Obama Gets Afghanistan Advice From Mothers of Fallen Soldiers

[tekisui]

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The commander-in-chief hugged a grieving mother, telling her to be proud of her fallen son, a Marine killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Lisa Xiarhos also had a message for President Barack Obama: “Be strong and get the job done,” she recalls telling him. “Don’t back down. Send more troops. Support the ones that are there and do whatever you can.”

As Obama reviews U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan, meeting with generals, Cabinet secretaries and diplomats, he has received informal advice from those most touched by the eight- year conflict: the parents who sacrificed children, the spouses who lost their mates, and the soldiers who left behind limbs.

On Oct. 8, a group of wounded veterans came to the White House for a game of wheelchair basketball, laying their prosthetics against a fence before rolling onto the concrete court. The president marveled at their mechanical dexterity and then shot three-pointers with them. Twenty-five hours later, he was in the White House Situation Room with his war council to discuss a request for additional troops by General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Obama considers his interaction with disabled veterans and families of the fallen as “sacred,” and leaves the meetings “contemplative” about his overall war strategy, said Matt Flavin, director of the White House Office of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy.

The White House doesn’t seek publicity for the private meetings, which often don’t appear on the president’s public schedule.

more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adSj7NtaigGQ

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There is something very wrong with the mindset that more need to die to ensure that one didn't die in vain.

[beachmom]

1. Everyone has a different opinion. Pres. Obama's job is to listen

to the families, and not brush off whatever they say.

[tekisui]

3. The families may know about suffering, regret and revenge.

Obama should listen and be sympathetic to their emotions, but not listen to their opinions when determining policy.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Something very wrong indeed. nt

[panader0]

4. The "dying in vain" idea has cost us many brave troops

only to realize, years later, that not only did they die in vain, but for oil or some other resource, or some loopy theory like the domino theory. Sad

[PATRICK]

5. This is exactly

the kind of input LBJ received from on location soldiers in his generation, with the same emotional reaction and I sincerely hope not the same disastrous results. LBJ had his own meager WWII record to compensate for and enormous pressure to go the military route so we may hope Obama will not let it overcome his reason. We did not go there to take and hold territory but to quash Al Qaeda. Quashed they are and generally unsupported by the locals. Even the suppression of the Taliban may not necessitate a Vietnam like occupation strategy. An opportune massive operation against the militant Taliban might be one compromise, but it cannot be a long term nation building strategy and definitely not a simple monument to honor. The British seem willing for another go at the latter and THEIR historical repetition
of this whole affair is even more worth referencing.

I think that we ourselves are torn between the horror of the chickenhawks and hypocrites creating more disastrous death and the harrowing performance of the administration in seriously considering doing the wrong thing. Kerry's presence reminds us that it is not the Kucinich approach but the pragmatist liberal approach that is in the saddle and that answer will hopefully be intelligent and little disposed toward the wasteful and stupid.

Then this supposed to be all about hope and decent people, isn't it?

[madokie]

6. The President is a good man and the seeds have been planted

We'll not be in Afghanistan nor Iraq much longer, hide and watch or take it to the bank or whatever 'cause that's what's coming down the pike here shortly.