Clinton And Gates: No Deadline On Afghan Withdrawal — We Swear!
Chuck Spinney Sends….
In today's cameos [summary attached below] on the Sunday talk show circuit, Defense Secretary Gates (no doubt the Surge's wily deus ex machina) and Secretary of State Clinton (Gates' transparent accomplice) stated again that there is no deadline for a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. This proves again, as if any more proof were needed after their appearances before Congress last week, the whole Surge-and-Withdrawal Strategy enunciated by President Obama in his West Point speech last Tuesday was a Bait-and-Switch Strategy to sucker the anti-war base of the Democratic Party, while locking in the long-term budgetary benefits of the Long War on Terror for the cash-bloated MICC. Which begs the question: Is Mr. Obama the real decision maker or an empty suit carrying the water for an emergent National Security Regency chaired by Secretary Gates, with Secretary, CJCS Admiral Mullen, and General McChrystal as the senior voting members? Unfortunately, the postmortem purporting to analyze Obama's “decision” process in today's New York Times does little to clarify this important question.
Neo-con-lite. Tastes great. Less filling. Goes down so smooth.
… and is still bad for America no matter which party is in control.
