I don’t know that it particularly matters to the president how his speech tonight is received. He’s speaking to the history books. It’s not like this Congress will do anything sensible regardless of what he says or how he says it.
But, sometimes, things need to be said even if the audience isn’t really interested in listening.
That speech was awesome sauce.
The use of exceptional made me wince just a bit.
I tried to visualize Pres Trump giving his version. Needless to say the takeaway was how many countries we’d be at war with tomorrow morning.
We are already “at war” with whatever countries he might mention, mainsailset. It might even be a relief to have someone say this out loud. At least we’d have someone to oppose instead of some mealy-mouthed neoliberal.
i watched the speech right through to the bitter end, where he said:
I am sorry, mainsailset. I can no longer swallow anything that precedes such an egregious lie. “We” were founded on slavery, indentured servitude and genocide. End of story. And Obama damned well knows it. So he stood there and lied to us again. Oh yes…I know…”That’s just political boilerplate. It’s simply what presidents say.” I say FUCK political boilerplate!!! As the Roman Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist Cicero said:
Obama is a very good liar. That’s how got the job. Trump is a very bad liar. A transparent liar. A transparent asshole. At least with him in office the truth would be more than a little easier to discern.
It’s hard to fight a shape-shifter like Obama. W/Trump, what you see it definitely what you get. And…if he actually gets elected, then we’ll finally know the truth about where the population of the U.S. really stands in terms of intellectual and spiritual evolution.
Lower than you can possibly imagine.
The truth shall set you free, or so they say. Transparent lies reveal “the truth.”
Lies embedded in slick propagandizing?
Harder to discern, apparently.
So it goes.
Later…
AG
P.S. “We are on the right side of history!!!???”
Better put…we are now on the right wing of history.
Is ISIL barbaric?
Yes, it is.
Is the U.S. more efficiently barbaric?
Ask its victims since the start of the Vietnam War.
Does efficient barbarity equal victory?
I dunno.
You tell me.
Is the U.S. in better shape now, 50+ years of efficient barbarity after the day that JFK was assassinated?
Right
It ain’t.
Don’t swallow the hype.
And…WTFU.
Please.
I’m fine with appealing to the “better angels” within almost all people. However, that doesn’t mean promulgating a lie that we have always been angels. As a nation we have only rarely made such an effort and even in those moments, it was side-by-side with our continuing beastliness.
In a sane country President Obama would be praised for that speech.
In this country he’ll be assailed from all sides.
Of course, in a sane country things wouldn’t have come to such a pitch of maddened idiocy that much of what he said would have been necessary in the first place.
Only the third speech from the Oval Office. Did that get mention from the Wall Street media?
Putting the Constitution hot potato back on Congress was a good move even if they do nothing. At the moment, as long as the funds flow Congress is pretty much irrelevant to the defeat of DAESH.
Shutting down the Raqaa “Islamic State” doesn’t require Congress. But the administration better be laying the ground work for dealing with the DAESH move to Sirt or Misrata in Libya if Raqaa begins to be lost. And watch for action to seize any other oil fields or cash generators. Congress might be needed for something in regard to that.
Erdogan is jockeying to get an agreement to remove Assad out of the next meeting of the International Syrian Support Group in Vienna. Not sure that it is going to happen, given Iraq’s response to Syria and Iran’s hard line on Assad. Besides, who replaces Assad who can restabilize the regime? Erdogan needs to deal with one rival at a time; the critical one right now is DAESH.
Israel has apparently inked a coordination agreement with Russia to prevent Russian air operations over Syria for triggering an international crisis.
There are a lot of pieces in place that allow for an optimistic reading of DAESH being no longer an issue by inauguration day 2017. But there are more that must fall into place for that to happen. A solid agreement out of Vienna is the first one; it ropes in the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia from adventurism — and likely Erdogan too eventually. It makes all of the frontline countries stakeholders in the restoration of stability to the region. It likely requires some serious negotiating over the end game position of the Kurds. And reining in notions by theocratic of aspirational theocratic states of restoring the caliphate from the position of an already existing nation state. It likely must deal with sectarian issues both with Salafism and the Moslem Brotherhood in addition to the Sunni-Shiite-Alewite fault lines. And someone is going to have to finance the reconstruction of Syria and Iraq. And aid the clean-up of war ordnance in both countries.
The President likely did not mention those future hard tasks. I hope they are on his to-do list. The failure to deal with reconstruction could create the crisis that brings a nitwit to power in 2020.
After the Levant … Syria/Iraq, back to Libya [thx Hillary!]
○ Islamic State risk for Libya’s troubled oil sector
○ Sirte in Libya is Islamic State’s fallback option after Raqqa
Posted earlier @MoA – Erdogan’s “Turkmen” Lose Some Of Their Chechen And Saudi Leaders.
The attempt by US and NATO powers [read Turkey] to remove Assad on the cheap by use of Al Qaeda proxies hasn’t worked out very well – Obama – Biden- Power – [HRC] – following the Albright/Brzezinski doctrine.
See my recent diaries:
○ ISIS Terror Attacks Lead to A Franco-Russian Coalition
○ Excellent piece on Gun Violence, Domestic Terror and Military Adventure
Is the most dangerous issue in the world right now. Turkey is participating in behaviours and activities completely at odds with the aspirations of most NATO nations but using the alliance as cover.
The recent incident with Russian aircraft should be a warning to us all regarding Erdogan, his intentions and his willingness to gamble. If the truth were known he is more antagonist that ally in many respects and Western lenders may find themselves trapped into supporting the little tyrant simply to protect their imprudent investments in a corrupt regime. It has happened before.
I concur. I think the best thing the US can do is work for and protect and independent Kurdistan and let the Turks know this will happen. The Kurds are the lynchpin to a stable, secular presence in the middle east. If they have secure borders and are allowed to have a standing army, they could be a force for good.
That Erdogan would put NATO membership on the table before that ever happened. Remember de Gaulle in 1966? It could happen.
I could even see him dealing temporarily with Putin in spite of the historical and geopolitical enmity between Russia and Turkey over the centuries. Like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1938 such a thing would be a real game changer.
This is a dangerous space and I’m guessing Erdogan is capable of just about anything. He doesn’t have to worry about domestic public opinion for now; perhaps for ever.
○ Shiite Iraqi politicians denounce Turkish ‘Invasion,’ call for Aerial bombardment | Informed Comment |
○ Turkey to allow army to fight in Syria and Iraq, but blocks Kurds | LA Times – Oct. 2, 2014 |
○ On the KRG, the Turkish-Kurdish Peace Process, and the Future of the Kurds [pdf]
○ Turkey’s Kurdish Path [pdf]
Unfortunately I have errands to run, I was working on a new diary … so I suffice with a few links!
I was surprised that even the GOP propoganda channel carried it live.
But you’re right that this is about the history books. The fascists control both houses now, nothing will get done.
Why are you surprised? In a PermaGov system, both parties are essentially intertwined in the hype.
AG
○ Newspaper and journalist prosecuted for reporting Turks’ hospitality for jihadists
○ Iraq orders Turkey to ‘immediately’ withdraw troops sent across border | The Guardian |
○ Turkey to train Arabs, Peshmerga “to fight Daesh” in Mosul
○ Erdogan Moves To Annex Mosul in Northern Iraq
I am so glad this man is President.
h/t POU.
Read the twitter timeline of an actual foreign correspondent about what the President said, and what it means.
https://twitter.com/7im/timelines/673689270419230721
Problem here is that this speech will reassure priecisely no one. And it makes the next incident ripe for a major reactionary response. To some extent Truman over reacted to Communism, but did his over reaction prevent more dangerously extreme responses? Is that applicable here? Does prudence demand a level of imprudence? Is this idea itself just 14th dimensional chess?
Nothing Obama says, whether standing or sitting from the Oval or anywhere else, will reassure me he knows how to handle to ISIS situation until he wises up and accepts Putin’s offer for a grand alliance. Working with Russia, much is possible. Without them, the problem will never be resolved.
What a mess it is now, with too many parties with conflicting interests and tripwire situations being created (Turkey – Russia, etc) that could cause everything to unravel. Endless bombing and droning which has little effect except to create more terrorists — and yet Obama wants to do more of the same. More bombing with more allies, add a few special ops forces, and in Obama’s neocon thinking ISIS will soon be destroyed.
I doubt it.
It would help if he cleaned house of his neocon national security team, some held over from the Bush years. But he’s either bought their gameplan or he’s too afraid of defying them. I suspect the latter — fear in both a political and personal sense.
Its an actual state that needs to be fought as a state. I do think that we need to work with Russia if we can. At this point I prefer Russia to Turkey.
well there is always this response
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ralph-peters-fox-news-obama
What would happen if presidential candidate would support a bill that would give a free gun to every taxpayer via Homeland Security funds? If the
Democrats supported it, it would be what the Republicans say was another welfare handout….would the GOP be against it? It would be a game changer for the Dems.