War Games
by digby
The press is even punking the press these days. This time it's not coming from the intelligence community, but rather the Pentagon the other hostile conservative bureaucracy.
Joe Klein:
[News of the new troop deployment to Afghanistan] comes two days after the usually reliable David Cloud of Politico reported that Obama was holding off on a troop decision. I linked to that story and feel foolish for doing so. In fact, there's been a steady stream of unreliable leaks coming out of the Pentagon--about troop levels, about the Defense budget--that seem to be emanating from a cadre that opposes the Obama Administration...
As predicted, factions within both the CIA and the Pentagon want to continue Bush policies. They also want to put the new president off balance. (They do that with Democrats.)
From the looks of things, the intelligence bureaucracy has at least partially succeeded. I would guess that if you look at the specific issues on which they've already compromised or hedged, you'll see where the spooks feel most vulnerable. (I'm guessing the extraordinary rendition is one such policy, considering the administration's startling reversal on the use of state secrets.)
The Pentagon, however, is different kettle of fish. I can't imagine that the administration is going to allow themselves to be manipulated. There can't be a person there who isn't aware of the pitfalls of such folly. But it does mean that we are going to have to question everything, including that coming from the administration, since there is obviously a battle going on behind the scenes regarding the escalation.
Klein is properly skeptical:
The President's decision send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan is troubling on several grounds:
1. We don't have a policy there yet. We don't know what the goal is--or how we're going to deal with the Pakistan part of the equation (which is where the more serious military issues lie), or the corruption of the Karzai government.
But I think he should write a story about this Pentagon faction that's trying to undermine the president, don't you?
Update: Speaking of lessons learned, this commentary by Joseph Galloway is sobering: Afghanistan has the smell of South Vietnam in 1965.
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