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back at now introduce roads all over the uprising in hostile takeover is very
difficult for the decided
this week's about what's happening with generals specifically in afghanistan
david one of the young turks bikram
always going to have you on so
are joma crystal is in charge of afghanistan our troops in afghanistan
and that the air has written a report about what's needed there he says that
forty thousand more troops are needed it clear to avoid failure in afghanistan
now that report happen to be mysteriously leaked college you will
occurs i don't know why
uh... so that's why i had gone david why do you think they might elite that
report
well you know when i first heard about it i thought there were two
possibilities
frankly i thought that uh... possibility a
was that the alabama administration and general crystal had worked out kind of a
deal
where obama said look towards the
potential for an escalation in afghanistan is
very unpopular in the public and so i need you general crystal keratin
hold this idea of escalation and and latest labor political groundwork for me
too
ultimately support it
i thought option do your alternative be worth it
general macleish to head to us
put up something that was very politically unpalatable to the
administration and by the way potentially policy-wise unpalatable
vehement reasonably it's a good idea
uh... and leaked it
in order to try to begin a pressure campaign to force the hand of his
commander in chief and i think what we've learned than last week or so is
very actually what's going on as d that after a crystal leaked this uh... this
report number he he broke his report for the president but we could to the media
before ever giving it to the president
i think it's actually been officially transmitted to the white house
eventbrite e right now
but he then went out and gave a public
speech to the media
in london
demanding evento palmolive excoriate of the war
which then this weekend bombers and national security adviser
general jim jones won on that
c_n_n_ and sort of push back instead will be better if these things
this kind of advice came through the chain of command so i think what we're
seeing now a pretty clearly
is general crystal trying to forced the hand
of his commander in chief of the begs a question of who gets to make these
decisions the military all of the civilian elected leadership the
constitution's pretty clear
but i think it's being called into question right now
saw what through clear conclusion
there that you reach that it was the latter not the former fed it was
definitely something that was done against obama's will was a change shows
comments
of
was any also bombing did that lead you to believe that know he's displeased
with how this report was leaked
i think it's i think it's a mixture after they reportedly kept it up
speech
uh... publicly
uh... and the fact is that when you put those two things together
and you way what possible benefit this could be to obama there are very few
doubt right i mean
if she knew for obama now moves forward with escalating the war iraqis goa quite
he simply rubber stamping simply was bullied by his own general
if he doesn't
uh... you know he will he will look like she will fall into the trap of what
the republicans are criticizing him on the old criticism that
you know every president uh... bastrop simply rubber stamp the military or
they're not respecting
the military so
i think if you can put into into something of a trap
and i'm not sure what uh... what the way out is i think what i think as a as a
political move i think your view notes scaling a crystal coasts
has been a brilliant politician up until now and i think that
you know the paradigm is not were not living in nineteen fifty one when harry
truman fired i general douglas macarthur
when he pulled the same shenanigans i think that's unfortunate but i think it
we have to know
why that is by looking back at our history book it's been
here in the thirty year to thirty five years since the vietnam war
story line has been burned into america's memory that the reason we lost
the war was not because there was a flaw in mission or strategy but because
politicians supposedly watched made too many decisions and didn't let the
military fight the war and that's the paradigm we're living under and that
sort of crystals banking
well you know is you believe that live singing and of course the correct answer
vietnam with burn everything to the ground
and and that we just were one of we killed more civilians
eminem
that they can john mccain book removed it could be hill ronald reagan libya in
nineteen eighty gave a speech first crystallizing this saying
that uh... the politicians are observed by politicians send young men and women
to fight and die
you know what the government refused to let them with john mccain is written a
book
saying that we would have won the vietnam war if he would have been
allowed as you said to bamaca
more targets are in and not just in vietnam but in in cambodia so voters
were thirty years into this idea
but the only way for a president to respect the military make proper
military decisions
if you do whatever they his military commanders want and i think that is
really really have to pedicle two articles one and two of the u_s_
constitution which
explicitly and purposefully fairly
that the president is the commander in chief embedded that was not an accident
that was a
a decision by the founders
to say that the civilian elective leadership shoot make these decisions
because the civilian elected leadership of the united states
can take a bow to military but also have to take into consideration
what the population walked that's where the talk or see it
yes some understanding so we do not live in a military dictatorship that we were
democracy in that we elect the guys so we want to make a six that uh... i think
that points early indisputable but as you point out
in their conventional wisdom it's the reverse no we must bowed out of the
generals now but i want to get the politics of the stated because if the
crystal did do this
is it because is a possible that it's not just because
yea he's gung-ho about winning in afghanistan the piece is the only way to
do it
or is it that they wanted to put politico bomb unep
top political spot remember
rehearsal hired
and championed by another guy named general david petraeus
who the new york times speculated over the weekend might run in twenty twelve
as a republican
you know i i i think there could be
some of that they are but
i'd just i i don't know if i can go if i know enough to go far enough to say i
think that's what's going on here that i really think it's probably going on
he's think of that when you ask a doctor
uh... i if you ask us
surgeon
when somebody comes in the hospital yes the surgeon i here's here's this patient
yes a surgeon how do we deal with this this patient the surgeon
is most doctors telia surgeon is more is more likely they will we need to be
surgery
because a surgeon israelis
specialized in surgery that their world
uh... and uh... and uh...
not a surgeon might say we need to medicaid
now i think that's a good with request so i think it's kind of a same thing if
you ask a military man
had installed our problem
there more often than not going to tend toward a military solution and this guy
i think this back to lie we
civilian leadership make trillion leadership the commander in chief
that's because
the civilian leadership is supposed to take input from all different at least
first take
input from diplomatic sources from the military
study the constitution by the way for this late literally floated in the in
the closet about
the president being the commander in chief it says the president
mate require the d opinion
of his different department the defense department the state department et
cetera but the company president of the commander in chief because the president
is just a manage all of that advice what shocking to me really disgusting
disgusting to me if the mere fact that obama is conf
fluttering all of his options
and not simply immediately rubber stamping the crystal
peco she's taking time to consider many different options the fact that the head
of the controversy tells you the kind of authoritarian streak that run through
our politics right now or side it was sororities author of the uprising in
hostile takeover he also wrote column all who are the designers and that's our
topic today you know i likely they'll mc crystal is not a guy who's into burning
everything down
as you know some of the tractors of vietnam
policy
where are we conduct without war he believes that uh... we need more troops
had to be in better with the local population
and protect the local population and
that just targeting embalming
who we think are the terrorists
is not a good idea
deliver them
this very whether that was is substantive reproach in afghanistan
now i mean i i i hear that they are not going to pretend to be a an expert i
think there's many different you can you can have ten different people what you
think should be done afghanistan unique and different answers
i think
that's why i think that it's not but i think in the crystal is motivated
necessarily by bad motives i think he has a theory
it's been informed theory
there are other people who would
say you know vice president joe biden
who's not exactly a m not an expert on these issues are after
cheering for viewers in your here's the foreign relations committee
he he has a very different opinion about this i mean i would figure
i would give the one thing that we're leaving off the table
which disturbing to me
no one's talking about what americans want
right now this bush comes out of our blood and our treasure right
and it's sort of this idea that we shouldn't think about what america wants
we should only think about you know
worker different specialists with what i'm concerned about
is that you know
the poll judas
scientific test the post
most americans strongly do not want to ask elective
and i think
speak to the right reasons i think afghanistan has been a vietnam
for every empire
that his invaded or occupied it
throughout history and so i think you know we have to proceed very carefully
in any planned to escalate this further it would happen with what twenty twenty
five
thirty years ago
that the soviet empire was almost literally brought down by an engagement
in afghanistan
uh... i think there
many good points on both sides of that's also the session i want to do i have
tennyson of but i agree with you beltway dia
discuss those points is internal white house meetings where he listens generals
his vice president and his other advisers
by fiat not of the generals and not by this kind of
hop political pressure the generals are putting on is a very disturbing way of
handling democracy one last thought on that david a lot of red phyllis is came
up with a picked a good theory i thought
that uh... obama was a really going to copenhagen though are you for the
olympics that they were doing that so they have a discreet meeting with the
crystal washing opposed pointing out that after is on the speech he was
brought in to denmark to talk to the president
giving to determine the woodshed that
uh... you know i i i think that the prospectus weekend that we pick
everybody saw on television
was made pretty clear that and i think this is good news that the white house
is taking its own provocative seriously
i mean i don't think obama is in
for various reasons that we discussed a political position
to simply fill in the crystal you know if you're fired
uh... for going out in public and violating the chain of command
but i think he did about as much as he could both with the median culp
copenhagen
and with others
jim jones going on television
and we're only saying they'd that request through is really in violation
of
of the basic chain of command so i think there's been pushed back and i think
that's a good thing
and again but bottom line here is
good professionals of all is there a bomb attack or todate had not been
intimidated and is taking
his trying to make it eight really
reopened and calculated decision which i think it should be reassuring for
everybody on both sides of the issue
there's sort all through the uprising ourselves a gore thanks so much for your
insight on first group research eg