National Security is not a Basketball Game h/t Ace
Nor is asking somebody about whether they are really the mother of their last child or whether they can be Vice President and be a mom, too, "tough questions". If so, please ask these tough questions of Sen. Obama. Enquiring minds would like to know how he intends to be a good father when the job of President will likely take him away much more than Vice President.
Unless, of course, he plans to let Joe Biden do all of his work.
Speaking of "Split Iraq into three ethnic enclaves", Joe, this is Obama's pick for shoring up his foreign policy creds? Joe might be on a bunch of committees, but apparently that doesn't make him a brilliant foreign policy man. Must be why Obama needs 300 foreign policy advisors in addition to Joe.
Speaking of foreign policy, what is Obama proposing to do if Russia refuses to leave Georgia or decides that it does want the Ukraine back or will attack Poland? What happens if Obama calls up Putin and asks him to stop and Putin tells him to go pound sand and threatens war with the US or its allies? Is he going to whine to the press that Putin is being mean to him? Is he going to cry that he "won't be bullied"? Imply that Putin is racist and just trying to scare everybody because he, Obama, doesn't look like other presidents and has a funny name? Or he can send out his surrogates and plant stories in the American press that Putin is really a cross dressing sea porpoise. Ooh, that will really hurt!
Maybe he'll consult his 300 foreign policy advisors, make some soaring, empty speech and do nothing, just like he's been doing practically his entire career? You know why a would be candidate needs 300 foreign policy advisors? Because he doesn't know anything about it himself and he can't make up his mind!
That point was pretty obvious when it took Obama three times to release a statement on Georgia that actually had any real value or idea about exactly what national security risk Russia's invasion of Georgia really posed. Before that, he first went for "restraint" on "both" Russia and Georgia. All the while the Russians were invading Georgia and the Georgians were pulling back. Inside their own country! But, wow! That made Russia think about what they were doing. For less than a nano-second.
Then Obama tried for some moral equivolancy by claiming that this is what happens when the United States invades another country. Like Iraq. Pardon? Is Sen. Obama a United States Senator or a walking, talking billboard for Pravda?
Finally, some contingent in his 300 advisors muscled their way to the front of the group (or some internal polling told Obama's staff he was coming off weak) and finally told him to shut up and repeat after McCain. Honestly, that's what you get when you consult 300 advisors. A lot of nothing. While people in the media and his supporters were praising Obama's brilliance of listening to 300 advisors and getting "all sides" of an issue to formulate a response, Georgia was burning.
That is what we have to look forward to under an Obama administration.
Meanwhile, the actual "moron" President in office had already formulated a plan, sent assets into the area, got humanitarian aid spinning up and sent the Secretary of State to Tbilisi to act as a virtual human shield and keep our allies from being completely over run. He sent a message to the Russians, without going to war, that we were not going to take the invasion of our ally lying down.
Obama's response would have been what, exactly? Ask Putin to pretty please stop letting the Chechnyan paramilitary roll behind them pillaging, raping, murdering and looting? Invite him over for a long talk on the subject when Putin's calendar cleared? Is he going to have his 300 advisors on conference call and Segregationist Joe drawing up a plan on how to split Georgia into five ethnic states?
Is it me? Or, doesn't that seem to be the Democrats' response to all wars? Is that, in fact, the Obama/Biden plan for Afghanistan? Maybe we can cede "Pashtunistan", the half of Afghanistan that has the Afghan "bread basket", to the Taliban and leave the other half of the country to be squeezed between Iran and the newly formed, murderous Pashtunistan while the people of the now reduced and unsustainable Afghanistan slowly starve. Then Al Qaeda can get back the part of Afghanistan they lost and claim victory over the United States.
At least we'd be able to bring our troops home and "stop" this bloody war. Right? If it was good for Iraq, why isn't that good for Afghanistan, Sen. Obama? Maybe one of your 300 advisors can explain that too you.
Or, better yet, we'll just use the Obama plan for Pakistan, nuclear Pakistan, withdraw our 15 brigades (brigades, Joe, brigades) from Iraq and put them in Afghanistan so we can invade Pakistan over the Hindu Kush. That translates to "Killer" Hindu and they called it that for a reason. Then we can suffer 30% loss or more of troops and equipment. Obama can claim utter "surprise" that it was a catastrophic failure "beyond our wildest dreams" and then throw one of his 300 advisors under the bus. I mean, if something like 4% casualties and 10% loss of equipment in Iraq is a tragedy wasted on a "mistake", 30% has got to be a catastrophe wasted on the most idiotic, grandiose piece of verbosity by a politician in recent history.
While nuclear India decides that an unstable Pakistan on their borders is not in their interest and pushes military assets to and, possibly, through Kashmir. Pakistan will think that the US and India are in collusion to destroy it (read any Pakistani military and foreign affairs papers in the last decadeSen. Obama? Joe?) and decide to warm up their nuclear weapons and then...what is the plan from there Sen. Obama? We haven't even begun to discuss Russia and China's reactions to such an event.
Who are Sen. Obama's "300" foreign policy advisors anyway? George Clooney and the cast and crew of "Dumb and Dumber"? Maybe we can have a sequel, "Obama and Biden."
And how great is that plan? We'll just invade nuclear Pakistan and talk to "they don't have nukes, yet, but they are working on it while they threaten to destroy Israel" Iran. Brilliant.
Back to Iraq. Sen. Obama's foreign policy surrogate said that the success of the Iraq surge was irrelevant . Irrelevant to whom? Twenty five million Iraqis? Our allies in the region? Soldiers fighting in the theater who are now, happily, not being killed or injured? Their families who will not be getting so many knocks on the door? Is it irrelevant to the American citizens who, had we followed the Obama/Biden plan and ceded the oil and bread basket of Iraq to the Iranian contingent and the Sunni area to Al Qaeda, would have been paying so much for gasoline that $4/gal would have seemed like "the good ol' days" while terrorist attacks began to spread across the Middle East, Europe and even to the United States?
The only thing "irrelevant" about the surge and winning in Iraq is Obama and Biden's "plans". The success of the surge and the unity of Iraq as a Democratic state made Obama and Biden irrelevant. Apparently, facts are "irrelevant" in the Obama/Biden camp to actually understanding the Middle East, comprehending the situation on the ground and making a workable plan. The only "facts" that Obama knew about were the press clippings his aids put on in his briefing folder every day. These, apparently, were copies of old press reports from 2006, mostly from al Jazeera and the Iranian News Network with a smattering of al Qaida propaganda videos. His 300 advisors hadn't come to any consensus yet on any information dated later than January 2007 to give Obama any new talking points beyond "the surge is a failure". Eventually, some "facts" must have penetrated the teflon bubble Obama was in for the last two years when he finally admited in just the last two days that the "surge" had succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams".
Oh, those stubborn facts! And, they say things about President Bush being in an information bubble. Obama must be living in a nuclear bunker.
What can we expect from a guy who thinks that foreign policy experience belongs in the vice presidency, who thinks that owning a passport equals foreign policy experience and whose only actual experience amounts to going to a couple third world countries, sampling the local food and customs and sitting through two foreign affairs committee meetings listening to unbelievable Joe Biden bloviate? Who apparently doesn't even believe his own chosen "foreign policy" expert, Joe Biden, since Joe voted for the use of force in Iraq and Sen. Obama voted "no"? And, has since called Iraq a mistake? Which one of these men are we supposed to believe knew what he was talking about in foreign affairs?
Maybe we should ask "the 300". We could get an answer somewhere around November 4th...2020.
Nor is asking somebody about whether they are really the mother of their last child or whether they can be Vice President and be a mom, too, "tough questions". If so, please ask these tough questions of Sen. Obama. Enquiring minds would like to know how he intends to be a good father when the job of President will likely take him away much more than Vice President.
Unless, of course, he plans to let Joe Biden do all of his work.
Speaking of "Split Iraq into three ethnic enclaves", Joe, this is Obama's pick for shoring up his foreign policy creds? Joe might be on a bunch of committees, but apparently that doesn't make him a brilliant foreign policy man. Must be why Obama needs 300 foreign policy advisors in addition to Joe.
Speaking of foreign policy, what is Obama proposing to do if Russia refuses to leave Georgia or decides that it does want the Ukraine back or will attack Poland? What happens if Obama calls up Putin and asks him to stop and Putin tells him to go pound sand and threatens war with the US or its allies? Is he going to whine to the press that Putin is being mean to him? Is he going to cry that he "won't be bullied"? Imply that Putin is racist and just trying to scare everybody because he, Obama, doesn't look like other presidents and has a funny name? Or he can send out his surrogates and plant stories in the American press that Putin is really a cross dressing sea porpoise. Ooh, that will really hurt!
Maybe he'll consult his 300 foreign policy advisors, make some soaring, empty speech and do nothing, just like he's been doing practically his entire career? You know why a would be candidate needs 300 foreign policy advisors? Because he doesn't know anything about it himself and he can't make up his mind!
That point was pretty obvious when it took Obama three times to release a statement on Georgia that actually had any real value or idea about exactly what national security risk Russia's invasion of Georgia really posed. Before that, he first went for "restraint" on "both" Russia and Georgia. All the while the Russians were invading Georgia and the Georgians were pulling back. Inside their own country! But, wow! That made Russia think about what they were doing. For less than a nano-second.
Then Obama tried for some moral equivolancy by claiming that this is what happens when the United States invades another country. Like Iraq. Pardon? Is Sen. Obama a United States Senator or a walking, talking billboard for Pravda?
Finally, some contingent in his 300 advisors muscled their way to the front of the group (or some internal polling told Obama's staff he was coming off weak) and finally told him to shut up and repeat after McCain. Honestly, that's what you get when you consult 300 advisors. A lot of nothing. While people in the media and his supporters were praising Obama's brilliance of listening to 300 advisors and getting "all sides" of an issue to formulate a response, Georgia was burning.
That is what we have to look forward to under an Obama administration.
Meanwhile, the actual "moron" President in office had already formulated a plan, sent assets into the area, got humanitarian aid spinning up and sent the Secretary of State to Tbilisi to act as a virtual human shield and keep our allies from being completely over run. He sent a message to the Russians, without going to war, that we were not going to take the invasion of our ally lying down.
Obama's response would have been what, exactly? Ask Putin to pretty please stop letting the Chechnyan paramilitary roll behind them pillaging, raping, murdering and looting? Invite him over for a long talk on the subject when Putin's calendar cleared? Is he going to have his 300 advisors on conference call and Segregationist Joe drawing up a plan on how to split Georgia into five ethnic states?
Is it me? Or, doesn't that seem to be the Democrats' response to all wars? Is that, in fact, the Obama/Biden plan for Afghanistan? Maybe we can cede "Pashtunistan", the half of Afghanistan that has the Afghan "bread basket", to the Taliban and leave the other half of the country to be squeezed between Iran and the newly formed, murderous Pashtunistan while the people of the now reduced and unsustainable Afghanistan slowly starve. Then Al Qaeda can get back the part of Afghanistan they lost and claim victory over the United States.
At least we'd be able to bring our troops home and "stop" this bloody war. Right? If it was good for Iraq, why isn't that good for Afghanistan, Sen. Obama? Maybe one of your 300 advisors can explain that too you.
Or, better yet, we'll just use the Obama plan for Pakistan, nuclear Pakistan, withdraw our 15 brigades (brigades, Joe, brigades) from Iraq and put them in Afghanistan so we can invade Pakistan over the Hindu Kush. That translates to "Killer" Hindu and they called it that for a reason. Then we can suffer 30% loss or more of troops and equipment. Obama can claim utter "surprise" that it was a catastrophic failure "beyond our wildest dreams" and then throw one of his 300 advisors under the bus. I mean, if something like 4% casualties and 10% loss of equipment in Iraq is a tragedy wasted on a "mistake", 30% has got to be a catastrophe wasted on the most idiotic, grandiose piece of verbosity by a politician in recent history.
While nuclear India decides that an unstable Pakistan on their borders is not in their interest and pushes military assets to and, possibly, through Kashmir. Pakistan will think that the US and India are in collusion to destroy it (read any Pakistani military and foreign affairs papers in the last decadeSen. Obama? Joe?) and decide to warm up their nuclear weapons and then...what is the plan from there Sen. Obama? We haven't even begun to discuss Russia and China's reactions to such an event.
Who are Sen. Obama's "300" foreign policy advisors anyway? George Clooney and the cast and crew of "Dumb and Dumber"? Maybe we can have a sequel, "Obama and Biden."
And how great is that plan? We'll just invade nuclear Pakistan and talk to "they don't have nukes, yet, but they are working on it while they threaten to destroy Israel" Iran. Brilliant.
Back to Iraq. Sen. Obama's foreign policy surrogate said that the success of the Iraq surge was irrelevant . Irrelevant to whom? Twenty five million Iraqis? Our allies in the region? Soldiers fighting in the theater who are now, happily, not being killed or injured? Their families who will not be getting so many knocks on the door? Is it irrelevant to the American citizens who, had we followed the Obama/Biden plan and ceded the oil and bread basket of Iraq to the Iranian contingent and the Sunni area to Al Qaeda, would have been paying so much for gasoline that $4/gal would have seemed like "the good ol' days" while terrorist attacks began to spread across the Middle East, Europe and even to the United States?
The only thing "irrelevant" about the surge and winning in Iraq is Obama and Biden's "plans". The success of the surge and the unity of Iraq as a Democratic state made Obama and Biden irrelevant. Apparently, facts are "irrelevant" in the Obama/Biden camp to actually understanding the Middle East, comprehending the situation on the ground and making a workable plan. The only "facts" that Obama knew about were the press clippings his aids put on in his briefing folder every day. These, apparently, were copies of old press reports from 2006, mostly from al Jazeera and the Iranian News Network with a smattering of al Qaida propaganda videos. His 300 advisors hadn't come to any consensus yet on any information dated later than January 2007 to give Obama any new talking points beyond "the surge is a failure". Eventually, some "facts" must have penetrated the teflon bubble Obama was in for the last two years when he finally admited in just the last two days that the "surge" had succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams".
Oh, those stubborn facts! And, they say things about President Bush being in an information bubble. Obama must be living in a nuclear bunker.
What can we expect from a guy who thinks that foreign policy experience belongs in the vice presidency, who thinks that owning a passport equals foreign policy experience and whose only actual experience amounts to going to a couple third world countries, sampling the local food and customs and sitting through two foreign affairs committee meetings listening to unbelievable Joe Biden bloviate? Who apparently doesn't even believe his own chosen "foreign policy" expert, Joe Biden, since Joe voted for the use of force in Iraq and Sen. Obama voted "no"? And, has since called Iraq a mistake? Which one of these men are we supposed to believe knew what he was talking about in foreign affairs?
Maybe we should ask "the 300". We could get an answer somewhere around November 4th...2020.
I wrote to my REPUBLICAN Senators the following...
It just seems to me that this is feel good rhetoric that does nothing to advance the mission.
But as a Senator, you have nothing to lose…right?
#1. Iraqi’s adopt this stance… You advised this course of action and it worked. You must be very smart people.
#2. Iraq goes to hell in a hand basket… You advised splitting up into 3 sort
of separate sections and they didn’t listen.
#3. The Iraqi’s ignore this unwanted and unsolicited advice and with our support succeed in establishing a reasonably representative system and pushing Al Qaeda out of Iraq… Sec. 1535 and your Yea vote will be long forgotten so who cares… [end of the salient parts of the letter...]
Yes sir,... Senator Biden has LOTS of experience... and.. he still makes stupid mistakes...
I will be taking on the Senator at my blog as well... http://fuanglada.wordpress.com/
See you there... and... btw... Bump the Dear Mr. Obama video back to the top!! ... Orders from headquarters... Semper Fi
Obama gets it right. Are you really ready to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency?
It's on page 3 so I forgive you... But I have plenty of good stuff in between... Feel free to steal anything I post... I have usually stolen it from someone eles anyway..