Ed Lasky refers to Obama as a "ditherer." A more apt description of our president's non-leadership qualities cannot be found.

He has been dithering about what to do in Afghanistan since January. The delay has only caused the situation there to worsen - to the point that the commanding general on the ground Stanley McChrystal is now begging for more troops in order to avoid disaster.

That leaked report asking for more troops has elicited more excuses, more dithering from the White House. And now we learn via Bill Roggio that McChrystal is doing something almost unheard of; he is challenging his commander in chief to fulfill his desire for more troops or he will resign.

The original article is from Nancy Youssef of McClatchy:

In Kabul, some members of McChrystal's staff said they don't understand why Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" but still hasn't given them the resources they need to turn things around quickly.

Three officers at the Pentagon and in Kabul told McClatchy that the McChrystal they know would resign before he'd stand behind a faltering policy that he thought would endanger his forces or the strategy.

"Yes, he'll be a good soldier, but he will only go so far," a senior official in Kabul said. "He'll hold his ground. He's not going to bend to political pressure."

On Thursday, Gates danced around the question of when the administration would be ready to receive McChrystal's request, which was completed in late August. "We're working through the process by which we want that submitted," he said.

Today, the military is perceiving that the administration is punting the question of a troop increase in Afghanistan, and the military is even questioning the administration's commitment to succeed in Afghanistan. The leaking of the assessment and the report that McChrystal would resign if he is not given what is needed to succeed constitute some very public pushback against the administration's waffling on Afghanistan.