Colonel (R) David Hackworth – November 11, 1931 – May 5, 2005

Happy Birthday Hack!

History of Veterans Day

Today we honor of all Veterans who put their lives on hold to serve their country – the sacrifices made on behalf of our freedoms are immeasurable.

Thank you for your service!

Is Obama wobbling on Afghanistan withdrawal timeline?

A slight kerfuffle erupted yesterday on the wires when McClatchy Newspapers reported that the Administration was getting wobbly on the plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan beginning in July 2011.  SFTT has monitored this issue for the past few months because of the implications a policy reversal will have on morale and quality of life for deployed troops and their families – and will continue to provide merited updates as the review continues and the outcomes become known.

What Politico does nicely here is to provide the transcript of the senior administration officials briefing to reporters this past Tuesday (11/9/10).   The official briefed the re-statement of the administrations intent to abide by the Presidents order to begin transition and withdrawal of US forces in July 2011, the mechanics (i.e. metrics, frequency of previous reports and internal policy making reports) of the review, the input of the “outputs” of the pending Bonn Conference to the process, and the timing of the release of the review.  For those interested in these details the exchange is revealing.

What is irksome is the soft-shells that have been recently launched by senior military and civilian leaders describing how 2014 is the preferred “transition date”.  The problem is that these heavyweights probably carry more influence to the outcome than an “unnamed senior administration official”, and that indeed is the issue.