DISMISSAL OF GENERAL McCHRISTAL

Essay in the form of a letter to President Obama.
From the Desk of Eric Lafayette, June 24th 2010
Dear President Obama

Was General McChristal dismissing a crucial error.

In short: General McChristal and his aides were making fun of some people working in Foreign Affairs for the United States, and President Obama dismissed him because of his comments.

It should have been the other way around:
Dismiss Secretary of State Clinton and her protégés and keep General McChristal and his aides.

President Obama, you said that you were a great admirer of President Abraham Lincoln but I can assure you that you are not even close to measure to his standards of Leadership.
Here is what President Lincoln said when it was reported to him ( second hand reporting) that General Grant has been spotted drunk between two campaigns:"Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals" and then "I can't spare this man he fights"
These two quotations allow me to be certain that Abraham Lincoln would never had dismissed General Mc Christal guilty of a much lesser offense that Grant reported offense.

Politics have always destroyed good teams and lost wars.

Clinton protégés such as Holbrook are as incompetent as she is and what President Obama should have done is hear the message delivered by General McChristal and his aides, "Please deliver us from the interference of so many incompetent people and fire discreetly Special Envoy Holbrook, Ambassador Eikenberry and Secretary of State Clinton."

His gigantic error in the first place was to appoint Secretary of State Clinton who has been a catastrophe on all fronts in foreign affairs including China a relatively easy task where she is implementing the wrong strategy.

I wish he had nominated former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright instead, a very brilliant extremely educated mind.

From that previous error came the appointment by Clinton of Holbrook and Eikenberry who have not even the slightest idea about the special kind of warfare needed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as being complete strangers to the mindset of Afghan tribal leaders and Pakistan's complex tribal-modern society.
These American officials cut their teeth in different mission in Europe not in the middle east. In addition they do not have a clue about how to support the men and women in uniform from private to general who are faced with a daunting task in this counter insurgency war made up of intelligence and special forces raids that require enormous risks.

Mr. President your personal adviser Mr. James Jones is no catch either. He was a fine Marine Corps commander, but that is the extent of his ability. He cannot handle any job that asks for great intelligence, innovation or profound brain power. Almost Each time he had to make a decision involving the use of his IQ and the fortitude to implement the decision, criteria a leader is judged by, he failed.

Most of the pundits are saying that in order to show that you are a strong President you had to take a stand and fire McChristal to prove your leadership.

By firing General McChristal Mr. President you showed the opposite. You showed that you are afraid to be perceived as a weak leader which evidently makes you a weak leader.
Faced with a choice between making the correct decision for the nation, which was keeping General McChristal and firing Clinton protégés Mr. President you fired General McChristal thus making the wrong decision for the nation but the safe decision for you. (In my opinion this is quite pathetic.)

Some pundits brought up a seemingly valid argument.

President Obama fired General McChristal because President Obama wanted to reassert the absolute dogma of military power being subordinate to civilian power and that is a rule I support fully.

However General McChristal was not criticizing President Obama but Secretary of State Clinton's incompetent protégés such as Holbrook. The authority of the President our elected civilian representative was not questioned thus the argument falls flat.
Let' be fair to Holbrook: He is incompetent in the Middle east but could be competent and was competent in Europe but the two theaters of operations are extremely different and it is Clinton error to have hired him specifically for a mission in the Middle east

In addition Vice President Biden was mocked but in the same funny way he has been mocked by everybody in Washington for his tendency to make exagerated comments or gaffes. McChristal aides called him Vice President Biteme. It is funny and appropriate.

More importantly Mr President, you had a Dream team:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the very experienced enormously intelligent, politically savvy man who has a little bit of a lack of combat experience because he comes from the civilian side.
General Petreaus who has all the military knowledge in the world, invented modern counter insurgency strategies and tactics, but who cannot run and climb hills under the scorching heat anymore and thus cannot be a warrior on the ground a must if you want to stimulate soldiers in combat.
General McChristal, a disciple of Petreaus, showed that he understands better than anybody modern counter insurgency. If needed he could show the bravery and physical stamina to go under intense heat day after day behind enemy lines if needed and fight hand to hand combat. Of all generals in the US army he has been by far in more combat that any other.

Mr. President you broke the best military team the USA ever had.
Your team was much better that the team that won World War II

The quality of this team resides in the fact that each member complements the other and each of them is a very brilliant, very courageous man.
They are so innovative, intelligent and experienced that they could have achieved Mission impossible; win two wars at the same time.
(Winning in the sense of extirpating the US military sent there by a President Bush Junior AKA the uber fool and leaving these countries with a moderate degree of stability

Criticizing without bringing a solution is easy, but I always bring a solution.
Here is your new dream team:

Secretary of State: (FOREIGN AFFAIRS) Robert Gates.
Secretary of War after he resigns from the Army: General Petreaus

Cent com (Central Commander) or general in charge of the region and the two wars: General Petreaus' choice.

Bring back in Afghanistan McChristal or one of his aides or disciples. (Odierno is not a good idea.)

You are continuing to fail the intelligent people in our country by accepting the political yoke the dirty politicians are imposing on us.

You were supposed to remove the yoke the dirty politicians are imposing on us, but unfortunately you are helping these unintelligent politicians fasten the yoke of servitude upon the Americans who have integrity and common sense.
More importantly on military matters you listened and bowed to the Washington Bureaucrats: Vice President Bidden, Secretary of State Clinton, Retired general James Johnes instead of listening to your extremely brilliant Secretary of defense Robert Gates who was opposed to the firing of General McChristal.

In addition, if for some reason General Petreaus becomes impaired or unavailable you have nobody who is able to lead the Afghan war. The day you chose Clinton and James Jones you built yourself a team of incompetent advisors.

After making these bad choices you are compounding them by listening to these people which is leading you to pile up one error on top of the other.

Best Regards

Eric Lafayette ericlafayette@ericlafayette.com
More about US History and politic.


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iReport: List of missing, found | Are you there?

"I have not eaten for two days," 32-year-old Anderson Bellegarde said Thursday. "I'm only drinking water."

Bellegarde had waited more than six hours outside a money-wiring branch. Businesses such as Western Union are starting to reopen and are attracting the longest and most visible lines in Haiti's capital, as quake survivors scramble for cash.

Sidewalks were crowded with street vendors and kiosks, and many small food stores were open. Dozens of stalls sold fruits and vegetables at a dusty market along a pocked and rut-filled dirt side street.

More than 300 aid distribution sites are up and running, a senior U.S. administration official said. More than 700,000 meals and 1.4 million bottles of water have been delivered, along with 22,000 pounds of medical supplies, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Fraser of the U.S. Southern Command.

About 120 to 140 flights a day are coming into the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport, compared with 25 a day just after the quake struck last week. More than 840 have landed since the airport was reopened, but there is a waiting list of 1,400 to come in, Fraser said.

To improve air traffic, the U.S. military said Wednesday it had obtained landing rights at the Dominican Republic's air base at San Isidro, about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east of Port-au-Prince.

Impact Your World

International aid contributions since the quake have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars. U.S. spending for relief in Haiti has hit $170 million, the federal government announced Thursday.

About 13,100 U.S. troops are in and around Haiti -- nearly 2,700 on the ground and 10,400 more offshore. Many Marines spend time in Haiti during the day but sleep on ships at night. More U.S. troops are to arrive by this weekend, bringing the total to about 4,600 troops on the ground.


YOUR NUMBER IS UP Mr. PRESIDENT
by Eric Lafayette published by www.fordemocracy.com August 14th 2009

All the planets are aligning; the perfect storm is building.

We are in August 2008 barely more than 6 months after President Obama took office and the elements to have President Obama killed are being put in place by the leaders of the Republican Party.
The Moral Leaders of the Republican Party are Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch of the Fox News network aided by his henchmen Bill O' Reilly and Glen Beck. They are the moral leaders because the elected Republican leaders defer to them on moral issues
The elected Republican leaders including Vice President Cheney, Chairman Steel, Eric Cantor, Sarah Palin and others have praised Limbaugh and supported Rupert Murdoch's Fox News.

Here are the elements:

FIRST: The Birther theory is truly another way to express racism. The supporters of the Birther theory are simply put racists.
The Birther Theory which claims that President Obama was not born in the United States is false as his birth certificate on file in Honolulu proves it.
One of The most prominent birthers is Lou Dobbs of CNN . It is very easy to debunk his racist stance because on the other important debate on racism he was the first one who rejected during the Bush administration a set of immigration laws legalizing illegal immigrants. In reality he was rejecting people of colors: the Latinos. He was rejecting the Latino with such force that by himself he launched the racist anti immigration movement that defeated the path to legalization for illegal immigrant.
Birther theory is another name for racism. It is important that Americans realize that this "Birther Theory" is an attempt to bring down the President by triggering the vilest feeling in some American namely Racism which is also the most successful tools to arouse a crowd in the world and in the USA where we still live with the history of slavery.
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The Birther theory affirms that President Obama's birthright is illegitimate, and consequently that he is guilty of the criminal act of falsifying a birth certificate in order to become President of the USA.

The leaders of the Republican Party have succeeded in CONVINCING 58% of the members of their party that President Obama is not a legitimate US Citizen thus not a legitimate President and that his actions are criminal. In other words tens of millions of Republicans believe in the falsehood supported by their leaders that President Obama is a criminal.

Almost nobody in the USA will be upset at the death of a criminal. The removal of a criminal is always a good thing for society most people think and the Republican leaders made this feeling of right and wrong one of the elements in their quest for the criminalization of President Obama.
This Birther Theory is a stroke of nauseating genius because it sets the mindset of millions of American to wish for and welcome the murder of the President of the USA.

SECOND, the organized violence in town hall meetings now being held by leaders of the Democratic Party
The violence organized by Republican Leaders disrupts peaceful town hall meetings. The violence began to be organized around the theme of "Birther" with Republicans participating in the meeting screaming, "I am American, I have a birth certificate to prove it. Obama is not American!"
The birther theory, a hidden identity for racism would not be efficient enough without organized verbal violence by the Republican leaders .
This seal of approval by the Republican leaders on organized violence around the country when Democrats hold town hall meetings shows that this necessary step towards physical violence is supported by them.
Everybody knows that before two people come to blows which is physical violence they start with yelling and screaming at each other. This is a necessary step which can in some cases will lead one of them to get a gun and kill the other.
Now that the Republican leaders ( thanks to the Birther-racist propaganda in town hall meeting) have established verbal violence as a standard, now in order to keep their members engaged with them they are using this behavior of hate towards any important project of President Obama such as Health care reform.
Organized verbal violence is a necessary and efficient step towards physical violence.

THIRD: Rush Limbaugh accusing Barack Obama of being a Nazi because " President Obama uses Nazi like policies" that is a direct quote from Rush Limbaugh; a few days after he was praised by Eric Cantor the second most powerful Republican Representative in the House in the Congress. Of course other Moral Republican leaders inside the Rupert Murdoch Fox news empire have supported the same vile smear.
Vilifying President Obama by Comparing him to a Nazi shows that crossing the line of sane thinking is amply authorized and reinforces the thought that not a more decent action than to kill a Nazi Also Known As President President Obama could be taken.

Bottom line: As a first step at least 20 million Americans have been lead to believe that President Obama is an illegitimate criminal, a black usurper.
The second step toward murder is also in place, and it is to whip up violent behaviors, and the third step, the final crucial touch is to make him a Nazi so that he will be such an abhorrent figure that it will be a good deed to assassinate him.

From this deadly combination not one but more that one assassin will rise to murder Barack Obama the President of the USA.

Never forget that Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh with the approval of some of the leadership of the Republican Party repeatedly accused Doctor Tiller of being a repugnant Killer and that he was murdered by one of their sympathizers, it was not an insolated incident; Doctor Tiller the abortion doctor was attacked more that once.

WHEN WILL PRESIDENT OBAMA BE KILLED?

If the Republicans leaders do not change their stance; attempts to kill him will be numerous and it is not a matter of if but when.

Eric Lafayette
www.fordemocracy.com

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