Another failed test

 

 

The other day I came across VFW interviews of both John McCain and Barack Obama in which both candidates were asked the same questions. I would like to highlight a couple of them to show you that Obama is not prepared to be the Commander in Chief.

Question one.  How would you improve the quality of life for active duty troops?

McCain’s answer was that he would decrease the deployment times by increasing the size of both the Army and Marine Corps, which is something both candidates say they will do.  Of course I am not sure how either will pay for it, especially Obama who has promised another Trillion dollars of spending over his first term.  Two elements of Obama’s answer really are disturbing though.  He said he would end Stop-Loss policies and deploy forces predictably.

Ending stop loss policies for the military may be a popular thing to do, but it is not a responsible decision of a possible Commander in Chief.  For those who do not know, stop loss policies stop movements of soldiers at a pre-determined time before deployment.  It basically keeps soldiers from leaving the Army or changing units right before deployments.  This policy is key to stabilize units so they can be properly backfilled to 100% strength and ensures that the soldiers that must go to war have trained with the units they will go with in the positions they will hold.

If Obama was paying attention to the war or consulting with the generals on the ground he would know that they did in fact lift stop loss in 2004 and it created so many problems that it had to be re-instated.  Lifting this policy is a very dangerous thing to do and as Commander in Chief he must understand that you cannot always do what is popular.  You must sometimes do what is necessary to ensure mission success.

I also mentioned his statement that he would make deployments predictable.  This is a misleading statement meant to mislead those who are not in the military.  Our deployments are predictable.  When I left Iraq the first time I already knew a general timeframe when I was coming back and I already knew that I was going to be stop-lossed.   The same was true when we left the second time.

Question two.  What specific steps would you take to achieve a definable victory in the Iraq War?

John McCain answered “by putting the best possible teams of political, economic and military leadership in place, provide them with the resources they say they need, and then hold them accountable for results.”

Barack Obama answered “I will implement a phased redeployment of our combat brigades from Iraq, directed by military commanders on the ground”

So I have to assume that Obama thinks definable victory is simply leaving no matter what the state of the security or political situation is.  This is unacceptable; especially when you consider that he called for this withdrawal during our darkest hour in Iraq.  He would have left Iraq in disarray if he was in charge; a situation that would have led to a broader Mideast conflict according to his running mate Joe Biden.

Not only this, but he added later in his answer that he would leave a residual force in Iraq to conduct counter terrorism missions, protect American diplomats and civilian personnel and train Iraqi forces.  What exactly does he think we are doing over there?  Of course like any politician he is trying to give himself an out in case his ‘phased surrender’ does not work and he must keep troops in Iraq, but what it really shows is his lack of knowledge of our mission.

It is business as usual for Obama.  He will give the popular answer to get elected even at the expense of making irresponsible decisions, or losing a war.  He may put extra coke machines in the lunchroom, but that isn’t exactly what is best for the kids…