McCain: U.S. ‘Weakened’ By ‘Disengagement’ Under Obama

Sen. John McCain criticized President Obama's policy toward the Middle East as disengaged and said that this as weakened the U.S. abroad in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. McCain said this was a reason for the attacks on Americans in Libya and Egypt earlier this week.

"Prior to 9/11, we had a policy of containment. Then after 9/11, it was confrontation.... Now it's disengagement," said McCain, who argued that disengagement as "weakened" the United States' standing in the world.

"It was Osama bin Laden that said, 'When people see the strong horse and the weak horse, people like the strong horse.' Right now the United States is the weak horse," McCain said.

McCain cited the country's withdrawal from Iraq and ultimately Afghanistan as part of the "disengagement" strategy he opposes.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mccain-us-weakened-by-disengagement-under-obama

If diplomatic attacks are a sign of weakness, Bush was the weakest of all

by kos

An idiot speaks:

The attacks on our embassies & diplomats are a result of perceived American weakness. Mitt Romney is right to point that out.
— @RumsfeldOffice via Twitter for iPhone

Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of War Defense between 2001 and 2006, so none of this should be news to him:

June 14, 2002, U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan
Suicide bomber kills 12 and injures 51.

February 20, 2003, international diplomatic compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Truck bomb kills 17.

February 28, 2003, U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan
Gunmen on motorcycles killed two consulate guards.

July 30, 2004, U.S. embassy in Taskkent, Uzbekistan
Suicide bomber kills two.

December 6, 2004, U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Militants stormed and occupied perimeter wall. Five killed, 10 wounded.

March 2, 2006, U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan
Suicide car bomber killed four, including a U.S. diplomate directly targeted by the assailants.

September 12, 2006, U.S. embassy in Damascus, Syria
Gunmen attacked embassy with grenades, automatic weapons, and a car bomb (though second truck bomb failed to detonate). One killed and 13 wounded.

January 12, 2007, U.S. embassy in Athens, Greece
A rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the embassy building. No one was injured.

July 9, 2008, U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Turkey
Armed men attacked consulate with pistols and shotguns. Three policemen killed.

March 18, 2008, U.S. embassy in Sana'a, Yemen
Mortar attack misses embassy, hits nearby girls' school instead.

September 17, 2008, U.S. embassy in Sana'a, Yemen

Militants dressed as policemen attacked the embassy with RPGs, rifles, grenades and car bombs. Six Yemeni soldiers and seven civilians were killed. Sixteen more were injured.

So did those attacks (and the 9/11 ones, for that matter) happen because of "perceived American weakness"? Is that what Rumsfeld wants to argue—that our country's diplomatic missions were targeted because George Bush's America was perceived as weak?

As for Obama, the attacks in Cairo and Benghazi are the first two attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in an ostensibly peaceful country during his entire presidency—and they were sparked by that idiot wingnut Islamophobe Terri Jones. The embassy in Afghanistan was targeted by the Taliban last Sept. 13, but that's a country at war.

If you buy Rumsfeld's nonsense, you can tally the numbers to determine which administration was "perceived weaker."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/12/1130950/-If-diplomatic-attacks-are-a-sign-of-weakness-Bush-was-the-weakest-of-all

George Will: No, President Romney Wouldn’t Have Prevented The Libya Attack

Conservative columnist George Will dismissed the Romney campaign's suggestion that if the Republican nominee were president the recent violence in Libya that left four Americans dead would not have happened.

Asked on ABC's "This Week" if there's reason to believe that the situation would be different under a President Romney, Will said, "No."

"The great superstition of American politics concerns presidential power, and during a presidential year that reaches an apogee -- and it becomes national narcissism," he said. "Everything that happens anywhere in the world, we cause, or we could cure with ... presidential rhetoric."

Will also chided White House spokesman Jay Carney for pinpointing the anti-Muslim film as the cause of the violence: "If the video hadn't been the pretext, another one would've been found."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/george-will-no-president-romney-wouldnt-have-prevented

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