John Amato re Petraeus - Obama watch your back

[XOKCowboy]

John over at CrooksAndLiars has a post about an interesting interview with Obama after his visit to Baghdad and with Petraeus. I loved this quote...

I remember the conversation, pretty precisely. He made the case for maximum flexibility and I said you know what if I were in your shoes I would be making the exact same argument because your job right now is to succeed in Iraq on as favorable terms as we can get. My job as a potential commander in chief is to view your counsel and your interests through the prism of our overall national security which includes what is happening in Afghanistan, which includes the costs to our image in the middle east, to the continued occupation, which includes the financial costs of our occupation, which includes what it is doing to our military. So I said look, I described in my mind at list an analogous situation where I am sure he has to deal with situations where the commanding officer in says I need more troops here now because I really think I can make progress doing x y and z. That commanding officer is doing his job in Ramadi, but Petraeus’s job is to step back and see how does it impact Iraq as a whole.

My argument was I have got to do the same thing here. And based on my strong assessment particularly having just come from Afghanistan were going to have to make a different decision. But the point is that hopefully I communicated to the press my complete respect and gratitude to him and Proder who was in the meeting for their outstanding work. Our differences don't necessarily derive from differences in sort of, or my differences with him don't derive from tactical objections to his approach. But rather from a strategic framework that is trying to take into account the challenges to our national security and the fact that we've got finite resources.

I'd forgotten about that interview. Gotta love Obama telling him that there's a new sheriff in town and the CIC will be making the final decisions from now on.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/i-look-petraeus-eventually-quit-obama-a

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Ah, yes...........

Commander in Chief means COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

Obama's gonna surprise everybody with how tough and in charge he is. After all, he's a Chicago pol. No shrinking violets in that gang.

There's a new kid in town........................

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