A senior official in Her Majesty's Government has openly criticized President Barack Obama for his handling of the war in Afghanistan.
Bob Ainsworth, the UK Secretary of Defence, publicly took the President to task over the delay in his decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan.
From The Daily Telegraph (UK):
Senior British Government sources have become increasingly frustrated with Mr Obama's "dithering" on Afghanistan, the Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this month, with several former British defence chiefs echoing the concerns.
But Mr Ainsworth is the first Government minister to express in public what amounts to personal criticism of the US president's leadership over the conflict which has so far cost 235 British lives.
...
Mr Obama has been considering advice from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to send more than 40,000 extra troops to the country.
Next week, after more than three months of deliberation, the president is expected to announce that he will send around 34,000 more troops.
Mr Ainsworth, speaking to MPs at the defence committe in the House of Commons, welcomed that troop 'surge' decision, but lamented the time taken to reach it.
He said that the rising British death toll, the corruption of the Afghan government and the delay in Washington all hamper efforts to retain public backing for the deployment.
"We have suffered a lot of losses," he said. "We have had a period of hiatus while McChrystal's plan and his requested uplift has been looked at in the detail to which it has been looked at over a period of some months, and we have had the Afghan elections, which have been far from perfect let us say.
"All of those things have mitigated against our ability to show progress... put that on the other side of the scales when we are suffering the kind of losses that we are."
10 Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence have since downplayed the comment, for obvious reasons. I hope he isn't getting comfortable--every indication could be that he could very well be "sacked."
A report earlier this week suggested that [UK Prime Minister Gordon] Brown is considering removing Mr Ainsworth and replacing him with Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary.
Sadly, Mr. Ainsworth is 100% correct in his criticism.
General McChrystal made his recommendation back in August for an additional 30,000-40,000 more troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Since then, there's been absolutely nothing from the White House. The President even met with McChrystal aboard Air Force One for 25 minutes back on October 2nd and, since then, there's been absolutely nothing from the President.
Yet, today, this President says that he'll "finish the job" in Afghanistan--but doesn't plan to announce the details until Tuesday, December 1st in a prime-time address.
Another week.
2009 has been the deadliest year so far for American troops in Afghanistan with 481 to date and 249 since McChrystal submitted his recommendation.
How much longer does this President require to make a decision?
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