Obama's Foreign Policy

[DC Tom]

 

It appears that most countries have recently. We're the world's stooge.

 

It's "If I do that girl's homework, maybe she'll like me" foreign policy.

[B-Man]

FORMER IRAN HOSTAGE SAYS PLANE WAITED UNTIL RANSOM MONEY ARRIVED...

 

 

 

 

Obama spends 7 mins dodging if $400M cash will fund terror...

 

 

 

[snafu]

So when are we paying Iran the $1.3b in interest we owe them?

 

Should have taken some vintage 1979 planes out of mothballs and shipped them over instead.

[meazza]

Margaret Brennan destroyed josh earnest. She is a crazy right winger though right baskin?

[IDBillzFan]

FORMER IRAN HOSTAGE SAYS PLANE WAITED UNTIL RANSOM MONEY ARRIVED...

 

Listen, baskin says the press reported that Obama paid the $400M ransom to free the hostages back in January, so we should not be surprised that it's suddenly being reported all over again.

 

Try to keep up, would ya?

[IDBillzFan]

Hey, I was just reading this article where one of the hostages in Iran said their plane was not allowed to leave until the plane with the money arrived.

 

Old news, right baskin?

[B-Man]

WORDS, JUST WORDS:

 

2015 Flashback: State Claimed No ‘Big Suitcase Full of Cash’ in Iran Deal.

 

To be fair, technically they were right: “Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.” No suitcases were harmed in the making of our humiliation by the mullahs.

 

 

 

 

I’m old enough to remember when a similar arrangement with Iran was considered quite a big deal by the DNC-MSM

[B-Man]

 

ISIS Intel Was Cooked, House Panel Finds

A leading U.S. general pressured his intelligence analysts into playing down the ISIS and al Qaeda threats, according to a congressional task force.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/09/isis-intel-was-cooked-house-panel-finds.html

I recall skewing intelligence to benefit the White House was a once a Very Bad Thing, but that was pre-Jan 2009.

Something about................"lied & Died" ??..............I can't fully remember.

.

 

[B-Man]

How the others are 'reporting' it.......

 

 

CNN Politics ‏@CNNPolitics 9m9 minutes ago

GOP congressional report: The US Central Command's ISIS intel was overly optimistic http://cnn.it/2bhzxgA

House probe: Central Command reports skewed intel on ISIS fight

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/11/house-report-central-command-reports-skewed-intel-on-isis-fight.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxnews%2Fpolitics%20%28Internal%20-%20Politics%20-%20Text%29

[GG]

The hits just keep coming. Imagine your major foreign policy agenda being opposed by every major head of your foreign policy circle. Imagine the internal discussions, and why this story of heavy internal opposition came out in the open. Stuff like this doesn't happen in well run organizations.

 

A proposal under consideration at the White House to reverse decades of U.S. nuclear policy by declaring a “No First Use” protocol for nuclear weapons has run into opposition from top cabinet officials and U.S. allies.

The opposition, from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, as well as allies in Europe and Asia, leaves President Barack Obama with few ambitious options to enhance his nuclear disarmament agenda before leaving office, unless he wants to override the dissent.

 

 

I remember the good old days when we were being convinced that a skin thinned narcissist wouldn't put his personal agenda ahead of what top advisers would be recommending, because he was smarter than that. Ah, good times.

 

And if you think this warning is limited to Obama's White House, think twice before you pull the lever for a thinner skinned, lower intellect narcissist, who just may not surround himself with top people.

[DC Tom]

The hits just keep coming. Imagine your major foreign policy agenda being opposed by every major head of your foreign policy circle. Imagine the internal discussions, and why this story of heavy internal opposition came out in the open. Stuff like this doesn't happen in well run organizations.

 

 

I remember the good old days when we were being convinced that a skin thinned narcissist wouldn't put his personal agenda ahead of what top advisers would be recommending, because he was smarter than that. Ah, good times.

 

And if you think this warning is limited to Obama's White House, think twice before you pull the lever for a thinner skinned, lower intellect narcissist, who just may not surround himself with top people.

 

 

declaring a “No First Use” protocol for nuclear weapons

 

You'd think Obama, after declaring a "red line" and being forced to walk back on it (among other examples), that he would have learned by now the lesson of "Don't say **** that artificially constrains yourself to no purpose."

[Doc]

You'd think Obama, after declaring a "red line" and being forced to walk back on it (among other examples), that he would have learned by now the lesson of "Don't say **** that artificially constrains yourself to no purpose."

 

You'd think that would fall under his "don't do stupid ****" doctrine. But these morons never learn.

[truth on hold]

Obama and Hillary more interventionist than Bush, but with fewer Americans "boots on the ground" they tried to make it not seem so.

 

Bush = Iraq,Afghan

 

Obama and Hillary = Syria, Libya, Ukraine, vastly expanded global drone campaign, sanctions against russia

Edited August 13, 2016 by truth on hold

[B-Man]

Truly appalling. Everything that's wrong with this administration in one 8 minute clip....................... Breathtaking dishonesty.

 

 

CSPANVerified account ‏@cspan 47m47 minutes ago

Reporter to John Kirby: "It seems like such a ridiculous explanation it shocks me that you're actually providing it"

https://amp.twimg.com/v/b062e5f5-728e-43da-b737-6df53ee31264 …

 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Obama and Hillary more interventionist than Bush, but with fewer Americans "boots on the ground" they tried to make it not seem so.

 

Bush = Iraq,Afghan

 

Obama and Hillary = Syria, Libya, Ukraine, vastly expanded global drone campaign, sanctions against russia

 

Am i wrong or is truth on hold sleeping with the fishes?

[DC Tom]

 

Am i wrong or is truth on hold sleeping with the fishes?

 

Apparently truth on hold hung up.

[Deranged Rhino]

Truly appalling. Everything that's wrong with this administration in one 8 minute clip....................... Breathtaking dishonesty.

 

 

CSPANVerified account ‏@cspan 47m47 minutes ago

Reporter to John Kirby: "It seems like such a ridiculous explanation it shocks me that you're actually providing it"

 

 

https://amp.twimg.com/v/b062e5f5-728e-43da-b737-6df53ee31264 …

 

 

[Deranged Rhino]

MSF pulling out of Yemen after bombings:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/medical-aid-group-withdraws-from-north-yemen-after-attacks-34977079.html

 

(more: https://theintercept.com/2016/08/15/doctors-without-borders-hospital-bombing-in-yemen-earns-rare-saudi-rebuke-at-state-department/ )

 

This comes on the heels of continued bombing of civilian facilities by the Saudis -- using arms sold by the US.

 

https://www.c-span.org/video/?414023-1/state-department-briefing

(2:25 starts the relevant section)

 

MS TRUDEAU: So we’re deeply concerned by a reported strike on a hospital in northern Yemen. We’re gathering more information. As we’ve said in the past, strikes on humanitarian facilities, including hospitals, are particularly concerning. We call on all parties to cease hostilities immediately. Continued military actions only prolong the suffering of the Yemeni people.

QUESTION: Yeah, but this was apparently done by Saudi – the Saudi coalition that you guys are big supporters of, though. Is there – have you raised this issue? This is not the first time that civilian and the hospitals have been targeted there.

MS TRUDEAU: So we remain in close contact with the Saudis on this. We would note that the Saudi committee that was designated to look into civilian casualties – the previous ones we’ve discussed from this podium – did share its findings with the UN. We believe that’s a step forward in transparency. And as we previously underscored, we also call on them to public release those reports.

QUESTION: But does it have any – is there any consequence to this?

MS TRUDEAU: Well, what I’d say is I’m not going to get ahead of any decision, but U.S. officials have regularly engaged with Saudi officials as whether – as well as other coalition members on the importance of mitigating harm. As part of this, we’ve also encouraged them to do their utmost to avoid harm to entities protected by international law such as this hospital.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/08/261068.htm#YEMEN

The hypocrisy displayed here is amazing. Calling for all parties to cease hostilities despite the face the US just ten days earlier completed a $1b+ arms sale to the Saudis.

Will the US stop selling arms to the Saudis as a result of this? Of course not... because

http://www.independent.co.uk/us/saudi-arabia-us-arms-deal-weapons-sale-tanks-guns-barack-obama-a7182186.html

[GG]

So what happens when you draw a red line, that isn't really a red line? You invite bad people to test where that red line really is.

 

The Pentagon warned Friday that the Syrian government would be “well-advised” not to strike U.S. and allied military personnel operating in Syria, a day after the U.S.-led coalition scrambled its aircraft after two Syrian bombers conducted strikes near where U.S. military personnel were aiding Kurdish fighters in the battle against Islamic State.

The coalition aircraft arrived to protect the U.S. personnel from the strikes just as the two Syrian government Su-24 bombers were departing, according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, who said none of the U.S. forces on the ground were harmed.

 

[Deranged Rhino]

 

A Congressman Campaigns to “Stop the Madness” of U.S. Support for Saudi Bombing in Yemen

“I taught the law of war when I was on active duty,” he told The Intercept. “You can’t kill children, newlyweds, doctors and patients — those are exempt targets under the law of war, and the coalition has been repeatedly striking civilians,” he said. “So it is very disturbing to me. It is even worse that the U.S. is aiding this coalition.”

But he and a very few other lawmakers who have tried to take bipartisan action to stop U.S. support for the campaign are a lonely bunch. “Many in Congress have been hesitant to criticize the Saudis’ operational conduct in Yemen,” Lieu said. He didn’t say more about that.

The matter has gotten ever more urgent since August 7, when the Saudi-led coalition relaunched an aggressive campaign of attacks after Houthi rebels in Yemen rejected a one-sided peace deal.

More than 60 Yemeni civilians have been killed in at least five attacks on civilian areas since the new bombing campaign began. On August 13, the coalition bombed a school in Haydan, Yemen, killing at least 10 children and injuring 28 more.

Lieu released a statement two days later, harshly condemning the attack. “The indiscriminate civilian killings by Saudi Arabia look like war crimes to me. In this case, children as young as 8 were killed by Saudi Arabian air strikes,” he wrote.

“By assisting Saudi Arabia, the United States is aiding and abetting what appears to be war crimes in Yemen,” Lieu added. “The administration must stop enabling this madness now.”

Then, mere minutes after his office sent out the statement about the August 13 attack, another tragedy started making headlines: The coalition had justbombed a hospital operated by the international medical humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF), killing 19.

That was the fourth MSF medical facility that the Saudi-led coalition — which has received weapons, intelligence and support from the U.S. and U.K. — has bombed in the past year in Yemen.

By a conservative estimate, more than 6,500 Yemenis have been killed since the war began in March 2015. The violence has pushed Yemen – which was already the poorest country in the Middle East, suffering from widespread hunger and destitution — into what the U.N. has called for well over a year now a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Lieu has been repeatedly raising concerns about Yemen since last fall.