Troops Speak Out About Obama Visit

Despite the photo ops, not all troops appreciated Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East.  Here are a couple examples from BlackFive:

Afghanistan

As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand, he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service. 

 

So really he was just here to make a showing for the Americans back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you. 

 

I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States . I just don’t understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country. 

 

If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake. 

 

In service,

CPT J

Bagram , Afghanistan

Iraq:

95% of base wanted nothing to do with him. I have met three troops who support him, and literally hundreds who regard him as a buffoon, a charlatan, a hindrance to their mission or a flat out enemy of progress. Even when the rumors were publicly admitted, almost no one left their duty sections to try to see him, unless they were officers whose presence was officially required. 

 

Mister Obama’s motorcade drove up from the flight line and entered the dining hall toward the end of lunch time. Diners were chased out and told to make other arrangements for food, in the middle of the duty day. 

 

Now, there are close to 8000 troops on the base and its nearby satellites. No one came up from the Army side (except perhaps a few ranking officers). The airbase resumed operation, once he cleared the flightline, as if nothing had happened. The dining hall holds about 300 people and was not full. The troops did not want to meet him and the feeling was apparently mutual. In attendance, besides the Official Entourage, were the base’s senior officers, some support personnel, and a very few carefully vetted supporters who’d made special arrangements. No photos were allowed. No question and answer with the troops. No real acknowledgment that the troops existed.

 

Obama left around 1530, during the Muslim Call to Prayer, so he’s not a practicing Muslim. He was in a convoy guarded by (so I’m told) both State Department and Secret Service Personnel.

 

Less than three hours…

 

Within 48 hours he was in Afghanistan. It takes most troops longer than that to in-process and get cleared on safety, threats, policies and such. Yet he somehow made a strategic summary by not talking to anyone and not seeing anything. 

 

Twenty-four hours after that, he was in Kuwait, back here, and then home, so fast we didn’t even know he arrived the second time at this base.

 

I can’t imagine any officer of the few he met told him anything other than what they tell the troops, and what their own leadership at the Pentagon tell them—we’re winning. Our troops are stomping the guts out of the insurgency. The surge worked and is working. If the insurgents have to divert to Afghanistan, it means they can’t fight in Iraq anymore. We should not change the rules and retreat with the enemy on the ropes as we did in Vietnam. We should finish kicking their teeth in. The Iraqi government now controls 10 of 18 provinces, with US assistance in the rest. Let us win the war. 90% of the troops I know, even those opposed to the war, say that is the way to win. Victory comes from winning, not from “change.” In fact, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is on record as opposing Obama’s strategic theory. 

 

Since he obviously knew in advance that’s what they’d tell him, and since he didn’t care to talk to the troops (we’re told by the Left that the troops are horrified, shocked, forced to commit atrocities with tears in their eyes, distraught, burned out, fed up with losing, etc) and find out how they feel, and was barely in country long enough to need a shower and a change of clothes, we can only call this for what it is.  

 

A disgraceful PR stunt, using the troops as a platform for his ego and campaign. 

 

In comparison, I’ve seen four star generals and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this base. They each held an all ranks call, met with and briefed the personnel, and took questions on every subject from tour length to uniform design to rules of engagement to weapon choice to long term policy, from the newest airmen to the senior NCO with TEN 120-180 day tours since Sep 11. It’s very clear they want to know what the troops think, and to keep them informed of events. It’s equally clear mister Obama does not. 

 

From here we must move to my op part of the oped.

 

Obama clearly doesn’t care about the troops, doesn’t care about America, doesn’t care about anything except hearing his own voice and the chance to sit at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…From where he’ll bring us the proven Democratic wartime leadership of Bosnia and the Balkans (US forces still there), Somalia (US forces prevailed despite being ill equipped by executive order, and taking heavy casualties), Haiti (what were we doing there again?), Desert One (oops?), Vietnam (where we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory), Korea (still there), WWI, and the fluke success of WWII won by such wonderful liberal notions as concentration camps for Japanese Americans, nukes, FBI investigations of waitresses who dated soldiers in case they were “morally corrupt” and the (valid) occupation of and continued presence in Italy, Japan and Germany for 60 years, which they are conveniently pretending won’t happen with Iraq. 

 

That’s not “change.” That’s “failure we can do without.”

Ouch.

Most soldiers who support Obama are not combat soldiers, they are support troops who don’t see combat and don’t have a right shoulder patch.  The soldiers who wrote these e-mails are in combat zones.   You do the math. 

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Comments

[The Griper]

Now let's hear from the other side for those who believe that conditions on the ground should not be a determinant of withdrawal as would be Obama's stance. and this is not from a pro-victory media. believe it or not it is from the nyt.

"The militia is painting its response on Sadr City walls: “We will be back, after this break.”

the whole story is here

[Snerd Gronk]

Barack: 'We have to be as CAREFUL getting out as we were CARELESS going in'

SG: Doesn't sound precipitous as the spinne(R)z claim, does it!?

If fact what is interesting is that we are now being asked to trust those whose faulty judgment created the Mess'O-Potamia and to distrust those who demonstrated the good judgment to oppose this mess-in-the-making.

Moreover the much pillared MSM allows the myth of McFlip-Flop's 'good judgement' about 'When to Leave' to stand unquestioned despite contradictions, flip-flops and gaffes galore:
* out in up to 100 years
* out in 2013 so I can balance the budget
* Obama's 16 month TIMETABLE sounds about right, CNN
* I never said TIMETABLE, ABC
* OK, I did say TIMETABLE, ABC
* Except when I and Obama didn't say Precipitous, my not saying it means the opposite of Obama not saying it ... therefore Obamam did say Precipitous, when he didn't

I gotta say, McInane's position(s) should disqualify him from running for office ... but he's the (R) man!

Snerd

[Snerd Gronk]

Amy: "Despite the photo ops, not all troops appreciated Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East."

SG: Ahhh YES! .... The home of the anecdotal, proving I suppose that people have opinions and some of them differ.

I bet none of them were standing in any of them KBR showers, put in by "Wz" No-Bid, "W"a(R) profiteers, c(R)ony 'co(R)po(R)ate base', at the time. Anywayz they've got more free time on their hands for opinions these days, now that they don't have to spend all their time rummaging through scrap yards to try to up armour their vehicles, or writing letters home pleading for families to buy them body armour ...

Nevertheless, Obama's triumphant European and Middle East tour sends a very different message than McCrains-credibility, talkin' about the great shopping in Baghdad, surrounded by 100 troops, with helicopters circling over head, and that lumpy ill-fitting flak jacket hanging askew off of him, like a bib on a geriatric ...

Really ... how many Dukakis moments does the MSM allow this guy before they state the obvious?

.... Oh wait, they've got a horse race to create, otherwise what are they going to report on between now and November .... House Committees and Investigations of Fraud, Co(R)(R)uption, Illegalities, to(R)tu(R)ous torture definitions, etc? The Economy? The ongoing decrease in everyones house values, if they are not one of an increasing number who have been and increasing number who will be foreclosed upon? Crumbling Infrastructure? The failures of the "W" foreign policy in Pakistan (who harbour terrorists and have nukes) and Afghanistan and the Middle East where removing Saddam made I-m-a-dinner-jacket' and Iran into a new Middle East power ? Non-bid contacts, contract fraud and "W"a(R) profiteering by Cheney's Halliburton buddies, illegal politically motivated prosecutions by the DOJ? ... Gas prices!, and why they are really so high?

Snerd

[Johnny]

Secular Nerd (snerd) did not address the entry BLUF: troops don't like this guy or his wreckless rhetoric which is emboldening our enemies and worrying our allies, particularly the ones in Baghdad.

Obama's ideology is fatally flawed: he backs Planned Parenthood which is responsible for the genocide in America's inner cities against people of color. Templated onto the whole union, Obama's leadership would push the trend toward smaller families and lower birthrates - as in Europe. No country in the history of the world has ever enjoyed an expanding economy while diminishing in population.

Back to the topic, the troops on the tip of the spear smell Obama's wimpy "can't we all get along" pablum and reject it. Foreign policy during a war is not the right place for dreamy eyed newbies to try out their failed Jimmy Carterisms on a new generation.
Things look different from we stand, Mr. Gronk.

[Snerd Gronk]

Johnny-got-his-Gun: '... this guy or his wreckless [SIC .... "w"-reckless - great freudain slip there 'john'], rhetoric which is emboldening our enemies and worrying our allies, particularly the ones in Baghdad.

SG: Yah, like the 200,000 in Germany, like the huge welcome(s) from European and Middle East leaders, like the kind "W" could never get, like al Maliki endorsing his TIMETABLE for withdrawal ... which McFlip-Flip, Mr 'john' McLost-Ho(R)izon, who now endorses the Obasma-al Maliki TIMETABLE ... even though he didn't say so ... okay, so he did ... but ... err .... he didn't when he did ...

Now there's experience ...Eh!?

Johnny-got-his-Gun: '...Obama's ideology is fatally flawed: he backs Planned Parenthood which is responsible for the genocide in America's inner cities against people of color ... Obama's leadership would push the trend toward smaller families and lower birthrates - as in Europe. No country in the history of the world has ever enjoyed an expanding economy while diminishing in population.

SG: Ah another secula(R), ch(R)istian, john ... from the Economic Sanctity of Life, Money-Change(R)-Temple. Apparently the benefit of babies, particular black babies, is for economic growth.

What actually happens to children born into poverty, impoverished communities and single parent families is of coua(R)se a matter of personal (R)esponsibility ... If they failed to get themselves born into affluence families, then that's their own fault and their own responsibility .... so long as they "shop-for-democracy", don't get in the way of (R)ich people getting (R)icher ...

Johnny-got-his-Gun: '... troops ... smell Obama's wimpy "can't we all get along" pablum and reject it. Foreign policy during a war is not the right place for dreamy eyed newbies to try out their failed Jimmy Carterisms on a new generation.

SG: Beauty there 'john' ! ... Just as I have suspected, this "W"a(R) is all about p(R)ide and so infe(R)io(R)ity, small "Dick" stuff as it were, NOT about the troops. Chickenhawk stuff. Someone else does all the fighting while the chickenhawks, with all the strut, are most often found at the 'dull' end of the spear. This is NOT the place where great strategic thinking originates, as the entirety of the Bush foreign policy demonstrates.

But y'all got quite a point 'bout dreamy eyed newbies ... like FDR, Churchill, MLK and JFK

It's not as myopic when we look at things there, 'Macho, macho, macho macho man ... You 'want-ta-be' macho man' ....

Snerd

[Amy Proctor]

"Careful getting out" of Iraq to Obama means getting out within 16 months REGARDLESS OF CONDITIONS ON THE GROUND. That's the difference between Obama's "plan" and the current plan. Maliki, Bush, Petraeus, all U.S. commanders, most U.S. combat troops and McCain advocate a plan for withdrawal based on reality, not politics.

Obama is about "ending this war" but pulling troops from Iraq doesn't end the war, it just ends our presence in Iraq. The war will go on. As Griper pointed out, there are factions ready and waiting to fill the void we would leave behind IF we leave too soon.

Obama wants to "act presidential" and pretend he will end the war, but he fact is only a reasonsable plan like the current administration's will end the war becuase unless withdrawal is predicated by conditions on the ground, which is not Obama's "careful getting out" plan, the war will continue without us only to require our assistance.

This is all, again, relating to security and political conditions on the ground. After the Presidential inauguration in Jan, '09, it's unlikely we'll be able to make the kind of drawdowns Obama wants to make but if it is possible, that doesn't mean Obama is the hero of the war, the Messiah who stepped in and brougth peace. No, if he had his way Saddam and his sons would still be a threat destabilizing the Middle East threating U.S. interests and those of our allies. He is simply a pinch hitter coming to bat in the bottom of the 9th and he really has forfeited any right to talk about Iraq as if he could successfully end it while voting against troop funding, opposing the surge (talk about a lack of judgment) and insulting Iraqis for years over their participation in the war, which resulted in more progress than progress in our early U.S. history. He's got a lot of nerve and the point of this entry is that troops on the ground aren't buying it and don't like Obama.

[Johnny]

Mr. Gronk:
Have you ever served in your country's military? Have you ever been an ambassador in uniform in a hostile fire zone? Has anyone ever shot at you on the battlefield?

You sure are quick to type whatever comes into your head, but before you go any further about chickenhawks and who really cares for the "troops", you need to step back, take a deep breath and think about who you are talking to and who may be reading your comments.

[Johnny]

And ya wonder why people are so incredulous at the Obama hysteria...?

But y'all got quite a point 'bout dreamy eyed newbies ... like FDR, Churchill, MLK and JFK

Snerd is comparing BHO to Churchill?????

Ahem. Obama is a first term senator who has spent 2 of his 4 years in the senate on the campaign trail. He has zero legislative accomplishments, only won his senate seat because the GOP candidate quit due to scandal (the GOP then brought in Alan Keyes from Maryland to run against Obama). In the Illinois senate BHO voted "present" over 100 times... and you want to compare him to Winston Churchill?

Obama has never been in charge of anything in his life and Snerd already has him in the same category as FDR and Winston Churchill.

Kennedy was a war hero wounded in battle. FDR and Churchill were heads of state during a world war. Dr. King was stabbed, thrown in prison multiple times and had his house blown up twice. But hey! Obama taught law in college and studied Liberation Theology for 20 years at Trinity Church of Christ. Not only that, he gave a rousing speech to German liberals!

You're right, Snerdy. I stand corrected.

I wonder why he didn't include Patton and Ike in that comparison...

[J Rob]

sNERD will probably be the first to sign his kid up for the Obama Jungen.

[robert verdi]

Snerd,
Obama is going to keep 30-50 thousand troops in Iraq. In other words he is going to stay the course and follow Bush policies, but with different rhetoric. Apparently its okay to stay in Iraq if you cloak the policy in the rhetoric of anti-war talking points. At the same time he wants to pour troops into Afghanistan. Do you guys ever take a step back and wonder what you are backing?