Obama to military-"get to the back of the bus!"

I've tried to give the new president as much slack as possible, but he is not making it easy. Strike one was a few weeks ago, when the Obama administration tried to balance the VA budget on the backs of wounded warriors. Strike two comes today, as President Obama's massive entourage for his European Vacation takes away vital air cargo space for the US mission in Afghanistan. From the Washington Times-

President Obama's European visit this week has strained Air Force heavy-airlift capabilities and obliged the military to hire more foreign contractors to help resupply U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, according to military sources.

Obama is the president, and as such has legitimate obligations such as the G20 summit. He is also the top dog in my chain of command, meaning I can get into trouble for disrespecting him. But it is insulting to the military in general, and especially the men and women on the battlefield in Afghanistan that the president's massive ego is causing them to use "alternate logistical delivery methods" for the "overseas contingency operation" in Afghanistan.

The Air Mobility Command, part of the U.S. Transportation Command, was ordered to provide airlift for the president's entourage of nearly 500 people, including senior officials, staff, support personnel, news reporters and some 200 Secret Service agents for the European visit, which began Tuesday in London.

Even the frakking reporters are being ferried by the military so that they can be close to the President (and probably so that the administration can control the message easier). 200 Secret Service agents? Are the Europeans not capable of doing any security work for themselves?

The airlift crunch comes at a particularly difficult time, as the military is stepping up deliveries of supplies in advance of a surge of 21,000 U.S. troops.

The ultimate responsibility of any military leader is to give your troops every possible chance to succeed. The President, who ultimately has the responsibility for sending troops into combat, is supposed to take that responsibility with the utmost seriousness. Instead, this president sends troops into combat and now is making them wait for their war fighting supplies. SecDef Rumsfeld was attacked for saying that you go to war with the army you have. Apparently with President Obama the policy is you go to war with whatever you carried with you, the rest of your stuff will have to wait.

One official said the problem was not only the vehicles and helicopters that were needed for presidential security, but also the unusually large number of people traveling with the president. The official said U.S. taxpayers are paying twice for airlift, once for Air Force jets that are not available for a war zone and again for foreign contractor aircraft that are.

Fiscal responsibility anyone? As the White House pushes us further in debt and tells us we are unpatriotic for questioning the massive spending, President Obama can't even show day to day spending restraint. Not only do taxpayers pay twice, but at the end of the fiscal year, the extra cost for this will show up on the Air Force budget, which will become a liberal talking point about how much we spend on the military.

73 days into a four year term and President Obama has two strikes. It's going to be a long 1308 days.