"President Obama’s speech to the nation Tuesday night has turned into a defining moment for the remainder of his term."
I want to KNOW WHO DECIDED THAT?
WHO DECIDED that THIS IS the defining moment of his presidency?
WHO DECIDED that an ATTACK on SYRIA will define this president?
CERTAINLY NOT ME!
"Credibility stakes high for Obama in Syria speech; At home and abroad, his word will be weighed" by Noah Biermanand Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, September 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s speech to the nation Tuesday night has turned into a defining moment for the remainder of his term. The outcome of his call for Congress to authorize military strikes against Syria could determine both his credibility on domestic issues and his power on the international stage, analysts said Monday.
Says WHO?
The stakes remained high even in light of Monday’s development that Russia is pushing Syria to allow United Nations control of its alleged chemical weapons. In an interview with CBS, Obama said Monday night that any proposed diplomatic solution must be backed by the “credible military threat from the United States.”
With a possible diplomatic solution under discussion, congressional votes on the proposed authorization of force have been postponed. But Obama said he plans to go ahead with his speech outlining the rationale for action.
Why do the speech now? Call it off, and call of the strike.
Related: Russian Proposal Was Obomber's Idea
I don't care who gets the credit as long as war is avoided.
Obama’s advisers have said he will make the case to Congress and the American public that the “red line” he drew against the Syrian regime’s presumed use of chemical weapons is worth backing up with the threat of military force.
You can talk until you are blue in the face.
What part of NO do you not understand, the N, the O, or the HELL before it!?
“If he loses, then clearly, his lame duck status probably starts more than a year earlier than normal,” said Elaine C. Kamarck, a Clinton administration veteran and now a senior scholar at the Brookings Institution. “Also if he loses, it’s difficult to say how the bad guys in the world, like North Korea and other places, interpret this.”
Yeah, that will make you think.
The task has been made much more difficult because Obama has seemed uncertain of his own course. He initially drew a hard line on chemical weapons and then, once convinced that the Syrian government had used them last month, spoke and acted as if a military strike were imminent.
But on the eve of a possible attack, Obama surprised the nation with the announcement that he would pull back and seek authorization from a Congress that has rarely cooperated with him.
Many members of Congress lined up against the president’s initial request, with lawmakers reporting an overwhelming negative response from constituents, in some cases 10 to 1 against a military strike. Obama gave little warning to the congressional leaders who might have helped him gain broader support, and has since had difficulty even within his own party.
I would like to think I helped.
“We should learn from history,” said Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat and Iraq war veteran, in announcing her opposition Monday. “We cannot afford to be the world’s policeman.”
Obama has been caught between two principles that, in retrospect, seem destined to collide: that the world must act to punish Syria for crossing a moral boundary, and that the president must respect the will of the people, as reflected by Congress, in using military force.
He better, or the protests will be for impeachment. If the mob wants to draw and quarter him, I'm not standing in the way.
And DON'T SET US UP for BLAME over HIS FAILURE based on HIS LIES, crap media!
The second principle will mean little to world leaders if Obama loses in Congress and chooses not to act, said John L. Esposito, a Middle East policy specialist at Georgetown University. They will see only weakness, undermining Obama’s ability to negotiate with Iran, Israel, and the Palestinians, among other nations, he said.
Related: The Kerry Chronicles: Paying Lip Service to Palestinians
I never thought it was anything but.
“I just don’t think that will wash in the international community,” Esposito said. “It will just be a sign that the US not only does not have the kind of leadership it used to have, but is also not willing to exercise that leadership.”
There is NOTHING NEW about THAT!
When you are the HULKING CARCASS of a BANKRUPT and DYING EMPIRE those things happen.
A bipartisan loss on an issue of this magnitude could also deeply imperil Obama’s power at home, just as he heads into tricky negotiations over budget issues and tries to revive a stalled immigration bill.
Yes, the president needs to have war authority because he needs you to save him from a debilitating public defeat.
What a REAL SHITTY REASON to START a WAR to protect a president!!!!
In fact, IT'S CRIMINAL!
Related: Immigration bill could be postponed
Yeah, war and banks come first.
A CNN poll released Monday said that Obama’s foreign policy approval rating from Americans had reached an all-time low, with only 40 percent of respondents saying they think he has handled foreign affairs well.
Meaning it is really at 20%.
The White House pursued a dual path on Monday, dispatching the president and his key advisers to make speeches and give interviews bolstering the case for force against Syria.
That is a very telling sentence. The White House is apparently a living entity now, apart and separate from the man who occupies it. The White House, therefore, has its own policy.
Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton and National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice both spoke about the need for a strong response to chemical weapons. Obama gave six national television interviews.
Ah, the LIARS of LIBYA!
The potential diplomatic solution emerged after an offhanded comment by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who said a strike could be avoided if Syria agreed to let the United Nations have control of his alleged chemical weapons.
I was told it was Obomber's idea.
“This has become a circus of weirdness,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “As it’s headed, I don’t see it as a textbook example of ‘what to do’ in the Naval War College.”
Still, Brinkley said Obama could emerge with an improbable victory, which could smooth over some of the missteps of the past few months. “You’re looking at a work in progress,” he said. “What if . . . we have this public debate and Russia is now having a proposal and the end game is maybe getting rid of these chemical weapons?”
Meaning it did come from Russia after Kerry goofed.
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"Mass. delegates unswayed on Syria strikes; Russian plan called promising" by Tracy Jan and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, September 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — No one in the Massachusetts congressional delegation has expressed support for military strikes against Syria to punish its leader for the alleged use of chemical weapons, according to a survey of the all-Democrat delegation by the Globe....
Representative James McGovern of Worcester said that he sees the Russian proposal as a promising solution to deter US attacks on Syria. He opposes a military strike.
He is mine and he better oppose it no matter what.
He is mine and he better oppose it no matter what.
“What I’m particularly interested in right now is the prospect of pursuing this proposal by the Russians,” said McGovern in an interview.
McGovern renewed his call on Obama to withdraw his request for congressional authorization for a military attack on Syria. On Sunday, while appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McGovern said he didn’t believe the president had the support necessary to win a vote on Syria.
No surrogate he.
No surrogate he.
Representative Michael Capuano of Somerville, who is also expected to vote against a military strike, said in a statement to the Globe on Monday that he is “encouraged by the latest proposal for Syria to give up control over its chemical weapons.”
There may not even be a vote now. Senate already cancelled.
There may not even be a vote now. Senate already cancelled.
Other members who could be reached and who expressed skepticism or might vote no were representatives Richard Neal of Springfield, Stephen Lynch of South Boston, and Niki Tsongas of Lowell.
Neal, the dean of the state’s House members, said he believes a sizeable majority of his colleagues will vote no....
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Also see: Candidate presses his rivals on Syria
"Hub protesters oppose action in Syria; Group rallies at Boston Common" by Alyssa Creamer | Globe Correspondent, September 10, 2013
"Hub protesters oppose action in Syria; Group rallies at Boston Common" by Alyssa Creamer | Globe Correspondent, September 10, 2013
About 150 protesters spoke out against possible US military action in Syria at a candlelight vigil around Park Street MBTA station Monday night, the latest in a number of demonstrations on both sides of the issue sparked by the Mideast country’s alleged use of chemical weapons on its own people.
Except the ANTIWAR PROTESTS are MUCH LARGER!
Except the ANTIWAR PROTESTS are MUCH LARGER!
Protesters delivered speeches urging members of Congress to vote against US military intervention, which President Obama is considering.
“The reason I came is that I expect much more of President Obama,” said Cathy Hoffman, who said she was a longtime peace activist and had lived in Cambridge for decades. “I have been at many demonstrations throughout the decades as president after president has chosen war over and over again to inflict punishment on other countries.”
“War catalyzes hatred, war takes away from resources at home, and it destroys the possibility of solidarity for civilian populations,” she said.
“We have men here counterdemonstrating,” she said, pointing to a cluster of four men who were shouting that President Bashar Assad of Syria is “a criminal.”
The men were from a group they called New Day Syria, which had about 20 members standing on the periphery of the vigil, shouting that Syrians want US military action to stop the violence from their government.
How is more violence going to stop violence, never mind the chemical weapons being used by the insurgents.
“Assad is a criminal, but the appropriate way to handle criminals is to send them to justice, not to fire missiles,” said Hoffman.
That's why I want Bush and Bliar, for starters, sent to the Hague.
How is more violence going to stop violence, never mind the chemical weapons being used by the insurgents.
“Assad is a criminal, but the appropriate way to handle criminals is to send them to justice, not to fire missiles,” said Hoffman.
That's why I want Bush and Bliar, for starters, sent to the Hague.
She spoke about her views that war fuels hatred between societies before introducing Thavory Huot, who was selected in 2005 as a Women PeaceMaker by San Diego University’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.
From Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Huot spoke to the crowd about her and her family’s experiences with US intervention in Cambodia in the 1970s while the Khmer Rouge was the ruling power.
“The US government started bombing us, and we were frightened by high technologic war. It was very scary,” she said.
But they only do it for your own good!
But they only do it for your own good!
She said Cambodians were less concerned about the Vietnam War until Cambodia began to feel its effects.
I once asked a Cambodian I worked with about that because the Vietnamese intervention, while not done for those reasons, was probably the most "humanitarian" invasion ever -- and even the Cambodian said it did not help. Only made things worse.
I once asked a Cambodian I worked with about that because the Vietnamese intervention, while not done for those reasons, was probably the most "humanitarian" invasion ever -- and even the Cambodian said it did not help. Only made things worse.
One of the event’s organizers, Cole Harris of Roslindale, said, “We wanted to lift up our voices. The overwhelming majority is saying no to military action. It is right to be concerned about chemical weapons. We don’t condone chemical weapons.”
Nersis Jamsakian, a 22-year-old Suffolk University student who grew up in Aleppo, Syria, and came to the US in 2008, said he joined the demonstration after seeing it on his way home.
“Me and my family, we are with the president [Assad],” he said. “My dad’s side is still in Aleppo, and things are not good. . . . I don’t think the government released chemical weapons. I think it was the rebels.”
That's right, the WORLD KNOWS!
That's right, the WORLD KNOWS!
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This isn't a defining moment for Obomber, folks; it will simply be confirmation of his war criminal status.
It IS, however, a DEFINING MOMENT for the WORLD if he goes through with an attack on Syria.
This isn't a defining moment for Obomber, folks; it will simply be confirmation of his war criminal status.
It IS, however, a DEFINING MOMENT for the WORLD if he goes through with an attack on Syria.
