October 5, 2009: Obama Wages PR War on Top General

Remember when General Stanley McChrystal said Joe Biden's Afghanistan strategy was dumber than a box of hammers? Apparently, President Obama wasn't happy about that:

According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bid.

Source: UK Telegraph

The US media has been quick to attack McChrystal's statements, no doubt with the help of the Obama Administration flacks:

McChrystal Faulted on Troop Assessements (Washington Post)
Security Adviser Calls Troop Increase McChrystal’s Opinion (New York Times)

And it goes on - those are just two examples.

Aside from waging a PR war against his top general, what else is Obama doing? Well, it appears that he is stalling and trying to diffuse responsibility across party lines:

President Barack Obama will confer Tuesday with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders on the Afghanistan war as he faces increasing pressure to make a decision on whether to send more U.S. troops there.

Obama's top defense and diplomacy advisers said the United States retains the Afghanistan war goal that Obama outlined just two months into his presidency — to sideline al-Qaida — but changing circumstances require a reassessment of how to get there.

In the face of rising casualties and souring public opinion, his administration is split over whether to boost U.S. forces or take an alternative path.

Source: MSNBC

What's the harm in taking the slow, "wait and see" approach? Here's what General McChrystal had to say about that:

"Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support."

Source: UK Telegraph