Posted by Tina
In 2002 when President Obama was a senator in Illinois he called the war in Iraq a “stupid” war:
“Now, let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein,” said Obama in his speech. “He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied U.N. resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.”
“… After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration’s pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again,” said Obama. “I don’t oppose all wars, … What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”
“But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military is a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history”
Obama opened his presidency by smugly assuming a mantle of superior intellect and skills. In June of 2009 he traveled to Cairo to speak to the Muslim world on behalf of the United States as our new leader. His message of peace was intended to repair past differences and animosities and build new cooperative alliances. In fact he declared his intention, as part of his responsibility as president, to focus on fighting “negative stereotypes of Islam.” He won a Pulitzer Prize for peace four months later…that’s how incredible his oratory skills were. The world swooned.
After folding to Iraq’s resistance to extended American troop presence Obama turned his back on the country and turned his gaze toward Afghanistan. He would eventually turn his back on Afghanistan as well. In 2011 Obama justified removing Qaddafi in Libya because he posed a threat to his own people and that was a threat to our interests and values:
“But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act,” said Obama. “That’s what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks. To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and, more profoundly, our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are,” he said. “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.” (emphasis mine)
In Syria Obama drew red lines in the sand and then failed to follow through…america is a “different nation” all right. We’re a nation without a strategy that cannpt be counted on to address problems effectively. The NY Times describes the debacle in searing terms:
Syria will be the biggest blot on the Obama presidency, a debacle of staggering proportions. For more than four years now, the war has festered. A country has been destroyed, four million Syrians are refugees, Islamic State has moved into the vacuum and President Bashar al-Assad still drops barrel bombs whose shrapnel and chlorine rip women and children to shreds.
The result of this failure of leadership has been disastrous for the Middle East and the nations of the world. In the void created from Obama’s peace approach ISIS arose and became a force claiming power in portions of Libya, Iraq, and Syria. Last year, perhaps after having been embarrassed by Putin and realizing his legacy and an election were at stake, Obama has stepped up his game. Suddenly, and entirely too late, he’s showing interest in fighting the
menace that plagues the world. He’s talking tough and allowing the generals to follow their instincts…or is he?
There can be no denying the tragedy and turmoil of lives destroyed and lives threatened because of Obama’s many failures. There is no denying the rise of the “JV Team, ISIS, under his watch in the void his peace policies created.
It was necessary to summarize the history and declare Obama’s wars, “stupid wars.” There is nothing more stupid than a half-a$$ed war effort. Well, maybe one thing, the way his supporters, including those in the media, have had his back over nearly eight years, providing cover, excusing his failures and attempting to blame the rise of ISIS on his predecessor. These partisans place their politics above the deaths, disfigurement, displacement of millions and above the men and women called on to represent us in our military. They put their political party above the destruction of our enemy. They continue to pretend that Obama and Hillary Clinton have no responsibility, even though Obama said we have a special responsibility due to our “values.”
Yesterday, Donald Trump said that President Obama is “the founder of ISIS” and the same media that has covered for Obama for eight long years went ballistic. How dare he!
How indeed! It’s quite easy to see how Obama created ISIS. The JV Team grew to be a force that threatens the world through his feckless leadership. Had he led from the beginning this rag tag group would have been intimidated and crushed before they got off the ground. Their weak horse position would have blunted and discouraged recruiting efforts. We won the war in Iraq. Obama tunred his back on Iraq and on fighting against the terrorists to win! Obama is responsible for damage, destruction, and continuing threat that is ISIS.
Hubris. It’s the mothers milk of campaigns. Donald Trump is no more guilty of enhancing realities than is Hillary or any other candidate. The difference is only Trump, the republican, is slammed for his hubris. As CNN’s Cuomo has admitted in the media admitted, “We couldn’t help her any more than we have, she’s got just a free ride so far from the media, we’re the biggest ones promoting her campaign, so it had better happen.”
J. Soden submitted an article this morning from Breitbart, “Dr. Sebastian Gorka: Trump Is Right, Obama and Clinton ‘Facilitated the Growth of ISIS Into the Most Powerful Jihadi Insurgency the World Has Ever Seen.'”
Dr. Sebastion is absolutely right as any American who’s witnessed this debacle can plainly see. And as J. wrote: The Donald is right again!
You really need to give it up. The Trump campaign is in sociopathic free fall. All this nutsy stuff he comes out with makes the converted very happy, but persuades no one else. He’s not gaining ground, he’s losing it, swiftly. At this point there are only two credible possibilities: he is deliberately sabotaging his campaign or he is demented.
I’m going with dementia.
There is now actual talk of the RNC cutting him off, money-wise, but I doubt if old Preibus can muster the resolve to do anything quite so history-making.
Yeah it’s just awful isn’t it? Powerful people in Washington, some of whom may themselves be corrupt, are working against the outsider and in the process helping to elect a nasty, foul mouthed, corrupt, insider who’s record is deadly awful and is quite possibly too unhealthy (and a pathological liar) to serve.
I see no reason to “give it up,” particularly at your suggestion.
“Foul mouthed?” This is a projection.
As for “powerful people,” most of the Trump critics you’re referring to became powerful for a reason. Most became powerful due to having a lot more talent, and a lot more love of country, than Trump has ever demonstrated.
Not a single past president endorses Trump for the job. The past two CIA heads say he’d be a threat to national security. So do 50 GOP security policy experts.
You want to set up an “insiders trying to keep the outsider down” narrative because you can’t accept that Trump just isn’t qualified for the job, and people who ARE qualified for the job know it. Heck, *everyone* should know it. The only thing stopping you from accepting it is denial.
In February, Trump blamed Bush’s invasion of Iraq for the creation of ISIS:
“Maybe don’t go into Iraq originally. We should have never, ever gone in,” Trump, who supported invading Iraq, said at a February town hall in Bluffton, S.C. “But we did. So we made a mistake. The country made a big mistake, and started all of this horrible thing that you see taking place, including ISIS.”
Trump also advocated the very troop withdrawal which he is now criticizing. (The withdrawl was also planned by Bush, not Obama.)
“”First, I’d get out of Iraq right now,” Trump said to British GQ in a 2008 interview. “And by the way, I am the greatest hawk who ever lived, a far greater hawk even than Bush.”
“Later, Trump said he wished Arizona Sen. John McCain, whom he was backing in the election, had supported pulling troops out of Iraq faster.
“I wish he would promise to get us out of Iraq faster,” said Trump. “I am not in love with that aspect of what he represents.”
Those comments echoed similar remarks in March 2007 when he said forces should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq.
“You know how they get out? They get out,” Trump said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “That’s how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They’re in a civil war over there, Wolf. There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war.”
So, which Trump are you going to believe?
It doesn’t matter what Trump has said in the past, he was not in power. It was Obama and Clinton who are directly responsible for creating an environment that allow ISIS to form, grow, spread, now spread into a global threat. For their own narrow political purposes Obama and Hillary refused to listen to their military and foreign policy advisers and heed them. These two have repeatedly demonstrated that they are incompetent serial liar and fools.
Trump repeats constantly that he is going to get “the best people” in his administration. That indicates that he would actually listen to advisers instead of arrogantly and stupidly ignoring them for narrow political interests like Hillary — with out a doubt — would.
Absolutely, Pie!
Trump has put highly qualified people in executive positions in his companies (Many of them women). He delegates authority to carry out his plans and decisions through them. That is his record.
Hillary’s record is not being responsive to pleas for better security in Benghazi, not paying attention to the dangerous environment there, not providing a back up plan in case there was trouble there, and engaging in a conspired attempt to coverup the failures for political reasons. Hillary’s record involves avoiding scrutiny, operating in secret, in breach of the laws and rules that governed her and her office. She is dishonest AND ineffective leading to disaster…unnecessary death in Benghazi and hearings and lawsuits costing time and money.
What Trump says, and has said, is important if you are trying to figure out what he proposes to do in office.
You know, he has spent most of his life parroting liberal positions. We were polite, but we weren’t going to make him President, so he switched sides.
It really doesn’t bother you? … being played like fools? Aside from sitting in the office being a white boy, he is unlikely to do you any good at all.
OMG!
“Trump repeats constantly that he is going to get “the best people”
TRUMP is CLUELESS. Elect the best people!
we do not need a CEO to hire people we need someone interested in running a country for the people not profit.
get a clue
Trump laughs at you guys at night.
I myself said prior to going into Iraq that if the American people were going to abandon the mission before completing it (As we did in Vietnam) we should not go into Iraq. I also said once we committed our troops we owed it to them, to ourselves, and to the world to stay the course, weather the difficult times and complete the mission. I supported the mission and agreed with George Bush that we needed a strong military presence to remain to keep the peace.
David French, NRO was in Iraq at the time. His opinion is worth reading.
New Yorker (former NYT) journalist Dexter Filkinswrote a long piece about the Iraq war that included the following excerpted by Powerline:
People change their minds. Politicians change their minds often. Why should Trump be held to a different standard?
In terms of how he would lead he has a record of relying on experts, delegating authority authority, and making decisions. Someone recently remarked, it may have been his VP, that Trump is a very quick study. Trump also seems to be a man of strength and vigor, something that is necessary for this job.
Hillary changed her mind on gay marriage. She was also for the war before she was against it.
Hillary appears to be weak or unwell. She has long coughing fits, she has headaches, she requires naps, and she has fainted several times. She also handlers who help her to stand, climb stairs, and get into the car.
Hillary has a long record of lies, failures, and corruption. She intends to raise taxes and regulations, both of which are jobs and economy killers. That’s all I need to know.
Trump is the better choice hands down.
“People change their minds. Politicians change their minds often. Why should Trump be held to a different standard?”
Trump has not claimed to have “changed his mind.” He’s just lying about his previous positions–you must know by now that every time he says he was against the Iraq war “from the beginning,” he’s lying? I would hold any politician who lies about their past position to the same standard.
And of course it’s dishonest to say Obama “founded ISIS” when Trump said at the time that he would have made the exact same decision to withdraw troops.
Trump says he listens to “the best people.” I don’t know how anyone who has watched his campaign for the past year can believe him. His erratic behavior and stupid statements indicate that either he doesn’t have a competent campaign staff to help him, or he does, but doesn’t listen to them.
We’ve also seen many high ranking members of his campaign staff engage in ridiculous behavior and make statements the campaign couldn’t defend. One is now being charged with threatening other staffers with a gun. Are they really “the best?” In what way?
We also see his campaign staff constantly in interviews trying to defend Trump’s words, putting forward contradictory explanations of “what he meant.” A huge part of the presidency is a communications job. Trump has proven he cannot clearly communicate with the American people in a way that can reach us without alienating a huge group of people. His statements are more divisive than anything from Obama.
We know Trump’s foreign policy team isn’t “the best” because Republicans are telling us so. Both of the most recent former CIA heads say he’s a danger to our country.
Clinton was never for the war. She voted to give Bush war powers as a negotiation tactic, but expressed caution at the time and said she hoped it would force Iraq to let the inspectors in. Many others who voted this way said the same thing. They expected Bush to give the UN more time. He didn’t.
As for Clinton’s health, Trump looked like he was falling asleep the other night and shows signs of dementia, slurring his words, not finishing sentences, and often seeming to have no idea what he is saying. Where are the concerns with his health?
Economists say Trump’s “plans” will plunge us into recession and kill millions of jobs. Yet you’re so convinced Hilary’s tax increases–on the wealthy, NOT on the middle class as Trump falsely claimed–are bad that you won’t listen to economists on both sides of the aisle when it comes to Trump.
Last point: Look at what Trump has done to the Republican Party in one year. Do you want him to do that to America in four?
Today Katrina Pierson, who is somehow still a Trump spokesperson despite embarrassing herself and the campaign every time she appears on television, said that we were not in Afghanistan until Obama went into the country:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-spox-katrina-pierson-we-werent-in-afghanistan-until-obama-decided-to-go-in/
Pierson previously blamed Obama for the death of Muslim soldier Humayan Khan. Khan died in 2004.
But sure, Trump surrounds himself with the “best people.”
President Obama looked the American people in the eye and said ISIS was a JV Team. He and Hillary are responsible for the mess the entire world is suffering both i terms of terror and in terms if the economy. Not only are their “best people” failing them…they have failed us.
Please don’t try to sell me a bag of garbage while insisting it’s something valuable and desirable. We’ve seen the contents and it reeeeks!
Twoey (Chris) your history isn;t exactly accurate.
Political Guide:
This woman is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief. She is wishy washy, weak, and self serving. Hillary Clinton cares about one thing – Hillary Clinton. Well, maybe two things: HC and the gobs of cash, and lifestyle, that she gets through unscrupulous, deceptive, tactics and means. All of her political positions are about HC and advancing her personal ambitions.
Your characterization of both candidates is skewed and based on your own partisan prejudices. You could at least be honest about that.
Trump is a successful man. He has not destroyed the Republican Party. The party was at odds with itself before he came on the scene. The Democrat party is typically “united”…their that dishonest when it comes to election time. But the Sanders supporters show that all is not wonderful in progressive land.
And in terms of spokespersons, Debbie W. Schultz is no prize an had to be removed. Even though she was a big problem Hillary hired her…terrible optics-terrible judgement.
Obama may not have “created” ISIS, but he and Hillary sure gave birth to the monster it is today and the death and destruction it’s creating in the ME and many other countries including the US.
Peggy a document obtained through FOI shows how they gave birth and that they knew they were aligning with terrorists when they made their decision:
Breitbart:
LOL
We have been telling you this is the history of the USA. Oh no if it’s not a Republican they are Liars!
2012 Intelligence report read it.
“AQI, through the spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Muhammad al-Adnani… is calling on the Sunnis in Iraq, especially the tribes in the border regions (between Iraq and Syria), to wage war against the Syrian regime,”
“Opposition forces are trying to control the eastern areas (Hasaka and Der Zor) adjacent to the Western Iraqi provinces (Mosul and Anbar), in addition to neighboring Turkish borders. Western countries, the Gulf States and Turkey are supporting these efforts.”
“There is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria (Hasak and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want,” in what can only conceivably be construed as a call for the formation of a Daesh “caliphate” in Syria”.
Our policy of utilizing jihadist extremists in proxy wars has a track record dating back to the CIA support, during the Reagan administration, of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan that spawned off the now deceased terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terror network.
Look outside the media bubble of lies fed to us through history.
We are War Mongers who’s GDP depends on Selling Weapons for War. We are not some great country of honest integrity.
Only the People United can change this.
Yet Trump wants to Nuke people. Yes he is fed lines. Trump is clueless.
Over 6 trillion missing from the Pentagon! Ya know the fiscal spending responsibility line? How about applying it to the Pentagon who has no real bookkeeping.
We are suckers and they all lie.
“War is A Racket” Gen Smedley Butler Read here. Wise words from A distinguished highly decorated Marine General who also stopped the 1934 fascist coup to overthrow FDR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0
Even Gen Eisenhower warned us. Wake Up!
WW3 is ready. WW1 and WW2 were bankers wars to redraw borders and it’s time again.
Hillary is Ready and they are setting them in motion. Putin knows this. Americans are not the brightest.
Only a fool joins our military to fight corporate wars only to have their benefits continually cut by GOP Congress.
“Only the People United can change this.”
What is the alternative to fighting oppressive totalitarian regimes with ambitions to rule the world? Do we wait until we’re the last man standing after watching free nations topple like dominoes? And how do we defend ourselves then since you don’t support weaponry?
Eisenhower also said this:
In 1956 we spent 41% on defense, 12% on education, 5% on welfare, 3% on healthcare and 6% on pensions.
In 2015 we spent 13% on defense, 16% on education, 7% on welfare, 21% on healthcare, and 19% on pensions.
That so-called industrial complex has shrunk considerably from 41% of the budget to 13%.
Your hyperbolic fears are overblown.
“WW1 and WW2 were bankers wars…
I guess Hitler didn’t exist…the Japanese never bombed Pearl Harbor…it was just a bankers plot.
What did the bankers use some kind of mind control gimmick…make a deposit and be compelled to go to war? Maybe they did it in the dead of night while Americans were asleep.
Context man…context!