Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Military Should Not Be a Shield for the Adminstration's Failures

In the last couple of days I have started to notice a curious new narrative coming out of the White House spin machine and subtly being presented by our news media. It is curious in a disturbing sort of way.

I noticed it first yesterday in a story published over at the Politico entitled President Obama's Evolution as Commander-In-Chief.
The most visible appearances of Obama as commander in chief are the speeches he’s given at military bases, the visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day and the image of him saluting a flag-draped coffin at Dover Air Force Base.
The crux of the article was to show how Obama learned how to render a proper military salute; while being just nuanced enough to say that he spent some time learning how to salute, it was vague enough to not give any real details on how this was accomplished. The reader was left with the impression that this was president who was deeply concerned about the sensibilities of military service members and wishing to do right by them.

Fair enough. I figured it was a one-time puff piece, but then I ran across this story in a Denver newspaper which links back to an original Washington Post article today that attempts to show a president who is seeking advice from all sources to help shape his decision making. What raised my curiosity, however, was a couple of passages that were directly targeted towards the military audience.

During one of his Afghan review meetings last year, President Barack Obama surprised senior advisers by jumping into a discussion between two military officials about a new study of post-traumatic stress disorder. No one in the room had briefed Obama on the data.

"It's not like we'd sent him the study, but he'd clearly seen it," one adviser said. "It was telling."



UPDATE: Right on cue here comes a story, once again from Politico about the First Lady making an announcement for an $8.8 Billion increase in support programs for the military. Why was the First Lady chosen to make this announcement? Veterans will certainly welcome the increase, if it goes to what it is purported to go for. With this administration that is a big IF.
Stepping up her focus on military families, first lady Michelle Obama announced Tuesday an increase in federal spending for support programs, a 3 percent hike that raises federal investment to a record $8.8 billion for the 2011 budget.

No comments: