after all, the President of The United States, CEO of the Automotive industry, Savior of the Banking Industry, Spender above all Spenders of taxpayers money that does not yet exist, and Grand Poobah to ACORN...ooops!! My mistake...they deleted that title from the record.

Getting back to my point. If it takes this long for this administration to give a yes or no response on a time sensitive issue like sending reinforcements to a war zone, how smoothly do you think the government taking over healthcare will be? How long will it take to have decisions made regarding your health and wellness? Look at what a debacle the "Cash For Clunkers" program has been. Most dealerships are still waiting for the federal funds promised to them by this program. I think we, as Americans need to take back our liberty and start our own "Clunker Removal" program with our elected leaders. They need to be replaced with more efficient models which will support liberty, justice, and the Constitution.