The Christmas Gifts Keep Piling Up On The Left

After lefties have had a moment to absorb the Rick Warren news they can turn to the latest plot twist in the "Will he, won't he" drama of Obama's troop withdrawals.  The Times thought this was so important they buried it on page 32:

WASHINGTON — A new military plan for troop withdrawals from Iraq that was described in broad terms this week to President-elect Barack Obama falls short of the 16-month timetable Mr. Obama outlined during his election campaign, United States military officials said Wednesday.

The plan was proposed by the top American commanders responsible for Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, and it represents their first recommendation on troop withdrawals under an Obama presidency. While Mr. Obama has said he will seek advice from his commanders, their resistance to a faster drawdown could present the new president with a tough political choice between overruling his generals or backing away from his goal.

The plan, completed last week, envisions withdrawing two more brigades, or some 7,000 to 8,000 troops, from Iraq in the first six months of 2009, the military officials said. But that would leave 12 combat brigades in Iraq by June 2009, and while declining to be more specific, the officials made clear that the withdrawal of all combat forces under the generals’ recommendations would not come until some time after May 2010, Mr. Obama’s target.

The sourcing, described in the next paragraph, is "transition officials"; I am presuming this leak fits Obama's news management agenda in some fashion.  More:

Transition officials said the plan was  described in only general terms to Mr. Obama by Robert M. Gates, who is staying on as defense secretary, and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when Mr. Obama met for five and a half hours with his national security team on Monday in Chicago. They said all participants had sidestepped the details of how to reconcile Mr. Obama’s timetable for withdrawing combat forces with the more extended one recommended by the generals. A transition official said that in future meetings, “the military will get a chance to articulate their preferences.”

In the campaign, Mr. Obama said he would not hesitate to overrule his commanders. By early December, however, he signaled some flexibility when he said that he still wanted combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months but that he would also listen to the recommendations of his generals. Mr. Gates has expressed confidence that he and Mr. Obama might reach common ground. But in discussing the new plan, senior military officials nonetheless made clear that they were not comfortable with the time frame Mr. Obama articulated in the campaign. “Sixteen months is going to be tough,” said one senior military officer who was briefed on the plan. “We are not quite there yet.”

*Maybe* some doves in the Obama camp leaked all this with the hope that public howls a week before Christmas and with all the other news in the world would pressure Obama to keep to the withdrawal promise from which he has been steadily backpedaling.  Maybe. 

My bet is that this is  an inoculating early leak so that fewer doves are actually left standing on the rug when Obama finally and formally pulls it out from under them.

FOR THE SCHADENFREUDE-IMPAIRED:  Consider this - on issues such as FISA surveillance or the Bush tax cuts for the rich Obama has already back-pedaled.  He is likely further to outrage a contingent of his supporters by declining to declare defeat in Iraq, blame Bush, and leave.  There even seems to be a movement towards creating a bit of wiggle room on enhanced interrogation.  One might have thought, that given these setbacks on substance, Obama would be generous in handing his leftmost admirers some symbolic victories (an indictment of Dick Cheney, for example) but with the Warren selection they are getting shut out there as well.  Interesting.  Of course, chuckling righties might wonder whether Obama is holding up on symbolic victories for the left because he knows they have some huge substantive wins coming...

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Fat chance this neophyte will substitute his own artificial timetable for one proposed by David Petraeus. If he does, and chaos ensues, he's a one-termer. Petraeus is the Sun God at this point.

[Soylent Red]

Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) is on its way to being classified a PCS post. What that means is that you will no longer "deployed" to Iraq, you will be stationed there, just like Germany or Italy or Korea.

They wouldn't go to the effort of doing that if there were any doubts that we would be leaving precipitously. Barry ain't changing dick.

[clarice]

And people protested we shouldn't vote for him because he was a liar and utterly without character.

[Soylent Red]

Check out VDH's take on it.

Then check out this little piece about how Obama plans on executingthe same old failed policies of George W. Bush.

Barry O-Same-a.

[bgates]

After eight years of a millionaire president who lectures black people about responsibility, threatens to walk away from commitments to our closest allies, and opposes equal rights for gays, the Democrats must be thrilled at the prospect of having someone in the White House who is willing to pour money into education and medicine for seniors, and will repeatedly seek UN blessing for military deployments.

Or, you know, vice versa. At least the new guy went to Harvard.

[Soylent Red]

So did the old guy.

New guy's black though.

[pagarpagar]

Clarice, from what I see of the American left, I suspect a lot of people voted for him precisely because they knew "he was a liar and utterly without character".

[bad]

*Maybe* some doves in the Obama camp leaked all this with the hope that public howls a week before Christmas...

I heard lots of stuff will leak out during the holidays while we're distracted. Strategery...

Is this what Rahm was doing on his Blackberry during yesterday's presser?

[sbw]

THE SIDESTEP
From : "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas"
[Charles Durning as the Governor]

Fellow Texans, I am proudly standing here to humbly see.
I assure you, and I mean it - Now, who says I don't speak out as plain as day?
And, fellow Texans, I'm for progress and the flag- long may it fly.
I'm a poor boy, come to greatness. So, it follows that I cannot tell a lie.

Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.

[ben]

Hugh Hewitt says Blago is entitled to get all the taped conversations with Rahm...

I wonder if he will auction them off..

[clarice]

HEH--Now that would be a way for him to raise the money he needs. Think of this duo:Blago the former bookie and Obama the former drug salesman.

[Tully]

Not so much a liar as someone who sepaks in vagueries and is prefectly content to let people assume whtever they want, as long as it's to HIS benefit.

"I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." --Barack Obama in The Audacity of Hope

I mean, he told them so, and they didn't believe him?

[Dave]

I think the reason this was placed near the back of the paper is because it isn't news.

This is a military recommendation and, while I don't expect Obama to completely withdrawal in 18 months, and while one could attempt to divine something from it being leaked, (that would be speculative at best), this isn't Obama policy at the moment. It's not even, that we know of, a policy recommendation eminating from his team (that would be news).

It's an independent recommendation--a predictable one at that.

[daledog]

If I were a limp-wristed socialist femme my whole life, I would relish the chance to come across as a bad-ass CIC. You go Bambi.

[pashley]

As with many others, I suspected, prior to the election, that the commitments of American foreign policy leave the executive with very little wiggle room. The Obama administration will continue the construction of a major air and army base in Kurdistan. Just look at a map.

[Thomas Collins]

"Progressives" should relax. They are going to get their dream team lawyers into the federal courts. They also will probably get air taxes and regs to hobble coal. National Lawyers Guilders and friends can't have everything.

[Mwalimu Daudi]

Page 32? I am surprised that the government-run media did not simply let it vanish down the memory hole. Like they did with Messiah's promise to use public financing for His fall campaign.

Conservatives who are enjoying the schedenfreude of the Chosen One flip-flopping on Iraq and a host of other national security issues might want to consider the fact that cosmetic changes to the Bush policies does not necessarily mean the results will be the same. Obama, like every single Democrat not named Joe Lieberman, is completely unserious about the war against Islamofascism. Not wanting to lose (Obama's policy) is not the same as trying to win (Bush's policy).

Bush has been criticized as being a weak, ineffective leader, and in many cases (domestic policy) this is true. However, Bush will look like a combination of George Patton and Ronald Reagan compared to what we will be stuck with starting next year. What good is it to retain the successful Bush policies if the incoming President lacks both the will and the common sense to carry them out? The sound you now hear is a legion of chickens buying tickets to come home to roost.

[Aaron T.]

With so many betrayals so early by Obama, some of us early and consistent supporters are going to start showing our displeasure. For example, Andrew and I will not be attending any of the inaugural celebrations. Andrew also says that he will eat no more fried chicken or watermelon until the O-Man starts honoring some of his pre-election pledges.

[Phred]

Pashley is exactly right. The geopolitical arena is the same no matter who is president. America's interests remain the same no matter who is president. A prudent course in pursuing America's interests in international affairs often lies along a narrow road. There is some wiggle room for stylistic differences but the most prudent course remains the same.

There is zero possibility that President Obama will pursue a foreign policy that differs in any substantial way from what President Bush would pursue if he had a third term.

[Jim O'Sullivan]

And "his generals"! Ugh. I'll be the didn't know what one, two or three star general are called on the day he announced he wanted to be CIC. I wouldn't bet serious money that he knows even now.

[CsemaJ]

I've always known Obama was a con-man. I still think he is a leftist though and will use more subtle measures to move the country toward socialism.

[fred lapides]

Amazing! what a batch of bad-mouthing name calling people. Why not wait to see what he does. Then denounce policies you do not like. If he does what Bush has done, you should commend him but no...not the rage on the right. Any and all chances to call names is just fine.

For FISA. If you do a bit of research you will discover that tapping domestic phones etc has been going on for years and began well before Bush...but then you might have to read up and not listen full time to selected wise men such as Rush L.

[Danube of Thought]

"It's an independent recommendation--a predictable one at that."

Damn straight it was a predictable one. Every man Jack who knew anything about the situation on the ground has been saying for the past year that withdrawing all combatant forces within sixteen months would be reckless and irresponsible. Did anyone seriously expect that the election of Barack Obama would change that assessment?

(I am still here because my stepson's jury is still deliberating and we can't hit the road until they are done. So this is really me.)

[SteveMG]

If he names Cheney as the Kaussian czar-of-czars, things could start to get real interesting.

Czar Cheney? Has a nice ring to it.

[bgates]

If you do a bit of research you will discover that tapping domestic phones etc has been going on for years
Wow no kidding. But that would mean the howls of outrage from the left were pure theater designed merely to return them to power. My world has been shattered.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Vanderleun on a roll:

“I’m a Midnight Toker”—Getting Stoned with Barry O

[Danube of Thought]

"If you do a bit of research you will discover that tapping domestic phones etc has been going on for years and began well before Bush..."

If you'd been reading Just One Minute at the time of all the left-wing outrage, you'd know that that is precisely what we said at the time.

[PD]

And JOM readers also know that rendition, another outrage-stoker for the left, began under Clinton, just like Echelon.

[matt]

the men in the black helicopters will all go away now that the One is our leader.....it will all be done in the name of openness and change now, instead....

as to the courts, there is some balance. While the 9th and 4th still have their shares of wacky decisions, many of the others are fairly rational...While the dems did their best to block Bush appointments, some did make it through...so as long as it's a one term presidency, there is strong hope that a lot of executive/congressional mischief may be mitigated by a conservative/constructionist judiciary.

[glasater]

so as long as it's a one term presidency

Well I share that sentiment but the way Zero can pull in the campaign funds--and until that fine day when the R's figure out that formula--we are toast.

[Jane]

(I am still here because my stepson's jury is still deliberating and we can't hit the road until they are done. So this is really me.)

Are you going some place good?

[Soylent Red]

Sara:

That Vanderluen, for people of a certain age and above, is some funny, funny stuff.

Good shit, to hijack a phrase.

[Soylent Red]

If you do a bit of research you will discover that tapping domestic phones etc has been going on for years

Spfffffffft...far out, Fred. Really...far out. I think one time I heard Jerry talking about that at one of The Shows.

[sophy]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some habbo gold .