Where the hell is Obama?
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  Where the hell is Obama?
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Author Topic: Where the hell is Obama?  (Read 1493 times)
Reaganfan
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« on: June 22, 2009, 09:15:29 PM »

We have an Iranian uprising, North Korea arming for a potential missile launch on the U.S....and Obama is nowhere to be seen.
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Saxwsylvania
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« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2009, 09:16:39 PM »

Out for a smoke break.
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Lief 🗽
Lief
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« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2009, 02:17:18 AM »



In there.
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Franzl
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« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2009, 03:02:01 AM »

We have an Iranian uprising, North Korea arming for a potential missile launch on the U.S....and Obama is nowhere to be seen.

Not every president is quite as stupid as Dubya.
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Platypus
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« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2009, 04:14:04 AM »

OK, Naso; what should Obama be doing in Iran? Arming the protesters? Denouncing the regime?

The revolution is lead by people who are just as anti-American as the government. The US doesn't have friends in Iran, and if Obama explicitly backed the protesters the automatic response from the government would be that this was an american intervention and any chance of a popular movement taking hold would be lost. Obama is doing exactly as he needs to on the issue.

North Korea is looking for attention and aid, and thinks it can force America's hand by being a nuclear bully (which is quite frankly hilarious). The most effective way in limiting North Korea's craziness has been the Six party talks, with both the Koreas, China, Russia, the US and Japan. Bush backed it and so does Obama, because it works - and a military invasion would not. Again, Obama is acting appropriately by using an effective diplomatic channel rather than the military, while also strengthening US defences in Hawai'i and Guam, which are both outside the realistic reach of North Korea's missiles anyway.

Obama has been disappointing in some areas for both sides of the political fence, but one area where his administration has excelled is in foreign relations. Much of the credit for that lies with Hillary Clinton, much with Obama himself, and a large chunk with his advisors. He is handled the almost impossible situation of Iran in the best way possible when everything is new and changes instantly, and he is using known effective measures with North Korea that will have the desired effect - and if they don't, he's making sure the US's already perfectly sufficient defences are even more robust. In neither situation should he be a figurehead speechmaker, he should be at most a behind the scenes co-ordinator - and that's what he's doing.

To answer the question in one esentence - Obama is in the Oval Office, doing his job of the President of the United States of America with remarkable foreign policy nous for a newcomer.
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Lunar
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« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2009, 06:29:06 AM »

We have an Iranian uprising, North Korea arming for a potential missile launch on the U.S....and Obama is nowhere to be seen.

Madison Square Garden?

Where the hell do you expect him to be and what do you want him to be saying? 

Remember too that a lot of Obama's most trusted foreign policy advisors are not liberals at all.
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Scam of God
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« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2009, 08:00:54 AM »

Golly gee willickers, that's exactly what we need, bah Gawd, more interventionist cowboy diplomacy?

I thought this particular brand of megalomaniacal stupidity went away after King George left. I hoped in vain.
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Zarn
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« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2009, 08:49:02 AM »

The revolution is lead by people who are just as anti-American as the government.

Wrong! Try again.

They are only asking for help from Western countries over the internet and risking their lives doing so. Many supported Mousavi, because one of his platforms was improved relations with the West.
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Keystone Phil
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« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2009, 10:22:56 AM »

"Hiking" with the Governor of South Carolina.
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big bad fab
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« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2009, 10:29:01 AM »

Principles are easier in opposition.
So-called Realpolitik is forced in power.

There's just one problem in this case: international situation is hard and difficult, granted, Obama isn't "lucky", granted,
but he led a campaign letting believe he can appease everything and everyone and he was The One.

That's this difference between promise and reality which is hard to swallow.
Not the fact that Obama can't do many things towards Iran protesters, inside Pakistan and against a Kim Jong-Il whom Clinton made believe he could what he wants in his mad behaviour.
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JSojourner
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« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2009, 12:17:39 PM »

We have an Iranian uprising, North Korea arming for a potential missile launch on the U.S....and Obama is nowhere to be seen.

Mike, he is sitting on the porch of the White House...drinking Malt Liquor...listening to tapes of Reverend Wright's sermons and doing the black-pride fist bump with Michelle Obama.

Now seriously, if you think he is MIA on any of this...you haven't been paying attention.  He's been following the advice of Republican Senator Richard Lugar. Commentators George Will and Joe Scarborough (no fans of Obama overall) have either praised his handling of the crisis or have told his Republican critics to stuff it. Henry Kissinger has praised the way Obama is dealing with Iran. John McClaughlin, a former Bush CIA official, recently told the Heritage Foundation we need a LESS confrontational approach to Iran and said a military option should be completely off the table. 

As to North Korea, the administration has been treading very carefully...just as previous administrations have...recognizing that the North Korean dictator (and the Venezuelan dictator, for that matter) are attention whores who get annoyed when other world leaders and countries take the focus off of them.  More, Obama realizes any action we take will have an immediate and possibly devastation impact on South Korea and Japan.
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YRABNNRM
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« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2009, 12:29:10 PM »

Hey Mike . . . ya got a few minutes?
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Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.
jmfcst
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« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2009, 12:44:22 PM »

He's been following the advice of Republican Senator Richard Lugar. Commentators George Will and Joe Scarborough (no fans of Obama overall) have either praised his handling of the crisis or have told his Republican critics to stuff it. Henry Kissinger has praised the way Obama is dealing with Iran. John McClaughlin, a former Bush CIA official, recently told the Heritage Foundation we need a LESS confrontational approach to Iran and said a military option should be completely off the table.

Nah, those dudes are fools!  None of them are devout believers in anything, else they would understand the nature of the thing they're dealing with: Unless stopped (either from external forces or internal forces), the current Iranian leadership will attempt to destroy Israel in the coming years.  But it doesn't have to happen.  We have the power to stop to it.  Only the will is lacking.
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opebo
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« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2009, 12:54:09 PM »

...the current Iranian leadership will attempt to destroy Israel in the coming years.  But it doesn't have to happen.  We have the power to stop to it.  Only the will is lacking.

You bet it is.  If Isreal wants to avoid being destroyed, good luck to them.  But I haven't the slightest interest in it.
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Keystone Phil
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« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2009, 01:40:45 PM »

Hey Mike . . . ya got a few minutes?

More gloom and doom...
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bgwah
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« Reply #15 on: June 23, 2009, 01:52:40 PM »

"Hiking" with the Governor of South Carolina.

That's who he's having an affair with? Oh my!
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Platypus
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« Reply #16 on: June 23, 2009, 02:34:09 PM »

The revolution is lead by people who are just as anti-American as the government.

Wrong! Try again.

They are only asking for help from Western countries over the internet and risking their lives doing so. Many supported Mousavi, because one of his platforms was improved relations with the West.

If you believe that Mousavi is pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the young urban elite that are using the internet are pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the majority of the Mousavi supporters are pro-American, you're blind.

Anti-Americanism in Iran runs through every sector of society, and goes deep. Yes, there are some people (less than the western media seems to be amazed by, but still certainly some) who are using technology to spread news from within Iran to the world and to share information internally, but these people are still, broadly, supportive of the Islamic revolution and islamic clerics - and strongly dislike American global power projection.
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phk
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« Reply #17 on: June 23, 2009, 02:45:35 PM »

Praying to Mecca.
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StatesRights
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« Reply #18 on: June 24, 2009, 12:22:03 AM »

The revolution is lead by people who are just as anti-American as the government.

Wrong! Try again.

They are only asking for help from Western countries over the internet and risking their lives doing so. Many supported Mousavi, because one of his platforms was improved relations with the West.

If you believe that Mousavi is pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the young urban elite that are using the internet are pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the majority of the Mousavi supporters are pro-American, you're blind.

Anti-Americanism in Iran runs through every sector of society, and goes deep. Yes, there are some people (less than the western media seems to be amazed by, but still certainly some) who are using technology to spread news from within Iran to the world and to share information internally, but these people are still, broadly, supportive of the Islamic revolution and islamic clerics - and strongly dislike American global power projection.

Then why were the protest signs written in English?
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Eraserhead
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« Reply #19 on: June 24, 2009, 12:14:59 PM »

...the current Iranian leadership will attempt to destroy Israel in the coming years.  But it doesn't have to happen.  We have the power to stop to it.  Only the will is lacking.

You bet it is.  If Isreal wants to avoid being destroyed, good luck to them.  But I haven't the slightest interest in it.

lolz
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Хahar 🤔
Xahar
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« Reply #20 on: June 24, 2009, 04:02:08 PM »

The revolution is lead by people who are just as anti-American as the government.

Wrong! Try again.

They are only asking for help from Western countries over the internet and risking their lives doing so. Many supported Mousavi, because one of his platforms was improved relations with the West.

If you believe that Mousavi is pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the young urban elite that are using the internet are pro-American, you're wrong. If you believe that the majority of the Mousavi supporters are pro-American, you're blind.

Anti-Americanism in Iran runs through every sector of society, and goes deep. Yes, there are some people (less than the western media seems to be amazed by, but still certainly some) who are using technology to spread news from within Iran to the world and to share information internally, but these people are still, broadly, supportive of the Islamic revolution and islamic clerics - and strongly dislike American global power projection.

Then why were the protest signs written in English?

All of them? Or a tiny minority that the Anglophone media picked up on because people at home could read them?
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