Well said, Sven.
Thank you, Sven. You said it better than I ever could:
I’m eating breakfast Friday and I catch on CSPAN President Obama doing this town hall thingie in Strasbourg, France at some sports arena. I watch, I listen, and realize that this feller is never going to grow on me. It goes beyond his mannerisms, his style of speech, his intense desire for popularity; it’s his words. Do I take them at face value? Yeah, I do. I have to; he’s the POTUS speaking in a foreign land, representing America.
Some of what he said that day in the question and answer part of this event got picked up on the Conservative blogs and raised an eyebrow or two. The part about his predecessor and Iraq and America’s standing in the world. That was in response to this question: “I just want to know what do you expect from the French and the European countries regarding the war on terror?”
I was surprised that he didn’t respond first off by correcting the questioner: it aint the war on terror, it’s overseas contingency operations against manmade disasters, but I guess he was tired.
As usual, President Obama’s answer was long and rambling but he found time to remind everyone that his name is Barrack Hussein Obama, that Iraq was a mistake, toss a jab at George Bush, lie about closing Guantanamo Bay, and end by saying all future contingency operations would make America and its allies feel good about what they were doing.
As others noted, he just can’t help himself with that “inheritance” thing. Can’t waste an opportunity to bash George Bush and the last 7-8 years; can’t help but remind anyone who will listen that every bad thing out there is the fault of Bush.
But examine this statement from his answer, talking about 9/11: “All of us have a stake in ensuring that innocent people who were just going about their business, going to work, suddenly find themselves slaughtered — all of us have an interest in preventing that kind of vicious, evil act.” Juxtaposed with “we got sidetracked by Iraq”. For the life of me, I can’t wrap my mind around how blind he is. We apparently have a stake in ensuring that innocents aren’t killed, except when we actually did something about it in the last eight years under a president named Bush; except when our actions go beyond UN resolutions and sharply worded statements. (Not to mention how I would suddenly “find myself slaughtered” being dead and all-but I guess that’s Obama going metaphysical….)
Not that it matters, but I didn’t fully support the Iraq war when it was announced. I didn’t think it was a great idea at the time, but I didn’t think it was totally a bad one either. I believe now, based on what I’ve read, that mistakes were made but that no lies were told or intelligence manipulated to drive us to war. I believe that once we were in, we were committed. I’m disappointed that we didn’t handle the aftermath of battle better and hope that we learned some lessons there. I’m in awe of the American military and the bravery of the Iraqi people, and yeah, I think they are better off now than they were than say 10 years ago under a butcher like Hussein. America saved thousands of innocent people who were just going about their business from getting slaughtered in Iraq and gave opportunity to millions more. It probably wasn’t our original intention to do so, anymore than it was Lincoln’s original intent to free the slaves during our own civil war, but there you go. Iraq now has a chance; to continue to ignore that, to refer to that as a “sidetrack” dishonors not only ourselves but Iraqis as well. Obama cannot accept that, can’t understand that, and for that he deserves nothing from me but scorn.
Listening to the speech, I wondered what kind of world does President Obama envision; what does the future look like to him? It is clearly not an American vision-it’s a global vision. It’s the world of the peaceful geek. It’s the world of Microsoft and Apple and Pepsi and Nike and can you hear me now. Technology and communications enabling the global village run by cooperative big governments everywhere; where want and fear are things of the past cuz they somehow just get provided. That’s the to-be vision.
The as-is reality for President Obama is the world, not America, but the world at a crossroads. Time to choose. He wants a world without nuclear weapons; he wants us to get rid of ours because while we have them we have no moral authority to say to others don’t acquire them. Being the smartest president eveh, he sees the interconnectedness of our problems and it’s all global: global climate change, global terrorism, global financial networks. A bear can’t fart at the North pole without causing a big wind at the equator. Of course, America shares the blame in creating these global problems, but we’ll look forward towards solutions not backwards toward blame, cuz that’s just the kinda guy he is.
Beyond the blame America bullshit, and BTW, I’d love to hear his examples of us being arrogant-dismissive-derisive, the common theme again from President Obama is this: these are unprecedented times requiring unprecedented cooperation and wait for it….CHANGE. Climate change again- the big lie of the environmental movement that will catch up to them sooner or later; that every single environmental problem is the result of “climate change”. But how is he addressing that particular problem? He’s appointing a “special envoy”. Goody, that should fix things right up. Perhaps the next step will be a panel and then a commission and then a study and a report…..
President Obama closed his speech by saying that he wants to make the world a more peaceful place and he KNOWS this “transformational change” is possible for three reasons: 1) we all share common values, 2) we are persistent, 3) there’s young people around. (Applause. Fainting. Panties thrown on stage.)
Words matter, as President Obama is so very fond of saying. I read his words and I listen to him speak and I see the masses cheer and I shake my head. I don’t get it, but then again I don’t get the popularity of American Idol either. Apparently though, there’s a whole bunch of folks lining up behind Obama’s vision of the world to come and his version of where it’s been. OK then; time to choose. Millions are choosing yes; I’m choosing no.
Sven
I’m eating breakfast Friday and I catch on CSPAN President Obama doing this town hall thingie in Strasbourg, France at some sports arena. I watch, I listen, and realize that this feller is never going to grow on me. It goes beyond his mannerisms, his style of speech, his intense desire for popularity; it’s his words. Do I take them at face value? Yeah, I do. I have to; he’s the POTUS speaking in a foreign land, representing America.
Some of what he said that day in the question and answer part of this event got picked up on the Conservative blogs and raised an eyebrow or two. The part about his predecessor and Iraq and America’s standing in the world. That was in response to this question: “I just want to know what do you expect from the French and the European countries regarding the war on terror?”
I was surprised that he didn’t respond first off by correcting the questioner: it aint the war on terror, it’s overseas contingency operations against manmade disasters, but I guess he was tired.
As usual, President Obama’s answer was long and rambling but he found time to remind everyone that his name is Barrack Hussein Obama, that Iraq was a mistake, toss a jab at George Bush, lie about closing Guantanamo Bay, and end by saying all future contingency operations would make America and its allies feel good about what they were doing.
As others noted, he just can’t help himself with that “inheritance” thing. Can’t waste an opportunity to bash George Bush and the last 7-8 years; can’t help but remind anyone who will listen that every bad thing out there is the fault of Bush.
But examine this statement from his answer, talking about 9/11: “All of us have a stake in ensuring that innocent people who were just going about their business, going to work, suddenly find themselves slaughtered — all of us have an interest in preventing that kind of vicious, evil act.” Juxtaposed with “we got sidetracked by Iraq”. For the life of me, I can’t wrap my mind around how blind he is. We apparently have a stake in ensuring that innocents aren’t killed, except when we actually did something about it in the last eight years under a president named Bush; except when our actions go beyond UN resolutions and sharply worded statements. (Not to mention how I would suddenly “find myself slaughtered” being dead and all-but I guess that’s Obama going metaphysical….)
Not that it matters, but I didn’t fully support the Iraq war when it was announced. I didn’t think it was a great idea at the time, but I didn’t think it was totally a bad one either. I believe now, based on what I’ve read, that mistakes were made but that no lies were told or intelligence manipulated to drive us to war. I believe that once we were in, we were committed. I’m disappointed that we didn’t handle the aftermath of battle better and hope that we learned some lessons there. I’m in awe of the American military and the bravery of the Iraqi people, and yeah, I think they are better off now than they were than say 10 years ago under a butcher like Hussein. America saved thousands of innocent people who were just going about their business from getting slaughtered in Iraq and gave opportunity to millions more. It probably wasn’t our original intention to do so, anymore than it was Lincoln’s original intent to free the slaves during our own civil war, but there you go. Iraq now has a chance; to continue to ignore that, to refer to that as a “sidetrack” dishonors not only ourselves but Iraqis as well. Obama cannot accept that, can’t understand that, and for that he deserves nothing from me but scorn.
Listening to the speech, I wondered what kind of world does President Obama envision; what does the future look like to him? It is clearly not an American vision-it’s a global vision. It’s the world of the peaceful geek. It’s the world of Microsoft and Apple and Pepsi and Nike and can you hear me now. Technology and communications enabling the global village run by cooperative big governments everywhere; where want and fear are things of the past cuz they somehow just get provided. That’s the to-be vision.
The as-is reality for President Obama is the world, not America, but the world at a crossroads. Time to choose. He wants a world without nuclear weapons; he wants us to get rid of ours because while we have them we have no moral authority to say to others don’t acquire them. Being the smartest president eveh, he sees the interconnectedness of our problems and it’s all global: global climate change, global terrorism, global financial networks. A bear can’t fart at the North pole without causing a big wind at the equator. Of course, America shares the blame in creating these global problems, but we’ll look forward towards solutions not backwards toward blame, cuz that’s just the kinda guy he is.
Beyond the blame America bullshit, and BTW, I’d love to hear his examples of us being arrogant-dismissive-derisive, the common theme again from President Obama is this: these are unprecedented times requiring unprecedented cooperation and wait for it….CHANGE. Climate change again- the big lie of the environmental movement that will catch up to them sooner or later; that every single environmental problem is the result of “climate change”. But how is he addressing that particular problem? He’s appointing a “special envoy”. Goody, that should fix things right up. Perhaps the next step will be a panel and then a commission and then a study and a report…..
President Obama closed his speech by saying that he wants to make the world a more peaceful place and he KNOWS this “transformational change” is possible for three reasons: 1) we all share common values, 2) we are persistent, 3) there’s young people around. (Applause. Fainting. Panties thrown on stage.)
Words matter, as President Obama is so very fond of saying. I read his words and I listen to him speak and I see the masses cheer and I shake my head. I don’t get it, but then again I don’t get the popularity of American Idol either. Apparently though, there’s a whole bunch of folks lining up behind Obama’s vision of the world to come and his version of where it’s been. OK then; time to choose. Millions are choosing yes; I’m choosing no.
Sven
posted by Voice of Reason at
8:20 AM
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