Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Seymour Hersh: Military is Waging a War Against the White House

We have been wondering for sometime now, on how General McChrystal was able to give a speech asking for more troops without getting approval from the White House? How is it that McChrystal felt it ok to side-step the chain of command and highlight an issue of such national significance on a public platform without the President's blessing? Which begs the question, who exactly is in charge of the United States?
An article by Neil Offen in the Hearld Sun titled Military waging a war against the White House gives us some answers. The article cites a recent speech at Duke University, by Seymour Hersh the Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist, who had this to say:
"The U.S. military is not just fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also in a war against the White House -- and they feel they have Obama boxed in. They think he's weak and the wrong color. Yes, there's racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it's true and we all know it. A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation". Hersh goes on to contend that “He’s either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon. If he doesn’t, this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency".

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