I thought Obama was supposed to be the smartest President evar! Yet he makes yet another stupid mistake.
Category Archives: Foreign Affairs
Obama Knew Bin Laden’s Location For A Year Before The “Gutsy Call.”
Is it really a “gutsy call” if it takes you a year to make it?
General Jack Keane (Retired), the former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, told Mike Huckabee tonight that Barack Obama knew about Osama Bin Laden’s hideout since the summer of 2010. But Barack Obama refused to act for several months. He wanted absolute proof first that Osama was living there. It wasn’t until May of 2011 that he agreed to attack Bin Laden’s compound, almost a year later.
Taliban Getting Stronger?
That’s the conclusion of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).
The heads of the Senate and House intelligence committees said Sunday the Taliban was gaining ground, just days after President Barack Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan and touted the progress made in the war on terror. “I think we’d both say that what we found is that the Taliban is stronger,” said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on CNN’s “State of the Union,” while sitting with Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan.
Obama’s Keystone XL Headache Isn’t Over Yet
TransCanada has applied again:
The Canadian company seeking to build the massive Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline through the U.S. reapplied for a permit on Friday, pushing the politically sensitive issue back onto President Obama’s plate six months before the election.
The War On Terror Is Over?
So says a senior State Department official:
It is no longer the case, in other words, that every Islamist is seen as a potential accessory to terrorists. ”The war on terror is over,” one senior State Department official who works on Mideast issues told me. “Now that we have killed most of al Qaida, now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism.”
Lebanon Reporter Gives Obama An “F” On The Middle East
Gee, I thought we were told during the campaign that having a President whose middle name was Hussein and who was raised in Indonesia was supposed to improve things in the Middle East:
Morally, Obama’s behavior in the Middle East is objectionable; diplomatically, the president has been without inspiration, a leader who has prompted few genuinely profitable foreign policy openings. His three major speeches on the region – those in Ankara and Cairo, and his more recent effort at the State Department, in which he vowed that the United States would “promote reform across the region, and … support transitions to democracy” – have become embarrassing reminders of how little the president has achieved. Even Obama’s urge to engage in a dialogue with the Muslim world was vacant, the whim of a college professor, a meaningless exercise in self-flagellation – for who but the U.S. alone, the president plainly implied, was responsible for the misunderstanding with the Muslim world?
Iran Invades Iraq!
UPI:
ERBIL, Iraq, July 11 (UPI) — Iranian forces are stationed about a 1 1/2 miles inside the Iraq border as part of an operation targeting Kurdish militants, a border official said.
A source inside the border patrol in the northern Kurdish provinces of Iraq said Iranian forces crossed the border during the weekend in pursuit of members of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK.
“The Iranian force is still stationed at the same positions it penetrated into on Sunday, following clashes between both sides,” the source told the Voices of Iraqi news agency.
Stationing troops inside another nation’s borders without permission is generally referred to as an “invasion.”
But did you hear about it on the evening news? If the websites are any indication, no, you didn’t.
CNN’s top stories in World (all of these are as of the time of this writing and may change):
Pakistani official downplays U.S. decision
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Pakistan’s U.S. ambassador discuss the latest rift in U.S.-Pakistani relations. FULL STORY
Top World Stories
- Brown ‘shocked’ by new hacking claims
- Protesters target U.S., French embassies in Syria
- U.S.: Iraq must go after Shiite militia
- 6 police hurt in Northern Ireland riots
- Japan announces new nuclear safety tests
- Dozens dead after ship sinks in Russia
- At least 64 dead in India train crash
- 44 schoolboys die in road accident
- Yemen’s Saleh, top U.S. anti-terrorism official meet
Reports: Ex-UK PM targeted in hack attack
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown had his personal information targeted by elements of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, reports say. Full story
World’s first double leg transplant done in Spain
Clinton: Syria’s Assad has lost legitimacy to rule
NYT: Suspect freed in Afghan mutilation case
High levels of radiation in Japanese beef
Egyptians demand justice for slain protesters
‘Metal coffin’: 128 dead as Russia boat sinks
Maybe ABC has something…
International News
Death Toll at 67 in India Train Wreckage
More bodies have been pulled from wreckage of derailed train in northern India.Russian Cruise Ship Sinks, 90 Missing
Hope is fading for about 90 still missing day after cruise boat sinks in Volga.Kate Speaks as Royal Couple Leaves for Home
Kate says she “really enjoyed” the as royal couple leaves U.S. for England.Brit Bishop Loses Appeal for Denying Holocaust
Bishop Richard Williamson does not believe Jews were gassed in World War II.Music Festival Lures Fans to Arctic Circle
Festival-goers must make a journey that includes airplanes, boats and walking.Panetta: Al Qaeda’s Defeat ‘Within Reach’
New Defense Secretary begins first tour of war region as head of Pentagon.
Watch: U.S. Embassy Vandalized in Syria
Syrian government supporters attack the American and French embassies.
Okay, maybe CBS:
Top World NewsPrince Albert, Charlene wed in MonacoSome 2,000 headliners gather to watch the religious ceremony capping two days of wedding events Read Blog
- First double leg transplant carried out in Spain
- Qaddafi opponents have a stronghold in the west
- Sunk Russian boat was damaged, overcrowded
- Diplomacy in the age of Facebook
- Russian neo-Nazis get life sentences for murders
- Murdoch papers reportedly targeted Gordon Brown
- U.S. to protest Syrians’ attack on embassy
- Filipinos catch 13-foot croc in hunt for killer
I guess one country invading another just doesn’t qualify as news anymore.
Obama Now vs. Obama Then
Let’s compare and contrast, shall we? Set the WABAC machine for February 2009, just after Obama’s inauguration, Sherman…
“Let me say this as plainly as I can,” Obama told the Marines. “By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”
He added: “I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned.”
(emphasis added)
Now, let’s come back to today:
The White House is prepared to keep as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of the year, amid growing concern that the planned pullout of virtually all remaining American forces would lead to intensified militant attacks, according to U.S. officials.
Personally, I prefer the “now” Obama, because Iraq’s security is probably in our best interests… but what this little trip backwards in time clearly demonstrates is that Obama is your typical Chicago Machine Pol, willing to lie even to his own supporters.
When A Gay Girl In Damascus Is Actually A Mennonite Male In Georgia
Can the left do anything without deception involved?
For nearly a week, the world followed the saga of Amina Arraf, the blogger who was celebrated for her passionate, often intimate writings about the Syrian government’s crackdown on Arab Spring protesters. Those writings stopped abruptly last Monday, and in a posting on her blog, “A Gay Girl in Damascus,” a cousin said Amina had been hauled away by government security agents.
News of her disappearance became an Internet and media sensation. The U.S. State Department started an investigation. But almost immediately skeptics began asking: Had anyone ever actually met Amina? On Wednesday, pictures of her on the blog were revealed to have been taken from a London woman’s Facebook page.
And Sunday, the truth spilled out: The gay girl in Damascus confessed to being a 40-year-old American man from Georgia.
The persona Tom MacMaster built and cultivated for years — a lesbian who was half Syrian and half American — was a tantalizing Internet-era fiction, one that he used to bring attention to the human rights record of a country where media restrictions make traditional reporting almost impossible.
On Sunday, MacMaster apologized on the blog. “While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground,” he wrote. “I do not believe that I have harmed anyone — I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.”
MacMaster, a Middle East peace activist who is working on his master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, wrote that he fictionalized the account of a gay woman in Syria to illuminate the situation for a Western audience.
“Fake but accurate” raises its ugly head again! Dan Rather must be so proud.
H/T PJ Tatler
DNC Sinks To Using Bibi To Try To Silence Jewish Republicans
Just when I think the Democrats can’t sink any lower, they prove me wrong:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday met with representative delegates of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC). But while the meeting was meant to shore up bipartisan support for Israel from American Jewish political organizations, it quickly became a partisan bickering match, with the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Debbie Wasserman Schultz, using the platform to tell Republican Jews to stop doing what they’re doing.
The RJC used their opening remarks to say that now was a historical time for the future of the Middle East, and to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for meeting with them. But while the NJDC’s chairman said essentially the same thing, he was followed by hyper-partisan comments, first from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel and then from the DNC chair, Wasserman Schultz.
Sitting in front of Netanyahu, the DNC chair asked the RJC to “pledge to refrain in 2012 from using Israel as part of the issues in campaigns,” according to RJC executive director Matt Brooks. “It started that way. Right from the get go they just jumped on it.”
Admittedly, this isn’t all Democrats doing this, but then again, the Democratic National Committee did elect Wasserman Schultz in an open election among their members, so they’re at least partially responsible for her behavior. And her antics have been known for some time, since at least 2006. So it’s not like she was an unknown quantity when campaigning to take over the DNC.