Obama Quit In Afghanistan

Tear out the front page! Here is a shocker from former SecDef Gates, as reported by Bob Woodward:

In a new memoir, former defense secretary Robert Gates unleashes harsh judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Leveling one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat, Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan. The president was “skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail,” Gates writes in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

So Obama was sending our young men and women off to a meat grinder with no real confidence in the likelihood of success. How like Lyndon Johnson.

Here is the NY Times version:

Obama Lost Faith in His Afghan Strategy, Book Asserts

In His New Memoir, Robert M. Gates, the Former Defense Secretary, Offers a Critique of the President

By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — After ordering a troop increase in Afghanistan, President Obama eventually lost faith in the strategy, his doubts fed by White House advisers who continually brought him negative news reports suggesting it was failing, according to his former defense secretary Robert M. Gates.

In a new memoir, Mr. Gates, a Republican holdover from the Bush administration who served for two years under Mr. Obama, praises the president as a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.” But Mr. Gates says that by 2011, Mr. Obama began criticizing — sometimes emotionally — the way his policy in Afghanistan was playing out.

At a pivotal meeting in the situation room in March 2011, called to discuss the withdrawal timetable, Mr. Obama opened with a blast of frustration — expressing doubts about Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander he had chosen, and questioning whether he could do business with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

“As I sat there, I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his,” Mr. Gates wrote. “For him, it’s all about getting out.”

I wish these two could agree on the timing of Gates' insight - per the Times, the "all about getting out" moment was March 2011; per Woodward,

...by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Well. I was saying the same thing back in September 2009. Activate the auto-quote:

Briefly, I think Obama escalated in Afghanistan for political show - he wanted to back his famous 2002 anti-Iraq war speech about not being opposed to all wars, just dumb ones with some suitably fierce rhetoric, so he campaigned on the notion that we had to abandon Iraq and win on the real battlefield of Afghanistan, despite the many obvious obstacle to success....

[A]s of January 20 2009 the US had better chances for something like a victory in Iraq than in Afghanistan, but Obama has remained committed to pursuing the lesser chance.  For now - who doubts that the anti-war left will turn on the Afghan adventure and Obama will be quick to blame Bush and turn with them?

And again in July 2010, which may or may not have put me ahead of Gates in ruminating about Obama's goals in Afghanistan:

Plenty of progressives are wondering what happened to that nice lefty they voted for, and are wondering when his inner dove will fly forth.  Believe me, plenty of righties are wondering the same thing.

My official editorial position is that if we had Lincoln in the White House, the Afghani equivalent of George Washington in Kabul, and Generals Marshall and Eisenhower peering at maps of Kandahar, we might still lose in Afghanistan.  Gen. Petraeus is a great general and a great American, but he is not partnered with Lincoln and Washington.

Conversely, we might be lucky enough to win even without a President committed to victory, but I don't think it is worth the chance.  It's too late now, but it would have been better if Obama had never escalated the war.

Yeah, Obama lacked commitment to victory in Afghanistan, and in a subsequent post I noticed that the sun rises in the East (and the sky was blue!). There is no way it took Gates until March 2011 to figure that out.

CAN WE IGNORE A SWIPE AT HILLARY? From Woodward:

Gates offers a catalogue of various meetings, based in part on notes that he and his aides made at the time, including an exchange between Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he calls “remarkable.”

He writes: “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.”

Wow, Hillary's opposition to the surge was political? Just like her support of the AUMF in 2002 was political. Which makes this genius wrong twice.

As a timesaver, future writers might just want to list the decisions Hillary made that were not political. Put them in the World's Shortest Books collection.

LATE ADD: Per The Fix, I am on the expressway to Obvious Street:

How Bob Gates’s memoir could haunt Hillary in 2016

By Chris Cillizza

In a new memoir of his time as secretary of defense in the Obama administration, Gates writes: “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.”

...

Opposing the surge was cast by many political observers as a sign to the left that she had evolved since her vote for the use-of-force resolution earlier in the decade.

At one level, Gates's allegation is not at all surprising. Politicians factor in politics when making decisions? Gasp! And they occasionally adjust their policy positions based on the changing winds of public opinion? Double gasp! (Also worth noting: Gates praises Clinton at other points in the memoir, lauding her as "smart, idealistic but pragmatic, tough-minded, indefatigable, funny, a very valuable colleague, and a superb representative of the United States all over the world.")

But, remember this is Hillary Clinton we are talking about.  And, the criticism that has always haunted her is that everything she does is infused with politics -- that there is no core set of beliefs within her but rather just political calculation massed upon political calculation.

It's nice to see this getting attention, then.

 

Comments

[Ignatz]

LOL

[JIB]

daddy and porch,

One of my favorite sites is Retronaut

Check it out!

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.”

Like what?

I do love the Hillary dig. And I find what I have read so far fascinating. I can't figure out if government is very different than I believe or Gates was a bit of a wus.

[sbwaters]

If the decisions were political, they were willing to be wrong to get elected and stay elected.

Aren't smart voters to elect people with backbone who could make tough decisions and stand by them even though they might be unpopular?

It boils down to dumb politicians and dumb voters. Only this time they admit it.

[matt]

Consider the fact that Gates and Obama relieved GEN McKiernan of command for asking for more troops.

Then Obama agonized for 3 months before cutting the recommended troop levels of the Surge in half.

Then McChrystal was forced to resign and Petraeus, whom Obama did not respect at all despite having made the Surge in '06 work was elected and then pulled early to head the CIA.

As a lot of this was going down, our purported special envoy, Holbrooke, was being mocked and cursed by our Ambassador to Afghanistan, Eikenberry as well as the entire WH foreign policy and national security staff.

And then Petraeus was forced to resign in a very shady episode.

If you don't think that the scumbags in the White House, all the way to the top, are not responsible for sabotaging Afghanistan every step of the way I have a very nice bridge in Brooklyn I can get you for cheap.

It is time to call for impeachment of both the President and his Vice President.

[narciso]

McKiernan, that was the name that I was thinking about, anyone who puts any trust in Obama, is at best gravely dissapointed, at worst in the grave.

[Sue]

They just dedicated a piece of highway to Sgt. Chauncy Mays. He died after Obama sent him to Afghanistan for political purposes. I hate politicians.

[MarkO]

Blood on Obama's hands.

When King David did the same thing, he committed murder.

Is this not an impeachable offense?

[Threadkiller]

President Barack Obama came out swinging at his Republican rival over the issue of Afghanistan on Saturday and Sunday but may have swung a bit too hard, making claims more sweeping and definitive than what he's previously said on the subject.

After slamming GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for ignoring the issue during his speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Obama said he had put the U.S. on a sure path to military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I put forward a specific plan to bring our troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.  We are in the process of doing that right now," Obama said Saturday during a speech in Sioux City, Iowa. "And when I say I'm going to bring them home, you know they're going to come home."

During a stop Sunday in Colorado, the president was even more categorical, seeming to promise a pullout of 100 percent of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by late 2014."We are bringing our troops home from Afghanistan. And I've set a timetable. We will have them all out of there by 2014," Obama told an audience in Boulder.

In fact, Obama's plan for Afghanistan does not call for all U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/09/obama-gets-ahead-of-himself-on-afghanistan-pullout-134120.html

Politico knew what Gates knew, but nobody told Romney.

Repeal and replace...

[narciso]

No good deed, surprising he hasn't spoken against it, sarc;

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/01/anti-israel-george-mason-group-plays-race-card-on-pres-for-opposing-boycott/#comments

[Jeff Dobbs]

I don't know if I have to convince anyone here, but Henry and Melinda are stupid, crazy smart.

::fingers on both hands pointed toward temples, pulling hands away from temples expanding fingers::

I was able to nod along like I understood what they were saying, but in all honesty, I was just nodding along.

Heh. Fantastic peeps. Wonderful to meet. I learned a lot.

Oh and the grouper and the IPA was almost as amazing as the conversation, too.

Five star night.

[DrJ]

Congrats on the meet-up, hit! I've not had the pleasure of meeting henry. Yet.

Now for the important questions: which IPA?

[peter]

so glad to hear about Melinda, hit. where was this little JOMtogether?

[Danube on iPad]

I would say that there ought to be a very special place in Hell for presidents who consign young Americans to die in such circumstances, but that's a secondary concern. My primary concern is that they be put to death by short-drop hanging.

[boatbuilder]

Obama and Hilary are even more craven and shallow than I imagined.

[MarkO]

DoT,

Once again, I love how you think.

[Ignatz]

I don't think it's possible to be more craven and shallow than I imagined them to be.

[Cecil Turner]

This is all far more reminiscent of McNamara's sending young men to die in a cause he didn't believe in than any more recent example. And the proper response, in a rare moment of moral clarity, from the NY Times:

“Mr. McNamara must not escape the lasting moral condemnation of his countrymen,” The New York Times said in a widely discussed editorial, written by the page’s editor at the time, Howell Raines. “Surely he must in every quiet and prosperous moment hear the ceaseless whispers of those poor boys in the infantry, dying in the tall grass, platoon by platoon, for no purpose. What he took from them cannot be repaid by prime-time apology and stale tears, three decades late.”

In all, the Democrat playbook reads remarkably the same for the two conflicts: aid and abet the enemy; score political points whilst spouting enemy propaganda; and ride the wave of popular dissent into power.

And to think, we're still rewarding this sort of behavior decades later. You'd think we'd be extinct by now.

[narciso]

Congrats hit, IPA?

Yet he would say this, with a straight face, less than a month later;

If this region slides backwards, if the Taliban retakes this country and Al Qaeda can operate with impunity, more American lives will be at stake. Our broad mission is clear, we are going to disrupt and dismantle, defeat and destroy Al Qaeda… Thanks to you there has been progress these last several months. We have seen a huge increase in support in stateside because people understand the mission there and the success taking place by U.S. military and civilians. Your services are absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America's safety and security. Those folks back home are relying on you.

[henry]

I had a Whole Hog or two. Hit understands far more than he admits above, an excellent man who is even now off to the pool table (Melinda and I have to be at work at 0 dark 30). The meetup was halfway between Mel's home and mine.

[miss Marple]

Obama lies to everyone about anything. So I am not surprised about his lies about Afghanistan. I am just glad to see it confirmed.

[narciso]

when it was said he read Ghost Wars, I quipped he couldn't have possibly understand it, for the underlying lesson was not to allow the Taliban to reroot itself, which is what they are doing,

[narciso]

Well the seeds of our most recent 'success;

http://weaselzippers.us/?p=166973

[clarice]

More evidence from an ex-CIA official that Plame was a hoax:http://books.google.com/books?id=ATtvAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT233&lpg=PT233&dq=plame+rizzo&source=bl&ots=yQ9Xl8fUHv&sig=JNayFem8QX3ZkWz6dB2ezbKUOUc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JqfMUvOZCov5oASMv4GQAQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBDgU#v=onepage&q=plame%20rizzo&f=false

[Ignatz]

The difference this time though is they tried to juxtapose Afghanistan as the good war compared to Iraq the bad one.

Barry rode popular dissent about bad Iraq into power along with the declaration we needed to win the "good" one.
At least now we have confirmation he never intended trying.
Having said that I don't think Afghanistan was ever winnable, at least not with a commitment the country would support, but if the jerk in chief believed that he owed it to us to say it.

[clarice]

Some of the comments on this thread, aare priceless..You do not want to fight a war when Demorats are inthe White House, do you? Disgusting,

[narciso]

Are all senior executives in Govt service like this, so Fitz who I regard as a knave, is capable,
Goldsmith who falls more in the fool category,
is deemed similarly, same for Kappes and Sulick, who seem protected from the consequences of their treachery, by the open access they gave to Mayer,
Priest et al,

[clarice]

Pretty much so, it seems, narciso.

[boatbuilder]

Ignatz

"I don't think it's possible to be more craven and shallow than I imagined them to be".
I didn't either, Iggy. I gave them some credit for willful self-deceit. No more.

[rich@gmu]

good to hear about the meet up.

the thread topic is a tragedy. why? and we are scrambling to find an exit now.

[miss Marple]

Rich, twice in my lifetime I have seen the dems and the press collude to cause us a military defeat.

I thought that after we saw our influence diminished through our loss in Vietnam Nam, that the people wouldn't get suckered in to the same darn thing, but sure enough, even though we could see it happening, the people got suckered in again.

It is so depressing.

[narciso]

They either can't tell who the enemy is, or don't care, the former point seems to apply to the JAGs
who went after the Seals in Fallujah, in a scene out of 'Rules of Engagement, same pattern obtained in Haditha, Nisan Sour Square.

[Sue]

Clarice,

Now they tell us.

[rich@gmu]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it will send 800 more soldiers and about 40 Abrams main battle tanks and other armored vehicles to South Korea next month as part of a military rebalance to East Asia after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

>>>it is always something<<<

[narciso]

Against a million man army, that will make a mark,

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Now they tell us.

Yeah, Sue.

[Captain Hate]

Welp, I think I'll have to watch that POI about 10 times in slow motion (and subtitles; I swear I can't understand an effing thing anybody but Finch, Reese and Fusco say) to understand everything that went on tonight. The Television Without Pity folks predicted Reese would have a crisis in confidence about what they're doing; I trust that will be resolved next week.

[narciso]

It's a bit byzantine, so I think I understand, lol. except I couldn't figure out what happened with Amy Acker, who's almost as creepy as her character on Alias.

[Threadkiller]

http://books.google.com/books?id=aCieMQEACAAJ&dq=sibel+edmund+plame+mark+grossman&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rs3MUvqvOsTf2AW_i4DQCg&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAg

[matt]

Rich;

actually it's a bit more complicated. The Army is drawing down approximately 10 brigades and then adding 1 or two maneuver battalions to the remaining brigades. They are also going to be rotating brigades back & forth from the US to overseas. We are actually drawing down in Korea slightly in that case.

Of course the Japanese and Koreans must be very nervous about our resolve.

Bob Woodward reported today that Gates said that the assholes at the NSC and WH staff completely bypassed the DoD and military command structure on Benghazi, so there's our smoking gun.

A bunch of anti establishment children who hate the military allowed 4 Americans to die. Absolutely disgraceful. Like I said, time for criminal charges and impeachment.

[Captain Hate]

More evidence from an ex-CIA official that Plame was a hoax

The writer of that has about as much respect for her fat turd excuse for a husband as I do. I wish I could c&p but the phrase "preening blowhard" was memorably apt.

[rich@gmu]

matt-

thanks for that. I only got the headline. who knows what the adminstration is thinking regarding the North and South. another relative is reported to have been killed.

[rich@gmu]

CH-

think he was a bit too chartible to plame however. she was discreet but it was ok for her to go to lunch with a WaPo journalist while the hubs blabbed (or to have a bunch of them over for a forth of july party?) or going to the Obamafest concert at Ohio State when the whole thing was at full rage. she was a willing participant and it should be noted.

TK-

say it ain't so.

[MarkO]

The Plame matter was a travesty, a high miscarriage of justice. It was the abused use of immense power wrongfully to ruin the life of a man the prosecutor knew to be innocent of the crime investigated.

Where is Victor Hugo?

[Captain Hate]

rich, that's what I thought when I read the first thing written about her but then he drops the hammer somewhat more appropriately on the next page or two.

I'm reading the POI thread on TV Without Pity. Always reassuring to know there are people more obsessive than moi.

[Captain Hate]

Where is Victor Hugo?

Where was GWB with a pardon?

[rich@gmu]

narciso-

Just to note. The university president has rejected the boycott (and rightfully so).

The president has made other statements as well rejecting the boycott:

http://president.gmu.edu/2014/01/on-academic-boycotts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=on-academic-boycotts

link to most

http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.564087

some of those precious students decided to "make their mark" and walk out on Shari Arison. not sure how many did, but it was worked out before hand and the students returned after the speech was over.

[Account Deleted]

Rich,

There's very little downside risk for mischief makers with a midget in the WH. The Saudis are certainly taking advantage of the Invertebrate in Libya, Syria and Iraq. Maintaining OPEC quotas through civil wars is a rather novel approach.

[Jim Miller]

I may be giving Gates too much credit, but I think that he, and the military men close to him, expected that events would bring Obama to get rid of that absurd, scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

(There's even a kid's song, mocking that kind of strategy.)

And, as I said in my own post on the Woodward article, I suspected when Gates agreed to stay on, he thought that his job might be "limit the damage" -- and it might well have been even worse without Gates.

[rich@gmu]

CH-

>>>then he drops the hammer somewhat more appropriately on the next page or two<<<

I'm a slow reader and didn't quite get that far. I was unimpressed with her bio. Her editor or ghostwriter had a habit of inserting almost hollywood script into the text, one scene was almost a carbon copy out of Lethal Weapon 2. Laura Rozen's afterward wasn't much better but did poke some holes in it. Reading it, and it isn't stated directly, but I'm pretty sure it was Plame herself who played phone tag with Ari Fleischer.

[Captain Hate]

I may be giving Gates too much credit, but I think that he, and the military men close to him, expected that events would bring Obama to get rid of that absurd, scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

They expected him to act like a normal human being with a functioning set of values. Big mistake.

[jimmyk]

They expected him to act like a normal human being with a functioning set of values. Big mistake.

A lot of people thought that back in 2008, unfortunately.

[Soylent Red]

Only a pawn in their game. Drive on, I suppose.

Happy belateds Janet Jr.

[rich@gmu]

Rick-

>>>There's very little downside risk for mischief makers with a midget in the WH. The Saudis are certainly taking advantage of the Invertebrate in Libya, Syria and Iraq. Maintaining OPEC quotas through civil wars is a rather novel approach.<<<

Hadn't thought of it that way, but it does make sense. Another thing would be to clear out some space and admit Brazil to the club. Some smart diplomacy at work with these fellas.

[John Scotus]

Good post, but I take issue with the title. How could Obama have quit on Afghanistan if he was never honestly committed to seeing it through in the first place? Obama doesn't appear to have a foreign policy per se--all he is doing is chasing newspaper headlines in the hope of gaining some sort of momentary domestic political advantage.

[NoNameWorks]

We were at Punchbowl this summer with our son who flew in Afghanistan after Obama's "surge."

He and his wife visited the grave of one of his fellow Army Aviators killed in 2012 in Afghanistan.

So this pretender of CIC is a murderer.

King David sent someone to the front lines of a battle knowing (and wanting) he would be taken out. He was held accountable.

I am sure BHO sleeps well at night, because this man is more than a poseur, he is pathological.

And in the end, there will be accountability.

[Publius of Idaho]

OK, so it is comfirmed that our government is laden with diabolical cretins.

It is also known that our education establishment in concert with the MSM has labotimized a majority of the public.

What is there left to be done about it?

And if you say, elect better politicians, you do not know the scope of the problem.

[Ignatz]

--And if you say, elect better politicians, you do not know the scope of the problem.-

How about hang or shoot worse politicians?

[Publius of Idaho]

Worse is good, all is better!

[Topsecretk9]

Hi everyone! Happy holidays to all the wonderful JOMers...hope you all are doing well - to you too Tom!

Clairice's link about the publicity-seeking, preening blowhard...note the author says, if you scroll up, that he is the CIA lawyer who made the "routine" referral fully expecting it to go NO WHERE

But then, JOM, knew that

[rich@gmu]

whoa...TSK9. Sight for sore eyes.

[Topsecretk9]

Hi rich,

Likewise ::Wink::

[daddy]

Miss Marple,

Thanks for your opinion on your Mayor. Glad to hear he's got a decent batting average for our side.

Porchlight,

...when a wealthy person in colonial Jamaica died, a complete inventory of his/her possessions was taken. One of the music historians at the university is using these inventories to learn what sorts of instruments people owned during that period. So the professor contacted the music librarian who has instructed my colleague to find copies of the inventories.

The small Aussie bio from 1822 that I read last month about that barrel-making sailor who circumnavigated the globe a few times, had an interesting bit where he spent some time in Jamaica in the 1780's, and he did a good recording the words of the songs the slaves were singing, and describing their instruments: You might point your colleague to this: The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner

[Ignatz]

Think about it;

"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance."

Is this not Barry? Except he's eating out a great deal more substance than George ever dreamed of.
And are we not now enduring taxation without representation when King Barry can, on a whim, exempt, invoke or demur taxes and fines duly imposed by congress?
That we don't endure soldiers quartered in our homes is invoked as how much worse it was then, but now we are asked to trust that these ambitious pygmies may quarter soldiers in our phones and computers and emails benevolently for our benefit.
I want an irrigation system full of tyrant's blood.

[Ignatz]

Long time no see, TopSecret.
You're missed.

[Publius of Idaho]

Hang the bastards now when we know where they are.

Do it for the children!

[Topsecretk9]

I gnats...Oh, I miss you guys too, best dang community here. Just my life changed dramatically and knock on wood and unbelievably I'm buried in work.

You know it's funny, my handle and what I was so involved in commenting on, I literally asked my son who was like 10? At the time...what's a good handle name and just busted out "um...topsecretk9"

[Topsecretk9]

Ignatz....not used to posting with autocorrect

[Publius of Idaho]

As I finish off the last of my Chateau Montelene cab, I think I understand the genesis of the first revolution.

The colonials spent alot of time in the ole English pubs. :)

[Topsecretk9]

Test

[Ignatz]

Always wondered about the genesis of that moniker.
Sounds like you're doing well. Good.
Hope you can stop in just a bit more often....than practically never. Just kiddin'. :)

[Ignatz]

Time to snooze.

[Topsecretk9]

Hmmm...2 posts of mine disappeared , are there some new link posting rules at JOM I don't know?

[Topsecretk9]

Anyway, all my link pointed out...when you absorb what Gate's says about Hillary and Obama Iraq surge positions being purely political....remember all the democrats on record pre 9-11 warning about the grave dangers of WMD in Iraq and how imperative it was we do something. War for democrats = political opportunity

[Dave (in MA)]

I always watch POI with the subtitles on because I can't always make out Caviezel's Eastwood-like whisper.

We got a nice bit of good news in Blue Hell tonight. The guy who held "the Brown Seat" in the MA legislature resigned to take a software job after losing the primary in the race to replace Kerry, and his special election was held today. It was won by another R in a landslide.
http://www.redmassgroup.com/diary/17600/shawn-dooley-special-election-results

https://www.facebook.com/dooley4rep

[Dave (in MA)]

TSK9, no, Typepad just sucks worse.

[daddy]

Via WUWT, a positive update on the frozen ships in Antarctica:

Akademik Shokalskiy and the Xue Long have broken free from the ice in Antarctica and are no longer in need of assistance

An excellent point is made in the comments that readers of Clarice's latest excellent Pieces will recall if they clicked on her link to Anthony Watts being called in to give a forecast about when the winds down there might shift and allow the trapped ships to start breaking free:

Tim Groves says:
January 7, 2014 at 6:06 pm
Well done, Anthony. It looks like your forecast from December 31 was spot on.

"In a couple of minutes John Coleman was back on the phone to me, he wanted my assessment of the maps. I had looked at what was happening and saw what I thought might be an opening in 7-8 days based on the forecast graphics from WeatherBell, where the winds would shift to offshore in the area where Akademik Shokalskiy was stuck."

Score one for Anthony Watts!

Also there is this delicious bit:

The Aurora Australis (the ship the 52 rescued "Scientists" are onboard) will now hustle to complete the resupply job at Casey Station that was delayed by the rescue, then hurry back to Hobart.

“The incident has delayed our season so we need to do the resupply very quickly and get the vessel back to Hobart and turn around quite quickly to the next voyage. The extra passengers will stay onboard during the resupply mission which is expected to take around five days.

From the comments again:

This means that By the time the Aurora Australis completes the resupply and departs from Casey Station, the AS (Akademik Shokalskiy) might have arrived in Australia (or is it New Zealand?) already in time for its next cruise. Our valiant tourists would have gotten back sooner if they’d just remained aboard the AS. Now that’s a measure of poetic justice.

Ha!

[Topsecretk9]

Thanks, Dave , I was wondering.good news for MA!

[Publius of Idaho]

Was tempted to engage in the Lincoln debate, but thought the water may get over my head so I enjoyed the view from the bleachers.

[bgates]

A lot of people thought that back in 2008, unfortunately.

Those people were gullible *and* knew no more about Obama than what they heard a speech or read in the paper. Gates is a guy who saw this buffoon up close for an extended period of time. And his considered opinion, as one member of the ruling class to another, was to

praise the president as a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.”

I'm with Jane on demanding a list of those decisions, and I'd also like to read about this rigor.

[daddy]

I literally asked my son who was like 10? At the time...what's a good handle name and just busted out "um...topsecretk9"

Ha!

Hi TSK9! Great to see you again. Happy New Year.

[Aarradin]

This was obvious in '08 during Obama's campaign for President.

He never cared about Afghanistan at all. He just used it as a club, politically, to beat McCain over the head with. He contrasted Afghanistan (the "good" war) with Iraq (which McCain supported) in order to win an election.

That's it.

He never actually believed in what we were doing in Afghanistan. He certainly didn't have the slightest intention of doing anything other than abandoning the war as soon as he plausibly could. He's proved that with his actions ever since.

[Publius of Idaho]

Please tell me when JEF has done anything that has been in the national secuity interest of the United States?

The Lord has told us that we shall know them by their fruits.

It is time to proclaim the obvious. The electorate of the United States has elected, for the second time, a Marxist Muslim to be Presidnet of the United States.

Elections have consequenses, deal with it!

[daddy]

Polar Vortex, Polar Vortex, Polar Vortex...

Didn't know what it was, but again back to WUWT for a decent primer, if anyone is as ignorant as I:

---a Polar Vortex is “caused when an area of low pressure sits at the rotation pole of a planet. This causes air to spiral down from higher in the atmosphere, like water going down a drain.”

--- “A polar vortex is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near one or both of a planet’s geographical poles.” “The vortex is most powerful in the hemisphere’s winter, when the temperature gradient is steepest, and diminishes or can disappear in the summer.”

---Polar Vortices also have been sighted on Venus, Mars, Jupiter , Saturn and Saturn’s Moon Titan.

So who's got the best looking Polar Vortex in the Solar System? Let's meet the contestants!

Miss Saturn South Pole:

Miss Venus South Pole (She's got 2!!!)

Miss Mars:
(I'm told she has a wonderful personality.)

Miss Jupiter:

Let's give it up for Miss Titan:

Miss Earth (South Pole)

And last but not least, Miss Saturn's North Polar Heaxagon Vortex:

I'm surprised to say that I got the hots more for Miss Saturn's South Polar Vortex than for her North Polar Vortex (who'd a thunk it?), but I'm thinking that with her twin Vortex's, maybe the ancients knew plenty when they named our fiery sister planet after the Goddess of Love.

Get your votes in tomorrow and I'll tabulate to see who has the best looking Vortex you'd love to run your Climate Warming Comet into in the whole Solar System!

[daddy]

Miss Saturn South Pole in the evening dress (Borealis) competition.

[DrJ]

daddy,

When do you post pictures of the swimsuit competition?

[narciso]

Note the first detail from Rizzo's memoir worth noting, was the meme that Bush did not approve of 'torture', shocking they would not highlight the Plame scam, or the approval of the EIT.

[Steve]

P&G Thank You, Mom - Pick Them Back Up - Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/01/p-thank-you-mom-pick-them-back-up-sochi.html

[narciso]

Wait they told us it was the video, we got it from
'abbott' kirkpatrick'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-guantanamo-detainee-implicated-in-benghazi-attack/2014/01/07/c73fdf78-77d5-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html?hpid=z4

[Miss Marple]

narciso, I like the end of that article where they say the situation is "complicated" and we "will never know what motivated everyone in the attack."

These are the people in charge of our national security.

I would advise stockpiling essential items, myself. We are in grave danger.

[narciso]

I see they sent Axelrod, to have his lips move, to NBC, I figure he will got the opposite of Clarke and O'Neil's fawning treatment,

[How's that track star?]

Pooooooch!

[Tangled up in polar vortices]

Where's George the Norge?

[narciso]

Funny, how that Library of Congress, pointed out bin Qumu, of course. they only go by his Facebook and other writings, and his Wikileaks dossier, we see some of the 'squirrel' brigade on this front.

[narciso]

Of course, what was I thinking, Susskind, O'Neil's ghostwriter, and Clarke, were 'speaking truth to power' or some such.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Polar Vortices-- I did check on my recollection, and it is a weather term from way back. But as ususal Henry was correct, "Polar Vortex" is being used this week by the CAGW fraudsters and their media teammates for 'Climate Change' nonsense. The Left, everything they do is a lie, everything. Climate Change, ObummerCare, Afghan, Benghazi video, EVERYTHING is a lie. And you know what-- the don't care; they lie to maintain their power and position. That's all they are about. They are fascists.

[narciso]

Cilizza is even among the Journolist a fairly dim bulb,

[narciso]

Clearly it was the tens of thousands of model T's that cause the last polar vortex of 1921,

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Bob Gates. I will read his book with interest. The comments last night covered just about everything, and I still come down on the sympathetic side for Gates and the spot he found himself in. But why would he delude himself that Obummer and HildaBeast were anything but craven liars? Quick story. 20 years ago I was on a bar assoc committee that was reporting on US-Russian joint nuke recovery work-- accounting for the Soviet stuff after the dissolution of the USSR. In one meeting I privately spoke with a USAF Brig Gen., and I said to him his former Red Army counterparts HAD TO KNOW they were working for the 'bad guys' and that NATO were the 'good guys' during the Cold War? He said NOPE! The Soviet senior military to a man believed they were defending Mother Russia against NATO aggression. I said surelty they must have looked at the doctrines and seen that USSR was aggressor tank spearheads and NATO was reactive defense. he said doesn't matter, no professional military man (sane man) can stay in his position if he belives he is working for an aggressor.I think Gates was affected by that sort of outlook-- he believed in America and the Mission and that Obummer could be convinced to do the right thing in the end. Gates was badly mistaken.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Henry, Hit, MelR-- glad to hear you all had a nice dinner/ale and good time was had by all. Terrific people here, wish I could meet more of you. Yes, including you TK.