Lt General John Allen Reveals that Obama Ignored Military's Advice on Afghanistan

Wonder who we should believe?  A Marine Corps Lt General with years of experience fighting or a White House lackey spokesman.  For us, Marine Lt General Allen wins hands down.  Is this more of Obama not listening to his advisers and going over the edge on his own or is this Obama putting politics ahead of our military once again?  It is probably a little of both.

He wants the 30,000 surge troops home by the election but that will mean withdrawing them in the middle of the fighting season which runs from April to November so he will end up putting more of our troops in harm's way for his political gain.  Don't believe most Americans are going to buy into the Obama spin as that seems to be all he does right not as he has gone into full political campaign mode.

What is he going to do when a new much tougher and harder hitting Republican gets in the race that has already taken him on?  How is he going to handle the fact more and more of the American public are realizing that his policies have been bad for America?  How Americans going to react with Obama putting our military in Afghanistan in harm's way for his own political benefit?  We will find out soon enough the answers to these questions.

Right now politics trumps all now for Obama which is scary for America!

We want to thank Senator Graham for being willing to ask General Allen the tough questions and General Allen for having the courage to answer truthfully.

General Reveals that Obama Ignored Military's Advice on Afghanistan5:21 PM, Jun 28, 2011 • By STEPHEN F. HAYES

Lieutenant General John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the Afghanistan decision President Obama announced last week was not among the range of options the military provided to the commander in chief. Allen’s testimony directly contradicts claims from senior Obama administration officials from a background briefing before the president’s announcement.
In response to questioning from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Allen testified that Obama’s decision on the pace and size of Afghanistan withdrawals was “a more aggressive option than that which was presented.” 

Graham pressed him. “My question is: Was that a option?” 

Allen: “It was not.” 

Allen's claim, which came under oath, contradicts the line the White House had been providing reporters over the past week—that Obama simply chose one option among several presented by General David Petraeus. In a conference call last Wednesday, June 22, a reporter asked senior Obama administration officials about those options. “Did General Petraeus specifically endorse this plan, or was it one of the options that General Petraeus gave to the president?” 

The senior administration official twice claimed that the Obama decision was within the range of options the military presented to Obama. “In terms of General Petraeus, I think that, consistent with our approach to this, General Petraeus presented the president with a range of options for pursuing this drawdown. There were certainly options that went beyond what the president settled on in terms of the length of time that it would take to recover the surge and the pace that troops would come out – so there were options that would have kept troops in Afghanistan longer at a higher number. That said, the president’s decision was fully within the range of options that were presented to him and he has the full support of his national security team.” 

The official later came back to the question and reiterated his claim. “So to your first question I would certainly – I would certainly characterize it that way. There were a range. Some of those options would not have removed troops as fast as the president chose to do, but the president’s decision was fully in the range of options the president considered.” 

(The full transcript of the exchange is below; the full transcript of the call is at the link.) 

So the new top commander in Afghanistan says Obama went outside the military's range of options to devise his policy, and the White House says the president's policy was within that range of options. Who is right? 

We know that Petraeus and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have both testified that the administration's decision was "more aggressive" than their preferred option. And there has been considerable grumbling privately from senior military leaders about the policy. Among their greatest concerns: the White House’s insistence that the 2012 drawdown of the remaining 23,000 surge troops be completed by September. That means that drawdown will have to begin in late spring or early summer—a timeline for which there exists no serious military rationale. Afghanistan's "fighting season" typically lasts from April through November. (Last year, it continued into December because of warmer than usual temperatures.) So if the White House were to go forward with its policy as presented, the largest contingent of surge troops would be withdrawn during the heart of next year's fighting season. 

Excerpt:  Read More at The Weekly Standard