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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Obama’s Weakness, or Ours?"
Obamas Weakness, or Ours?by Nicholas Kirstof at the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/opinion/nicholas-kristof-obamas-weakness-or-ours.html?smid=tw-share
"SNIP...................
Thats the scathing consensus forming, with just 36 percent of Americans approving of Obamas foreign policy in a New York Times/CBS News poll released this week. Foreign policy used to be a source of strength for the president, and now its dragging him down and probably other Democrats with him.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, warns that Obama has weakened the national security posture of the United States. Trent Franks, a Republican member of the House from Arizona, cites foreign policy to suggest that Obama is the most inept president we have ever had.
.................
As for former Vice President Dick Cheney complaining about Obamas foreign policy, thats a bit like the old definition of chutzpah: killing your parents and then pleading for mercy because youre an orphan. In the Bush/Cheney years, we lost thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, we became mired in Afghanistan, Iran vastly expanded the number of centrifuges in its nuclear program, and North Korea expanded its arsenal of nuclear weapons. And much of the world came to despise us.
Blowing things up is often satisfying, and Obamas penchant for muddling along instead, with restraint, is hurting him politically. But thats our weakness more than his. Obamas foreign policy is far more deft and less dangerous than the public thinks, and he doesnt deserve the harsh assessments. If theres one thing we should have learned in the Bush/Cheney years, its that swagger and invasion are overrated as foreign policy instruments.
.....................SNIP"
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"Obama’s Weakness, or Ours?" (Original Post)
applegrove
Jun 2014
OP
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)1. Bush and cheney were very weak on 9/11/2001
They were so weak that the USA was attacked. They should pay for their incompetence and weakness.
First Obama is a dictator, God etc. then he is weak. they need to make up their mind!
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)2. I heard something about the "cross tabs" in the poll,
(which I don't think had been released yet) and they indicated that the problem for many wasn't his weakness, or muddling, or restraint, but the fact that he was too involved overseas, at least for liberals and moderates and even the libertarian right. The Neocons have been thoroughly discredited I think, which is the silver lining of our Excellent Adventures Abroad of the last decade.
PM Martin
(2,660 posts)3. Do you suggest that Obama remove the "advisors" from Iraq then?
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)4. Since you are asking me, yeah, I do.
What do you think should be done?
PM Martin
(2,660 posts)5. Remove them.