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ORIGINAL: BamaD

The difference between the parties is not so much their conduct of war but their preparation.  When we are not at war Dems want to cut the military to the bone and the repubs want to maintain defense spending.  So when we go to war after peacetime with repubs in charge we are ready if dems have been in charge we aren't.    WWI Dems  we were using leftover French Equipment, WWII totally unprepared.Korea ditto.  The only time war has followed extensive repub control we were ready for first Gulf War.

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ORIGINAL: Fellow

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is making a mistake. It is "Kinetic Military Action" not a war.

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As far as O'scumbag successfully waging war, he relied on information that came from W's administration and the use of waterboarding. 

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As a Dem/Republican, how do you feel about a Dem President successfully waging war? Kinda breaks the stereotypes. Personally, I'm more then ready to move into a world that involves less invasion, occupation, and loss of US life.

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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As far as O'scumbag successfully waging war, he relied on information that came from W's administration and the use of waterboarding. 

Please supply a source for that patently false assertion

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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As far as O'scumbag successfully waging war, he relied on information that came from W's administration and the use of waterboarding. 

Please supply a source for that patently false assertion

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ORIGINAL: BamaD

The difference between the parties is not so much their conduct of war but their preparation.  When we are not at war Dems want to cut the military to the bone and the repubs want to maintain defense spending.  So when we go to war after peacetime with repubs in charge we are ready if dems have been in charge we aren't.    WWI Dems  we were using leftover French Equipment, WWII totally unprepared.Korea ditto.  The only time war has followed extensive repub control we were ready for first Gulf War.

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I don't really see how Obama took a huge risk. It would have been a back page one parragraph with no follow up, if it had failed. Like it is everytime a chopper goes down, or some soldiers get killed.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

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ORIGINAL: WantsOfTheFlesh
What was achieved in killing Osama was great and Obama should get a thumbs up for that (if not a vote!!) but surely it was down to good fortune as much as anything due to new intelligence info? Besides that he blundered in a big way over decisions an' withdrawal announcements before so I can't really see how his military strategy is really that impressive.

He took intelligence from the Bush administration and quietly and patiently worked it until he had a location for OBL. Then he made the decision to send in a SEAL team into sovereign territory in a damn near perfect operation.  Had anything gone wrong, it would have been worse for him than the Iran hostage situation was for Carter.  Not so much good fortune as much as the intelligence to use what he was given, the faith in his intelligence and military orgs, and guts.

His military strategy is to go in unannounced and do surgical ops, unlike the Bush administration, which is famous for "Mission Accomplished", "Bring it", and a steely commitment to kill OBL, later watered down to not giving a damn about him.  As well as massive commitment of resources, and poor use of intelligence.

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ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

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I don't really see how Obama took a huge risk. It would have been a back page one parragraph with no follow up, if it had failed. Like it is everytime a chopper goes down, or some soldiers get killed.

Go to google and type in "jimmy carter rescue mission" without the quotes... you'll get 209,000 hits. Oh, and political analysts frequently point to the failed mission as one of the the key nails in Carter's political coffin. And the assertion that one helicopter crash is like another? That's off point. "One executive order to take military action is like any other" would have been germane, but the result would be different successful or failed they have political legs that last a long time and affect elections (see- bay of pigs).

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Try watching the news on your TV...if you have one.  It was all over the news that the information obtained was largely from KSM who had the shit waterboarded out of him when W was in office.  I know O'scumbag is your God but I have a news flash for you, all geo-political events do transpire outside the vacuum of  this asshole's presidency.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven
As a candidate, Obama said something like "I'm not against all wars.  I'm against stupid wars."  He was clearly referring to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

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ORIGINAL: tj444

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven
As a candidate, Obama said something like "I'm not against all wars.  I'm against stupid wars."  He was clearly referring to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

Well, Iraq was most definately a stupid war. If the US wanted to get OBL and he was living in and protected by Afghanistan, then that, imo, was not a stupid war. The US simply could not sit on its hands and do nothing after 9/11. It had to defend itself. That is not to say I agree with the new rules, regs and laws that came as a result of that. Nothing that i can do about that, however.

I dont understand why the US is in Lybia however and that is stupid imo. Gadafhi has been in power for decades and it is (imo) for that country's people to determine its fate, not the US or anyone else.

I have my opinions, no one can change them. I believe that people living in each country decide their own path (which is one reason why I dont vote). If I happen to live in a country and disagree strongly with the govt or will of the people, then I vote with my feet.

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ORIGINAL: lockedaway

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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As far as O'scumbag successfully waging war, he relied on information that came from W's administration and the use of waterboarding. 

Please supply a source for that patently false assertion

Try watching the news on your TV...if you have one.  It was all over the news that the information obtained was largely from KSM who had the shit waterboarded out of him when W was in office.  I know O'scumbag is your God but I have a news flash for you, all geo-political events do transpire outside the vacuum of  this asshole's presidency.

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

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ORIGINAL: lockedaway

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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As far as O'scumbag successfully waging war, he relied on information that came from W's administration and the use of waterboarding. 

Please supply a source for that patently false assertion

Try watching the news on your TV...if you have one.  It was all over the news that the information obtained was largely from KSM who had the shit waterboarded out of him when W was in office.  I know O'scumbag is your God but I have a news flash for you, all geo-political events do transpire outside the vacuum of  this asshole's presidency.

There were a bunch of Bush admin liars telling a lie. The real fact is that no useful intelligence came from waterboarding or any other torture. All info leading to OBL was acquired from non tortured individuals.

You know who says all that? The head of the CIA:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/exclusive-private-letter-from-cia-chief-undercuts-claim-torture-was-key-to-killing-bin-laden/2011/03/03/AFLFF04G_blog.html

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Yeah...read post 26.  I have no interest in speaking to you about this.  You are a partisan liberal and if Leon Panetta told you at a dinner party, to your face, that the information came from enhanced interrogation you would say otherwise on the board the next d

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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Yeah...read post 26.  I have no interest in speaking to you about this.  You are a partisan liberal and if Leon Panetta told you at a dinner party, to your face, that the information came from enhanced interrogation you would say otherwise on the board the next d

Here is the thing, the Bush Admin are war criminals, they violated our treaties against torture. They will say and do anything to negate the fact that they are guilty of war crimes... which means they have far more reason to lie than does Leon Panetta. The Obama Admin doesn't want to give them up for their crimes, which I think was the biggest mistake of this administration.

Now you can keep on with your own twisted world view, but torture is torture, and torture isn't even effective anyways.

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CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment

Article 1

For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
This article is without prejudice to any international instrument or national legislation which does or may contain provisions of wider application.

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ORIGINAL: lockedaway
Read "The Iraq War" by John Keegan.  The Iraq war was not stupid.  Iraq had violated 17 UN directives and, at one point, fired on an American fighter jet that was patrolling the no fly zone.  Was the war absolutely necessary?  No.  But then we never declared war on Germany either and that war was worth it, don't you think?  Yes, we seem to be much freer about throwing our military into the mix than we were.  How many times did Reagan commit our military to act?  Or Ford?  The problem is that we have blurred the lines of "war" with peace keeping missions and police actions and other misnomers that cause our investment of blood and treasure without the advancement of a vital, national interest.

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"Mr Cheney said Mr Obama deserved "a lot of credit" for his decision to order a US Navy SEAL team into Pakistan based on strong but circumstantial evidence, but he claimed Bush-era interrogation methods had helped uncover bin Laden's lair by identifying his courier.