by Mark Silva
News reports to the contrary, the White House said today that President Barack Obama has not made a decision about the way forward with troop deployments in Afghanistan.
The president plans another in a series of meetings on Wednesday with his top military and national security advisers. They will examine "four options'' in the Situation Room, the president's spokesman said today aboard Air Force One en route to Ft. Hood, Texas, where the president will address the memorial service for 13 soldiers killed in a shooting spree there last week.
"The president will have an opportunity to discuss four options with his national security team tomorrow,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today. "Anybody that tells you that the president has made a decision or -- what was the artfully used term last night, 'tentatively agreed to' -- doesn't have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they're talking about.
"The President has yet to make a decision.''
Gibbs found some amusement in fielding questions about one news story reporting that the president would be approving 34,000 troops, "only to be asked yesterday about a story of approving nearly 40,000 troops -- this all two weeks after being asked about whether or not we were coalescing around an entirely different option.'' CBS News and the Associated Press had asserted that a tentative decision had been made.
"I don't know that it's annoying as much as it is generally amusing to watch somebody or some group of people decide they know what only the president knows,'' Gibbs said. "You know, it keeps me busy and it's in some ways fun to watch two reports that contradict each other be reported virtually simultaneously.''
Gibbs was asked to detail the four options under consideration: "See my previous answer. And please note that the transcript should include me laughing.''
The president is "doing this in a very purposeful and deliberate way to get the best decision,'' Gibbs said. "And I promise you that when he makes that decision we'll let you know. And as I've said before, the president will take the time to explain that decision and its reasoning to the American people.''
(President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama pictured above arriving in Killeen, Texas, to attend a memorial service at Ft. Hood today. Photo by Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS / )
Comments
To watch Corporate news, be it Gibson or Lehrer, is to watch the constant drum beat of "under the radar" criticism, distortion and misleading information. We have reporters, editorializing, presenting half truths as the full story. We have the run-up to the Iraq shell-game, all over again. We have Corporate America, including its Media, flexing their muscles, while its mouthpieces are taking shots at President Obama, with yellow journalism. Words are being put in his mouth, ideas, he has never embraced, are now said to be his. This whole nonsense about Afghanistan is moronic and unnecessary, but what the Military-Industrial complex wants, it will have. We don't need no stinking healthcare reform, we need stinking war !!
Even if they have to rachet-up the hostilities over in Afghanistan, from the public shots from a subordinate, McCrystal, to the steady beat of 'Crash" McCain's war-mongering to the shipping out of a anti-American, Moslem sympathizer, who, oh so unpredictably, goes berserk !! I don't think Mozart could have written a better orchestration, than we are witnessing, emanating from the Pentagon, through the intensified activities out of Afghanistan and punctuated by a massacre, acted-out by an over-burdened, stressed-out psychiatrist, being shipped to the one theatre that he doesn't wish to go. Are there any professional American soldiers directing military operations in our nation !!!?? The military activities in and around Afghanistan in the last month or two, do not seem to support that possibility.
I hope President Obama has the stregnth to further study the situation, from the unadulterated corruption of the Karzai regime to the unexplained hostile activity, that just seemed to jump off the charts, since President Obama took Office. Coincidences, you betcha !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | November 10, 2009 12:41 PM
The Taliban is virtually gone from Afghanistan. The poppy crop there is more of a threat than the Taliban. "Winning" in Afghanistan is immaterial. There is no OBL in Afghanistan. There probably was no OBL to begin with. There is nothing to win. No reason to keep sending troops in. No OSB. No WMDs. No Taliban. What are we fighting and going into hock for? Ask the troops. Forget the brass. Ask the troops. Forget the Pentagon--and their need for job security.
Posted by: Vivian | November 10, 2009 1:44 PM
"You know, it keeps me busy and it's in some ways fun to watch two reports that contradict each other be reported virtually simultaneously.'' The transcript should also reflect this had nothing to do with Fox News.
Posted by: I never understood the man-boy thing, and then I saw him salute. Cute. | November 10, 2009 2:03 PM
So CBS (See-BS) got it wrong? The station of Dan Rather?
What a surprise.
Posted by: Remembering "Lucy Ramirez" | November 10, 2009 2:36 PM
So, according to the White House mouthpiece, president Obama doesn't know what he's doing.
Forget about what he's going to do but just that he know's what he's doing.
Inexperience and lack of leadership skills is going nowhere and real fast I might add.
Posted by: springfield | November 10, 2009 2:45 PM
Posted by: springfield | November 10, 2009 2:45 PM
;
Once again giving aid and comfort to the enemy I see. Nice! Why can't you just rally around the Commander In Chief during wartime? Fomenting an insurrection only plays into the hands of Osama Bin Laden and his followers.
Posted by: janet | November 10, 2009 4:19 PM
Can't I just vote PRESENT?!?!?!?!
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | November 10, 2009 5:12 PM
Michelle, Michelle, Michelle-please find someone who can help you with your appearance.
Posted by: jes | November 10, 2009 9:20 PM
Candidate Obama had Afghanistan all figured out in 2008, comprehensively.
Not in terms of what to do there later as president, but as a means to tap into anti-Bush sentiment to get elected.
Accomplishments to date: President Obama sent 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai won a dog-n-pony election.
Google Matthew Hoh. Then try telling a former Marine captain that he's giving aid and comfort to the enemy because he chose to rally around the truth instead of President Obama and Hamid Karzai.
Include this in your reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/27/DI2009102703143.html
Posted by: dom youngross | November 10, 2009 11:10 PM