The daily briefing clowns can breathe a sigh of relief now that the renegade is gone; or so they hope to convince themselves. She was quite the skit-disrupter. Maneuvering Thomas into a corner was a great work that took many years . . . a proud moment in the history of cowards and liars.
One look into the face of the honorable Helen Thomas and this much is clear: She knows the score, she never gives up and she is one of few loyal Americans left in that city-state.
From 27 May 2010 Press Conference by CEO 44 wherein Ms. Thomas' mike was acting up:
Okay. Helen Thomas.
Q Mr. President, when are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse? And don’t give us this Bushism, if we don’t go there, they’ll all come here.
OBAMA: Well, Helen, the reason we originally went to Afghanistan was because that was the base from which attacks were launched that killed 3,000 people –
Q That’s not what — (off mike).
OBAMA: And — I’m — I’m going to get to your question, I promise. But I just want to remind people we went there because the Taliban was harboring al Qaeda, which had launched an attack that killed 3,000 Americans. Al Qaeda escaped capture, and they set up in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has affiliates that not only provide them safe harbor but increasingly are willing to conduct their own terrorist operations, initially in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, but increasingly directed against Western targets, and targets of our allies as well.
So it is absolutely critical that we dismantle that network of extremists that are willing to attack us. And they are currently –
Q (Off mike) — to us?
OBAMA: Oh — well, they absolutely are a threat to us. They’re a significant threat to us. I wouldn’t be deploying young men and women into harm’s way if I didn’t think that they were an absolute threat to us.
Now, General McChrystal’s strategy, which I think is the right one, is that we are going to clear out Taliban strongholds; we are going to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan military; and we are going to get them stood up in a way that allows us then to start drawing down our troops but continuing to provide support for Afghan — in its effort to create a stable government.
It is a difficult process. At the same time, we’ve also got to work with Pakistan so that they are more effective partners in dealing with the extremists that are within their borders.
And it is a big, messy process, but we are making progress in part because the young men and women under General McChrystal’s supervision, as well as our coalition partners, are making enormous sacrifices, but also on the civilian side we’re starting to make progress in terms of building capacity that will allow us then to draw down within an effective partner.
