Thursday, October 29, 2009

I was going to say 'well done' to Obama for meeting the returning dead,

until I read this:
Meanwhile, he managed to slip off to Dover AFB between 12:30 and 4 AM last nightto greet returning caskets of 18 servicemen recently killed in Afghanistan. Despite the late hour, the event was anything but discreet. Turns out they managed to get a family of one, Army Sargent Dale R. Griffin, to agree to allow press coverage of the 15 minute ceremony, securing an inspiring photo op for the event.
Damn the bastard. He can screw around for months trying to decide whether or not to take Gen. McChrystal's call for more troops("Because I care about them"), and then he does this. For a God-cursed photo op, to show how much he 'respects' the troops. If he actually had any respect for them, he'd do the same thing I've heard Bush often did: meet the incoming with no media and keep it quiet. I'm still mad as hell at Bush for a number of things, but this damn sure ain't one of them.

2 comments:

AMCIT said...

I'm NOT, by any definition, an Obama supporter.

The decision to allow families to decide whether or not to allow photographers was made a couple of months ago. Nothing I've seen indicates any persuasion on the part of any family to make that determination; if you can find a citation, please post it and I'll stand corrected.

To turn this into an anti-Obama moment shows real nit-picking.

I'm on the fence about additional troops (and I'm a retired veteran who still supports the military in my post-retirement job); whether a military "knock 'em into submission" or a Greg Mortenson "kill em with kindness" solution is right remains to be seen.

For the boss not to take a requested all from a subordinate is not kosher, but for the boss to work through the chain of command for tasking and strategy is exactly right.

Firehand said...

Didn't say there was any pressure on the family that agreed; my problem is Obama bringing photographers with him in the first place. If that's nit-picking, so be it.