President Vladimir Putin of Russia should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Thread starter Grandluxe
- Start date
thats because he's riding a tricycle.
Show of Farce
Obama's handling of Syria couldn't have been worse
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...your-country-can-do-for-you-or-anyone-really/
Obama's handling of Syria couldn't have been worse
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...your-country-can-do-for-you-or-anyone-really/
The center state of ineptness and fumbling. It's like watching a clown pedaling around in the center ring of Barnum & Bailey's drop all the balls and fall off the unicycle while the audience loudly laughs. Everyone recognizes the clown is a clumsy failure and will not get back on the bike.
The other clowns know they have nothing to fear from this bungling hack - and can carry on doing what they please.
The Rightâs Sickening Syria Spin
by Michael Tomasky Sep 16, 2013 5:45 AM EDT
If Obama persuaded Assad to step down and move to Siberia, the critics would still find something to whine about. Michael Tomasky deflates the arguments against the new arms deal.
"I donât know about you, but Iâm not very interested in being lectured that Bashar al-Assad has no real intention of giving up his chemical weapons by the very same people who a decade ago were pushing this country into warâand having the deranged gall to call the rest of us unpatrioticâon the argument that there was no possible way a monster like Saddam Hussein had given up his chemical weapons. Barack Obama has been forced to spend about 70 percent of his presidential energies trying to repair crises foreign and domestic that these people created, and forced to do so against their iron opposition on all fronts; and now that heâs achieved a diplomatic breakthrough, they have the audacity to argue that he sold America out to Vladimir Putin? Itâs staggering and sickening.
"But here was Newt Gingrich on television yesterday: âYou have Putin playing chess and Obama playing, frankly, a very lucky game of tic-tac-toe. Putin stepped in to maximize Russian influence in the Middle East. That is a strategic defeat for the United States.â What Gingrich is still even doing on television is the first mystery, perhaps solvable by consulting Nostradamus or some ancient Mayan codex; but there he was puffing and huffing, playing with the phrase made famous back during the Libyan adventure by saying Obama was now âfollowing from behind.â
"On another network, there was John McCain (are these shows just going to end when he retires?) asserting that the deal was empty because the Russians âwill not agree to the use of force no matter whatâ Assad does, which my colleague Christopher Dickey wrote yesterday is not in this fact the case.
"Of course, it might end up being trueâindeed it will almost certainly end up being trueâthat the deal cannot be fully and perfectly enforced. To point that out is to belabor the obvious. But the real questions are two. The first doesnât concern Assad at all but is rather: can the deal be enforced well enough that these weapons are kept out of the hands of the al Qaedaâaffiliated fighters in the region and other extremist groups? We donât know the answer today, obviously. But surely the presence of international monitors, and the stern timeline of the deal, make it less possible."
"The second question concerns Assad. Conservatives are now asserting that this deal means Assad has gotten away with it; that he used chemical weapons and will now pay no price. What does that even mean? If he even partly or mostly honors the terms of the deal, heâs paid a price. I suppose the critics really mean that Assad paid no military price, and strictly speaking thatâs true. But do these critics really think Assad is sitting in Damascus laughing? He was afraid the worldâs largest and best military was going to bomb him. And Iâd bet he knows all too clearly that if he uses them again, he will be bombed. If Assad is mad enough to use them again, Obama wonât mess with Congress or even Russia. Heâll be credited by most observersâexcept Americaâs enemies and the Republican Party; food for thought thereâfor having shown restraint the first time, and more people will agree at that point that Assad must be punished."
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by Michael Tomasky Sep 16, 2013 5:45 AM EDT
If Obama persuaded Assad to step down and move to Siberia, the critics would still find something to whine about. Michael Tomasky deflates the arguments against the new arms deal.
"I donât know about you, but Iâm not very interested in being lectured that Bashar al-Assad has no real intention of giving up his chemical weapons by the very same people who a decade ago were pushing this country into warâand having the deranged gall to call the rest of us unpatrioticâon the argument that there was no possible way a monster like Saddam Hussein had given up his chemical weapons. Barack Obama has been forced to spend about 70 percent of his presidential energies trying to repair crises foreign and domestic that these people created, and forced to do so against their iron opposition on all fronts; and now that heâs achieved a diplomatic breakthrough, they have the audacity to argue that he sold America out to Vladimir Putin? Itâs staggering and sickening.
"But here was Newt Gingrich on television yesterday: âYou have Putin playing chess and Obama playing, frankly, a very lucky game of tic-tac-toe. Putin stepped in to maximize Russian influence in the Middle East. That is a strategic defeat for the United States.â What Gingrich is still even doing on television is the first mystery, perhaps solvable by consulting Nostradamus or some ancient Mayan codex; but there he was puffing and huffing, playing with the phrase made famous back during the Libyan adventure by saying Obama was now âfollowing from behind.â
"On another network, there was John McCain (are these shows just going to end when he retires?) asserting that the deal was empty because the Russians âwill not agree to the use of force no matter whatâ Assad does, which my colleague Christopher Dickey wrote yesterday is not in this fact the case.
"Of course, it might end up being trueâindeed it will almost certainly end up being trueâthat the deal cannot be fully and perfectly enforced. To point that out is to belabor the obvious. But the real questions are two. The first doesnât concern Assad at all but is rather: can the deal be enforced well enough that these weapons are kept out of the hands of the al Qaedaâaffiliated fighters in the region and other extremist groups? We donât know the answer today, obviously. But surely the presence of international monitors, and the stern timeline of the deal, make it less possible."
"The second question concerns Assad. Conservatives are now asserting that this deal means Assad has gotten away with it; that he used chemical weapons and will now pay no price. What does that even mean? If he even partly or mostly honors the terms of the deal, heâs paid a price. I suppose the critics really mean that Assad paid no military price, and strictly speaking thatâs true. But do these critics really think Assad is sitting in Damascus laughing? He was afraid the worldâs largest and best military was going to bomb him. And Iâd bet he knows all too clearly that if he uses them again, he will be bombed. If Assad is mad enough to use them again, Obama wonât mess with Congress or even Russia. Heâll be credited by most observersâexcept Americaâs enemies and the Republican Party; food for thought thereâfor having shown restraint the first time, and more people will agree at that point that Assad must be punished."
More >>