Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy

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cloudboy -> Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 6:15:01 PM)
The piece was written by Thomas Friedman -- who I don't particularly love b/c he supported the IRAQ war. (From the beginning.) Anyway, he was able to spend an hour with Obama privately to interview him about world affairs, and his article was a very good read and quite illuminating. I found myself agreeing with pretty much all of Obama's positions, and as usual he was well spoken, measured, reasonable, and highly informed. The highlight portion was this: (this portion was about the USA and what it can gleam from world affairs domestically) At the end of the day, the president mused, the biggest threat to America — the only force that can really weaken us — is us. We have so many things going for us right now as a country — from new energy resources to innovation to a growing economy — but, he said, we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we’re asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together. “Our politics are dysfunctional,” said the president, and we should heed the terrible divisions in the Middle East as a “warning to us: societies don’t work if political factions take maximalist positions. And the more diverse the country is, the less it can afford to take maximalist positions.” The rest of the article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0 Just to take a an easy swipe at Sanity and his ilk, after reading this ^^^ you can clearly see that Obama is not sleeping on the job and that he is paying close attention to foreign and domestic issues. Workers who don't take breaks, relax, and refresh themselves burn out and become incapacitated -- and this is probably 50 times more true for US Presidents. If golf keep's Obama sane, lucid, and calm -- I say "tee it up." The coolest thing about Obama is not the golfing, it's how he plays 5-5 basketball. The other coolest thing about Obama from a foreign policy standpoint is he'll never remind anyone of Sarah Palin and he probably regards John Bolton as a asshole.

subrosaDom -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 6:19:14 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy The piece was written by Thomas Friedman -- who I don't particularly love b/c he supported the IRAQ war. (From the beginning.) Anyway, he was able to spend an hour with Obama privately to interview him about world affairs, and his article was a very good read and quite illuminating. I found myself agreeing with pretty much all of Obama's positions, and as usual he was well spoken, measured, reasonable, and highly informed. The highlight portion was this: (this portion was about the USA and what it can gleam from world affairs domestically) At the end of the day, the president mused, the biggest threat to America — the only force that can really weaken us — is us. We have so many things going for us right now as a country — from new energy resources to innovation to a growing economy — but, he said, we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we’re asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together. “Our politics are dysfunctional,” said the president, and we should heed the terrible divisions in the Middle East as a “warning to us: societies don’t work if political factions take maximalist positions. And the more diverse the country is, the less it can afford to take maximalist positions.” The rest of the article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0 Just to take a an easy swipe at Sanity and his ilk, after reading this ^^^ you can clearly see that Obama is not sleeping on the job and that he is paying close attention to foreign and domestic issues. Workers who don't take breaks, relax, and refresh themselves burn out and become incapacitated -- and this is probably 50 times more true for US Presidents. If golf keep's Obama sane, lucid, and calm -- I say "tee it up." The coolest thing about Obama is not the golfing, it's how he plays 5-5 basketball. The other coolest thing about Obama from a foreign policy standpoint is he'll never remind anyone of Sarah Palin and he probably regards John Bolton as a asshole. Having Tom Friedman interview Obama is like having Selena Gomez interview Justin Bieber (before they broke up, of course).

cloudboy -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 6:54:42 PM)
You've got "0" to say on the substance? So who are your foreign policy wonks? Sorry, but this was a good read because it helped unite and bring into focus so many issues that are going on and what Obama thinks about them. I rated the article GRADE A for it's depth and insight at getting Obama to explain himself. Who else would you have preferred? Brian Williams? Tom Brokaw. Walter Conkite is dead, but you'd probably have hated him too.

Gauge -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:02:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: subrosaDom Having Tom Friedman interview Obama is like having Selena Gomez interview Justin Bieber (before they broke up, of course). Please understand me, this is not a personal attack of you subroasDom. What is it with people like you (not just you) that cannot respond to a point? Instead, throw out the entire thing because of who wrote the article? Does that change what the President said? Does it? Could it mean that he got some softball questions, certainly, but to outright dismiss what the President said without the writers embellishment is just ludicrous. I guess to see exactly what the President said, you have to watch the video. I noticed in another thread when I asked for facts, and often when I ask for facts, most people seem to vaporize because all they have is their bluster without substance. There are only a few people here who have responded to me with cold, hard, unbiased facts, those people have my full respect even if I may not agree with them. The ones that have got nothing but waving their hands around shouting at anyone who will listen and when asked to back things up, still wave their hands and shout the same things as if that makes them factual, those people baffle me. This is what is terribly wrong with political discussions. Let's deal with unbiased factual information and then, maybe, we can get somewhere. The biggest problem with my request for facts is that it is damned difficult to find unbiased facts from neutral sources.

subrosaDom -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:03:26 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy You've got "0" to say on the substance? So who are you foreign policy wonks? Sorry, but this was a good read because it helped unite and bring into focus so many issues that are going on and what Obama thinks about them. I rated the article GRADE A for it's depth and insight at getting Obama to explain himself. Who else would you have preferred? Brian Williams? Tom Brokaw. Walter Conkite is dead, but you'd probably have hated him too. Jake Tapper. A real reporter. a liberal, but actually able to put aside his views in order to have a real story. There are others, but few and far between. Friedman is pretty much a homer.

DesideriScuri -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:20:41 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy The piece was written by Thomas Friedman -- who I don't particularly love b/c he supported the IRAQ war. (From the beginning.) Anyway, he was able to spend an hour with Obama privately to interview him about world affairs, and his article was a very good read and quite illuminating. I found myself agreeing with pretty much all of Obama's positions, and as usual he was well spoken, measured, reasonable, and highly informed. The highlight portion was this: (this portion was about the USA and what it can gleam from world affairs domestically) At the end of the day, the president mused, the biggest threat to America — the only force that can really weaken us — is us. We have so many things going for us right now as a country — from new energy resources to innovation to a growing economy — but, he said, we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we’re asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together. “Our politics are dysfunctional,” said the president, and we should heed the terrible divisions in the Middle East as a “warning to us: societies don’t work if political factions take maximalist positions. And the more diverse the country is, the less it can afford to take maximalist positions.” The rest of the article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0 Good article. However... quote: The United States is not going to be the air force of Iraqi Shiites or any other faction. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/second-strike-u-s-warplanes-drop-more-bombs-isis-forces-n175941 quote: The United States launched another round of airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq Friday, using drones and a fighter jets to attack a mortar position and vehicle convoy near Erbil, the Pentagon said. The strikes came a day after they were threatened by President Barack Obama. Apparently, we WILL be the air force for Iraqi's... quote: Just to take a an easy swipe at Sanity and his ilk, after reading this ^^^ you can clearly see that Obama is not sleeping on the job and that he is paying close attention to foreign and domestic issues. Workers who don't take breaks, relax, and refresh themselves burn out and become incapacitated -- and this is probably 50 times more true for US Presidents. If golf keep's Obama sane, lucid, and calm -- I say "tee it up." The coolest thing about Obama is not the golfing, it's how he plays 5-5 basketball. The other coolest thing about Obama from a foreign policy standpoint is he'll never remind anyone of Sarah Palin and he probably regards John Bolton as a asshole. Every President needs some sort of stress relief. Unless he's out playing while there is something going on that needs his attention (and he went out after his attention was needed, and he knew it), I don't have a problem with them doing something to reduce that stress. It's healthy.

cloudboy -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:30:45 PM)
Friedman has some expertise and experience in Foreign Policy. For instance, he's been reporting from Isreal lately. He's been writing topical articles on IRAQ, Syria, and the Isrealis-Hamas conflict throughout the year. So, in some ways, Friendman is actually a good person to interview the President on these issues. On the other hand, if you want to call him a homer (an accusation you've leveled without any support) I would say he was also a "homer" with GWB regarding the IRAQ war. (And there he was tangibly wrong, seriously damaging his credibility with me.) Let's look at the actual questions: (1) I began by asking whether if former Secretary of State Dean Acheson was “present at the creation” of the post-World War II order, as he once wrote, did Obama feel present at the “disintegration?” (2) But wouldn’t things be better had we armed the secular Syrian rebels early or kept U.S. troops in Iraq? (3) Is Iran being helpful? (4) So, I asked, explain your decision to use military force to protect the refugees from ISIL (which is also known as ISIS) and Kurdistan, which is an island of real decency in Iraq? (5) I asked the president whether he was worried about Israel. (6) Asked whether he should be more vigorous in pressing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, to reach a land-for-peace deal, the president said, it has to start with them.

DomKen -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:32:02 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: subrosaDom quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy You've got "0" to say on the substance? So who are you foreign policy wonks? Sorry, but this was a good read because it helped unite and bring into focus so many issues that are going on and what Obama thinks about them. I rated the article GRADE A for it's depth and insight at getting Obama to explain himself. Who else would you have preferred? Brian Williams? Tom Brokaw. Walter Conkite is dead, but you'd probably have hated him too. Jake Tapper. A real reporter. a liberal, but actually able to put aside his views in order to have a real story. There are others, but few and far between. Friedman is pretty much a homer. Tapper isn't a liberal. You won't find anything where he declares any political leaning of any kind.

DomKen -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:35:53 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri Every President needs some sort of stress relief. Unless he's out playing while there is something going on that needs his attention (and he went out after his attention was needed, and he knew it), I don't have a problem with them doing something to reduce that stress. It's healthy. It's always a bogus criticism. The President can run the affairs of state from where ever he is. They make sure of that. If things get real heavy then he gets on AF1 and flies back to D.C. If a man under that much stress plays some golf or cuts some brush or rides a horse or goes out on his boat or gets a blow job from an intern it really is none of our concern as long as he keeps doing the people's business well.

cloudboy -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/9/2014 7:51:41 PM)
I found the article informative. Did you agree or disagree with anything Obama said? I pose the same question to everyone else.

MrRodgers -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 12:20:50 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: subrosaDom quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy You've got "0" to say on the substance? So who are you foreign policy wonks? Sorry, but this was a good read because it helped unite and bring into focus so many issues that are going on and what Obama thinks about them. I rated the article GRADE A for it's depth and insight at getting Obama to explain himself. Who else would you have preferred? Brian Williams? Tom Brokaw. Walter Conkite is dead, but you'd probably have hated him too. Jake Tapper. A real reporter. a liberal, but actually able to put aside his views in order to have a real story. There are others, but few and far between. Friedman is pretty much a homer. The point is you and far too many do nothing but attack the messenger and don't argue the point. After a while, posters get the impression it's because...you can't.

MrRodgers -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 12:34:19 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DomKen quote: ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri Every President needs some sort of stress relief. Unless he's out playing while there is something going on that needs his attention (and he went out after his attention was needed, and he knew it), I don't have a problem with them doing something to reduce that stress. It's healthy. It's always a bogus criticism. The President can run the affairs of state from where ever he is. They make sure of that. If things get real heavy then he gets on AF1 and flies back to D.C. If a man under that much stress plays some golf or cuts some brush or rides a horse or goes out on his boat or gets a blow job from an intern it really is none of our concern as long as he keeps doing the people's business well. Like I've said before, JFK had pot parties and fucked M. Monroe and had 3somes at the white house...Reagan slept and relied on Nancy's Zodiac shit but nobody even reported that shit at the time. Now days it's nothing but gotcha reporting. Shit, Nixon had suitcases with $250,000 cash going in and out of the fucking white house to finance his own private police force called 'The Plumbers' before the tapes fucked him. Hell, if any candidate for pres. of France WASN'T a real player...he'd never be elected.

DesideriScuri -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 2:47:45 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DomKen quote: ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri Every President needs some sort of stress relief. Unless he's out playing while there is something going on that needs his attention (and he went out after his attention was needed, and he knew it), I don't have a problem with them doing something to reduce that stress. It's healthy. It's always a bogus criticism. The President can run the affairs of state from where ever he is. They make sure of that. If things get real heavy then he gets on AF1 and flies back to D.C. If a man under that much stress plays some golf or cuts some brush or rides a horse or goes out on his boat or gets a blow job from an intern it really is none of our concern as long as he keeps doing the people's business well. That's pretty much what I said, Ken. I do have to add to your listing, that they can't lie about those things under oath, though.

cloudboy -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 7:39:15 AM)
I thought it was interesting how Obama viewed Israel. He doesn't see the survival of Israel as an issue -- rather the issue is how it survives. (How it deals with its conflicts and issues.) Two, he all but said Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a peace settlement; he doesn't want one and his approval rating is sky high. His view of the world is full of subtleties; no wonder conservatives don't appreciate him. There's no axis of evil, evil doers, or you're either with "us" or "the terrorists." The problems of IRAQ, Syria, Israel, and the Ukraine are problems of those countries. The US will help only if "helping" or "intervention" will lead to a better outcome. The US will not "cowboy up" to give everyone short-term gratification that it's "doing something." He really want's to know what the end game is and who the players will be.

DaddySatyr -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 8:01:04 AM)
There's a *policy* ? I thought the Socialist Muslim prick was just making up shit as he went along ... God damn America and all of that. Screen captures *still* RULE! Ya feel me?

Musicmystery -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 8:04:28 AM)
Of course there's a foreign policy. It's mainly Bush's. Yet Bush Lite is a Socialist Muslim prick. Naw, no perception problem on your end. [8\|]

DaddySatyr -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 8:23:21 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Musicmystery Of course there's a foreign policy. It's mainly Bush's. Yet Bush Lite is a Socialist Muslim prick. Naw, no perception problem on your end. [8\|] You're presupposing that I approved of Bush's foreign policy so while I *may* have a perception problem, you appear to have a clairvoyance problem. Screen captures *still* RULE! Ya feel me?

Musicmystery -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 9:08:42 AM)
Not at all -- you're making assumptions. Bush is an idiot. The question is, you with the comprehension problem if that's how our posts have to go, is why then isn't Bush a Socialist Muslim prick?

Sanity -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 9:35:18 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Musicmystery Of course there's a foreign policy. It's mainly Bush's. Yet Bush Lite is a Socialist Muslim prick. Naw, no perception problem on your end. [8\|] There is an insanity problem on your end. Unlike Barack Hussein, President Bush would never have ignored ISIS just like the leftists in the press do And he would never have aided and abetted the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, as Barack did George W. Bush wouldn't have ignored an ambassadors urgent pleas for help, nor would he have lied to us about the aftermath of ignoring said ambassadors pleas, nor would have President Bush used the "justice" department to send weapons to Mexican narco-terrorists as a way to foment anti-gun anger among the useful morons Etc You are just comparing Barack to Bush, calling him "Bush Lite" as a way to try to make Baracks foreign policy seem rational [image]http://www.politifake.org/image/political/1302/obamas-failed-foreign-policy-battaile-politics-1362104919.jpg[/image]

Musicmystery -> RE: Really Good Portait of Obama's Foreign Policy (8/10/2014 9:38:36 AM)
Unlike Bush, Obama wouldn't have destabilized Iraq in the first place based on pie-in-the-sky fantasies, as Bush the First warned. He probably wouldn't have armed Osama bin Laden, like Reagan did either, or committed treason in an Iran/Contra scandal. If we're going to get into bullshit about insanity. And "Bush Lite" is not to make Obama's policy seem rational. It's to point out that it's as stupid as Bush's--you know, back when you liked it. And that's your insanity problem. In one of his saner moments, McCain told the truth--now that Bush got us in, we will be in Iraq and Afghanistan for decades. And paying for it, in cash, lives, and regional consequences. No matter who is president, despite what candidates may say.

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