Barack Obama is getting upstaged by individuals actually displaying leadership on the war in Afghanistan and he doesn’t like it.

More content with remaining ambiguous and weak on the issue of fighting the “good war” he promised to win, Obama has had Defense Secretary Robert Gates tell military and civilian leaders that they should keep their “advice” on the war quiet, only telling the president in private meetings.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates cautioned military and civilian leaders Monday against publicly airing their advice to President Obama on Afghanistan, just days after the top U.S. general in that country criticized proposals being advocated by some in the White House.

“In this process, it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations — civilians and military alike — provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately,” Gates said in a speech at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.

Suddenly liberals are all about keeping criticism of war by military and civilian leaders “private”. Where was this sentiment over the past 8 years of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq under the Bush Administration? Heck, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) publicly claimed that we’d lost the war in Iraq. Then-senator Barack Obama was never quiet about his criticism of Bush’s handling of either war.

The Army’s top general immediately echoed Gates’s remarks, which seemed designed to rein in dissent within the ranks.

The remarks by Gates and Gen. George W. Casey Jr. came four days after Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan, said publicly that a proposal to scale back significantly the U.S. military presence in the country would be “shortsighted.” Since then, the administration has sought to tamp down the appearance of any divisions over strategy between McChrystal, Obama’s handpicked commander, and the White House.

Basically Barack Obama is looking weak and indecisive on the issue of troop deployment, as it’s a politically inconvenient decision to make either way. So rather than grow a backbone and take a stance, Obama wants everyone to think his ranks are honkey-dorey and without dissent from his strategy. He wants military and civilian leaders concerned with the current strategy to just shut up.

Welcome to the era of Hope’NChange.

Late Monday, when asked at a roundtable discussion whether he is trying to muzzle McChrystal, Gates said: “Absolutely not.” He added that he has full confidence in the general, saying, “I can’t improve on General McChrystal’s assessment — that the situation is serious and deteriorating.”

But, during the event at George Washington University, the defense secretary said he does not want McChrystal testifying before Congress — as some lawmakers have requested — until the president had decided on a policy.

“It would put General McChrystal in an impossible situation,” Gates said.

How exactly? Congress isn’t interested in the official line from the Obama Administration on how to fight the war. It wants a blunt assessment from General McChrystal, the military leader put in charge of fighting said war.

Congress consists of elected representatives of the American people and we have a right to know what the military professionals believe is the best way forward in the war on terror. The commander of forces in Afghanistan shouldn’t express an opinion on the situation to the Congress of the United States until a man with no military experience has finished taking his sweet time in making a decision?

McChrystal shouldn’t be muzzled, yet that’s exactly what the White House is attempting to do. As I stated above, Obama is lookig weak and indecisive, and the general’s blunt analysis has called attention to that fact. So rather than taking a stance, The One wants General McChrystal to shut up.

I understand Obama’s commander-in-chief, but Congress is responsible for funding and permitting the continuation of the war. Americans want to know what military leaders think needs to be done to prevail in our fight against the Taliban — not whatever David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs end up piecing together to protect Obama’s political interests.