Gibbs: 'No Doubt' Troops Stretched Thin

ROBERT GIBBS X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that he did not know the status of a review of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy requested of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by President Barack Obama.

But Gibbs also acknowledged during a press briefing that fighting wars on two fronts and sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan has strained the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Advocate: Some people have analyzed the number of troops available to deploy and said that sending 30,000 troops is tantamount to deploying nearly every U.S. Army brigade possible. Given that about 10,000 soldiers are already in stop-loss, do you know where Defense secretary Gates is with his review of softening the discharges on "don't ask, don't tell"?

Robert Gibbs: Well, I have not heard an update from the secretary on that. I know that obviously the president wants that policy changed. In terms of — I mean, obviously it's not just Army. This is Army and Marines, as well as — well, Army and Marines. They are — this was very specifically asked in terms of whether force flow options would interrupt either Marine or Army policies that have been instituted to give longer breaks for tours of duty and then return home. The Joint Chiefs, to a commander, all told the commander in chief that they could meet the force requirement without interrupting what they had instituted in order to provide that time at home and away from the tour of duty.

The Advocate: But the troops are stretched thin. I mean, it's not —

Gibbs: No doubt. And I think that the president was very clear in wanting to see the Joint Chiefs to, quite frankly, ask them very directly whether that was the case. There's no doubt that there has been for many, many years a strain on our forces, that that strain has caused repeated tours. And only recently has Secretary Gates and others instituted policies that ensure that we had time outside of a theater of war and that they believe was necessary to maintain an all-volunteer force, which they think obviously is tremendously important, as well as just dealing with the stress physically and mentally on them.

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Reader Comments

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Name: Jonboy
Date posted: 12/4/2009 7:37:03 PM
Hometown: South Dakota

Comment:
I just wonder how dedicated this administration is to changing this policy. I suggest that instead of they making the move, they [the administration] is letting the pressure of the force being stressed to push the congress into making the change of discharging DADT. Lame method for sure, but it takes the pressure off the executive branch and places it on the pentagon and congress to make the changes. Obama will surely happily sign the new bill knowing he did not spend any political capital. I bet that is what all of this is all about. And what the hell, Gibbs has consistently been asked this question and seemingly never has an answer. What is up with that? He is the fricking 'press secretary.' This is the same man who was on a video clip after the election saying in one word "yes" that the DADT would be reversed. What has happened? Lost interest? Go figure. Another political bunch of bullshit.
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Name: Jay Jonson
Date posted: 12/4/2009 3:09:57 PM
Hometown: Santa Monica

Comment:
Obama is afraid of the generals, who are getting us into the meat grinder that is Afghanistan, despite the fact that we cannot afford the hundreds of billions of dollars that this fiasco is going to cost us. It is as though we never learn anything. The Soviet Union bankrupted itself in Afghanistan. That is how we "won" the Cold War. Now we are well along in the process of bankrupting ourselves. China and Iran are the only ones who will benefit from this folly. Iran because our troops are spread so thin that all our threats against them are just empty words as they build their nuclear weapons; and China because it will emerge as the undisputed military and economic power and will own us. Meanwhile, the military will maintain its "purity" by expelling openly gay soldiers from its ranks. I think all the gay soldiers ought to come out and defy the military.
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Name: Mark
Date posted: 12/4/2009 1:56:48 PM
Hometown: Wappingers Falls

Comment:
How can Gibbs keep his job? He doesn't ever seem to know anything. Also, who is Commander in Chief, Obama or Bush's military leaders? This is true Theatre of the Absurd, and our tax dollars are paying for it!
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Name: Joseph
Date posted: 12/4/2009 1:10:41 PM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:
There's also "no doubt" that Obama's die-hard supporters (AKA, adoring throng of fans) will still pull out the "give him some time; he hasn't been in office all that long" mantra they've used every other time the DADT question has come up. I do hope they'll remember that it took Obama roughly TWO MONTHS to reach his decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan while it's been more than 5 months since his last "major" statement on DADT and more than TEN MONTHS since he took office.
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Name: mike
Date posted: 12/4/2009 12:35:13 PM
Hometown: cincinnati

Comment:
Obama wants to keep our money and support in the fold. Too late for me! I am sorry that I voted for him. He only has his own interest at heart. Gibbs is a zero. I hope that we are learning. Frankly, I am tired of this bullshit. Gays have so much power, but we must be united. This is a civil rights issue. All of the issues that we are fighting for are civil rights. The status quo wants to keep us on the sidelines. We're ok as long as we don't have equal rights and maintain a distance in the shadows. What a bunch of hypocrites.
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Name: Nathan
Date posted: 12/4/2009 12:20:09 PM
Hometown: Lake Worth

Comment:
The troops apparently aren't stretched thin enough. If they can't bring themselves to accept help from a group as horrible as those homosexuals, then they are doing just fine, and don't need my support.

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