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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
With Clinton in the Cabinet he will have ensured that her potential opposition and criticism in Congress in gone, additionally she will not be able to potentially challenge him in 2012.
I am a liberal democrat.
I am also an Officer in the US Army.
I was not happy when Sec. Gates extended my deployment (my second deployment that is) to Iraq by an additional 90 days making it 15 months total. But the man did what needed to be done.
Gitmo is not his, that one sits with the Whitehouse, not the Pentagon. The fact is is that Sec. Gates has done a great job. He has forced the services to reform in positive ways.
The Army was spending $200 billion on 'Future Combat Systems' an array of futuristic vehicles and weapons that were being developed for a war that would never be fought. Gates forced them to throw away their expensive wish lists and focus on the present conflict.
When the Marines ordered 17,000 MRAPS, enough for every Marine in Iraq, compared to the Army's order of 3,500 Sec. Gates asked the Army why a Marine's life was worth more than a soldier's. Subsequently the Army upped its order to over 12,000.
He made deep and unpopular cuts into the Air Forces bloated budget. When they refused to go along with UAVs he simply (and to their dismay) gave it to the Army (the thought of sending up an aircraft without a pilot is abhorrent to the Air Force).
When it was discovered that injured soldiers were being neglected at Walter Reed the Secretary of the Army and the Army Surgeon General were both sacked.
Additionally, contrary with adiministration is tried to talk down the prospect of a war with Iran. He was in the same page as ADM Fallon, unfortunately ADM Fallon was a little more outspoken than he should have been and it cost him his job.
Simply said Sec. Gates is one of the best SECDEFs in a generation. He has my respect not because I work for him (albeit indirectly) but because he earned it. He needs to remain in his job, and if Obama keeps him on the team, if only for a year or two then the president is all the more wiser.
Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State? This power-lusting, truth-challenged woman who has the Israel Lobby Seal of Approval? No way, Jose. The Middle East--indeed, the whole world--will see her as just another hack who does whatever the Israel Lobby tells her to.
If Saint President-elect Obama is serious about all that "change" he's been preaching, he'll find someone who can tell the Israel Lobby to--well, f**k off.
Then it's a good idea.
The man has a deep well of credit with me.
The bottom line is, he's the boss. If he feels he needs Hillary Clinton to help him execute his will, then that's fine with me.
The man obviously knows what he's doing and does nothing unadvisedly.
Trust him.
That's music to my ears.
One of the things that made Obama such an attractive candidate to me vs. Clinton was her close connections to AIPAC.
The "War on Terror" is directly linked to the Israel-Palestine problem.
Israel may not by OBL's main beef with the US but it's what fuels the fire of the Islamic world and provides AQ with it's foot soldiers.
Take away the Israel issue and you still have OBL but no one to carry out his designs.
How utterly depressing things are. Hilary Clinton can have wrongly supported a war that devastated a nation and killed and displaced untold numbers yet she can still be considered for high office.
Amen!
There should never be blind faith in our leadership. Personally, I began to doubt some of his decisions after FISA, and even more so after Prop 8. When the Republican gov of CA talks more about a progressive issue than the progressive president-elect, then there are issues.
I'd read so many articles after the election on how Obama would surround himself with the best and brightest minds; however, so far I've only seen him select the same old tired politicians, most of them cronies or members of the Cliton administration. Where are the amazing picks he was going to make to bring this country together? When I see those, perhaps I'll trust him again. Until then, I'm wary.
What, exactly, makes her qualified?
Could someone please itemize a list for me?
I'm serious.
Secretary Gates may be competent. But throughout the party that supported Barack Obama, there is a wealth of competent potential Secretary material. Mr. Gates strength at the time of selection was that he could work among the scoundrels that fed at the RNCs trough, that he could execute Dick Cheney's orders with discretion and rid the general officer ranks with those who may have shown latency of proper character development going into the 2008 election.
MRAPs and MMRs are platforms that isolate the fielded forces from the terrain in which they are deployed. They are a tribute to bad generalship - except in their ability to protect troops in a place where they have lost control. Ever time one shows up in theater it is taking another group of service people out of the line. They are death traps in an conventional combat setting. Obsolete from the time of conception.
Gates is a professional mole with domestic manners. Please return to the wealth endowed estate in the Northwest or College Station.
The commentary about Clinton being Obama's first pick for State has worked its way into a hysterical frenzy again thanks to the likes of Michelle Bernard, Chris Matthews, David Gregory, Rachel Maddow, Christopher Hitchens, David Broder, David Sirota, and all the pisants in the far left hemisphere of the Democratic Party.
Just when I had calmed down and started to work CONSTRUCTIVELY toward addressing media misogyny and sexism -- especially the nasty stuff from the primaries -- I am confronted yet again with the unending drivel that Hillary Clinton is some kind of demon who will, single-handedly, establish a new country, with new currency, in her own image, so that she can be president, thus crushing her nemesis: Barack Obama.
To quote another Clinton: "Give me a break."
These people have no lives. They apparently live and die on school-aged gossip and fear-mongering, much like insects living off the flesh of anything and everything they come into contact with.
We'd be much better off if these people acknowledge their simple fear of Hillary Clinton -- not because of the person or politician she is or has become, but because she is strong, competent, stands her ground, doesn't spend time under somebody's thumb, and most of all, isn't some femme fatale who believes all the crap about getting what she wants by playing cute, coy, sexy and stupid.
I pity the men who believe that any strong, outspoken, talented women are automatically out to castrate them. And I pity the women (like Bernard and so many others) who have so bought-into sexism they don't even recognize or accept it as such any more.
Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State might do more good than little minds realize and finally -- thankfully -- help move the antiquated practices of sexism/misogyny into the garbage bin once and for all so that we might really move into the 21st century!
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
