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kentuck

(110,950 posts)
Sat Jun 14, 2014, 12:55 PM Jun 2014

Is President Obama operating in a dangerous bubble?

I fear that the President is getting his arm twisted as his military and intelligence advisers whisper in each ear. The oil companies are threatened. American interests are under attack.

We need to go back into Iraq to protect our interests. We can say it is to protect innocent lives. We can say whatever we want. But countries don't have friends or moral purposes. They have "interests".

But war is political. First, you have to sell it to the people. We have to convince them that 1000 "bad guys", more "nasty" than Al Qaeda, is threatening the country of Iraq and taking over entire cities with a thousand rebels, after we spent $25 billion dollars training their soldiers and supplying them with tanks and personnel carriers and missiles, etc.

The President is screaming in pain as the pressure is applied. Will he stand his ground or will he buckle? Will it be a huge mistake if he goes back into Iraq?

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is President Obama operating in a dangerous bubble? (Original Post) kentuck Jun 2014 OP
No. He got rid of most of the people who steered him wrong from TwilightGardener Jun 2014 #1
... WhiteTara Jun 2014 #2
I hope you are right. kentuck Jun 2014 #4
it's an evil taint WhiteTara Jun 2014 #6
T'is true. kentuck Jun 2014 #7
Absolutely right. Both sides. 840high Jun 2014 #8
I think the war-mongers are operating in a bubble in which the US can Blue Meany Jun 2014 #3
As of today, that is how I understand it also. kentuck Jun 2014 #5

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
1. No. He got rid of most of the people who steered him wrong from
Sat Jun 14, 2014, 12:58 PM
Jun 2014

the first administration. I see more and more of Obama's natural tendencies now, in his foreign policy, than during his first four years. The neocon/interventionist/MIC world (and all their media cheerleaders) has been coming at him with both barrels for the past year, but he is not yielding and overreacting this time.

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
7. T'is true.
Sat Jun 14, 2014, 02:45 PM
Jun 2014

But I come to realize that when it comes to propaganda, both sides are not without taint.

 

Blue Meany

(1,947 posts)
3. I think the war-mongers are operating in a bubble in which the US can
Sat Jun 14, 2014, 01:06 PM
Jun 2014

control everything. The is a response to Mailiki's governance; he has run the country as a Shi'i sectarian, marginalizing the Sunnis. It's not that there is a huge rise in Islamists in the Sunni regions; it's that there are not many Sunni soldiers who want to fights for a regime that makes them second-class citizens. ISIS will not easily take over Baghdad, the southern Shi'i cities, or the Kurdish domains, but the Sunnis aren't going to put up a fight. Then, too, there are other groups fighting with ISIS, such as militias led by former Baathists. It is unlikely that ISIS will be able to effectively govern any of the cities they have taken once the in-fighting within the coalition begins.

Obama has rightly conditioned aid on measures to being the Sunnis back into the governing coalition, although it is probably too late for this to work. But the situation is not of Obama's making and he is not in a position to do much to fix it either.

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
5. As of today, that is how I understand it also.
Sat Jun 14, 2014, 01:09 PM
Jun 2014

However, how about tomorrow? Will he stick to his guns?

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