Someone tell me that it’s just my ODS-ometer going off and he didn’t really just inject a political point into his Arlington speech, as if he’s still campaigning:
President Obama highlighted the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan during his annual Memorial Day speech in Arlington, Va. on Monday, casting it as a historic time of remembrance spanning two administrations.
“For many of us, this Memorial Day is especially meaningful. It’s the first since our war in Afghanistan came to an end,” Obama said during his speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
Clad in dark blue suit and deep red tie, Obama noted that it was the first Memorial Day honoring fallen soldiers in more than a decade that the U.S. “is not engaged in a major ground war.”
Obama to selfie: “Go me!”
It’s as though he’s defending his failed Middle East strategy in a national Memorial Day speech.
Sometimes less is not more (unless you’re talking about more suffering in the world). Sometimes less is less. You get what you pay for, and we are beginning to pay the price for American disengagement from the world’s conflicts.
We tried to do Libya on the cheap and Obama cheerleaders still think it a model example of how to wage war without ground troops (let alone the folly of removing Sadd- er, Qaddafi- in the first place).
ISIS in Iraq. ISIS expansion into Afghanistan. ISIS exports suicide bombing of a mosque in Saudi Arabia. Boasts of planning attacks in U.S. with 71 trained fighters in 15 states. Yet the isolationist/non-interventionists think what ISIS does overseas is not our concern?
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
That a**hole never misses a chance to talk about himself.
The DNC also paid tribute to our fallen on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/TheDemocrats/status/601820580678082561/photo/1
@another vet: That’s a joke Twitter account, right?! Some conservative insider attack?
Does Juan Williams have a point: GOP dishonesty on ISIS and Iraq?
@Wordsmith: It could be a vast right wing conspiracy, but given that Jake Tapper, not exactly a right-winger, bashed them for it on Twitter, it’s highly unlikely.
The Left has so hijacked the narrative on Iraq/ISIS (and everything else for that matter), that Republicans are starting to run from it as demonstrated by their wannabe POTUS’s unwillingness to hit back at the media for asking the, “Do you believe Iraq was a mistake?” question. The last time we underestimated our enemy (AQ in the 1990’s), it didn’t turn out too well especially for around 3,000 Americans on 9/11.
Has a pre-9/11 mentality overtaken the country?
If Obama thought that was good campaigning he might have noticed that his lines about the end of war was greeted by No Applause.
Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOd8NHLy-VI
It is only slightly more than 1 minute long, but worth the look.
It is a crying shame to know that much of ancient artifacts have been and will be destroyed by ISIS before Obama is gone.
There will be thousands of people who suffer and die, too.
Obama seems oblivious to real human suffering.
@Nanny G:
But I bet the ice cream was good.
@Wordsmith:
Nope. Quite real. Ramadi falls, hundreds slaughtered, Obama celebrates Memorial Day by eating ice cream. As I said, it’s ALWAYS about him.
@Nanny G, #5:
The title given to the YouTube video is totally bogus. At no point in the video clip does Obama take credit for ending the war in Afghanistan. Nor is that a point in his speech were applause would have been either appropriate or expected.
Wordsmith asked a very important question in connection with the Juan Williams article he linked. Nobody seems to want to touch it.
Speaker Boehner will not allow a vote on Obama’s request for an authorization to use military force against ISIS, because Obama states he has no intention of putting large numbers U.S. combat troops on the ground in a combat roll. Obama formally requested the authorization to use military force against ISIS six months ago.
Boehner is playing a game of partisan politics while ISIS is advancing and the clock is ticking. The stunning thing about this is that he’s not even playing smart partisan politics. There is absolutely no upside to not allowing a vote on Obama’s request for a freer hand in dealing militarily with ISIS. Later, when Obama is gone, it may well be too late for anything but ground troops on a large scale. Republicans will then likely discover that this never really was a politically viable option. The American people do not want an Iraq War, Part 3. Tying the hands of a president who already realizes this will not produce good results.
@another vet –
The pre-9/11 mentality has returned. The talk of war weariness is quite pervasive, particularly among the many who never spent a day in A-stan or Iraq. Hate to say it, a most brutal attack here in CONUS will have to occur for people to realize the kind of war we’re in.
On this day of memorializing those who gave their fullest measure for our country, our security, our freedom and our liberty, it disgusts me to see a man who has never sacrificed anything, ever, for anyone but himself stand in front of the country and speak on the subject of sacrifice. He has no conception of sacrifice, he has no conception of honor, he has no conception of duty to serve others; he has no business putting himself forth as someone who knows what it is like to make sacrifices for the sake of others.
@Greg:
Juan Williams is simply another mouthpiece for the Democrats. How quickly he seems to forget that when his fat fell in the fire because he didn’t bow properly to the Politically Correct Gods, and the left turned on him like a viper (even losing his job with NPR), it was conservatives that rushed to his defense.
Once again, Juan Williams has returned to his true roots, as a DNC hack.
Give me a number that constitutes “large.”
But Boehner isn’t the only one that doesn’t like Obama’s vague AUMF. The left side of the left isn’t happy about it, either.
IOW, the next POTUS will be cleaning up Obama’s mess because he was too damn inept to renegotiate the SoFA (he really didn’t want to, but you’ll never admit that) and leave a residual force in Iraq that had some teeth in it. But what does he care? Won’t be his problem, and the Democrat hacks (like you, Gullible Greggie) will be quick to jump on the next POTUS claiming he is at fault because that’s what you hacks do. You blame others for your own failures.
Obama’s problem is that now, six years into his administration, he’s got no one to blame for the mess in the Middle East beside himself so he will spin what we all can see with our own eyes. Unfortunately, he’s worn out the “It’s all George Bush’s fault” card.
@David: Unfortunately, you are probably correct. As they say, those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.
Boehner isn’t my idea of a good speaker, but this whole authorization thing is a farce.
The authorization request that the president submitted in February would give the president even less authority than he currently has to fight the militants, Boehner said. “This is why the president frankly should withdraw the authorization of use of military force and start over,” he said of the AUMF.
Asked if Congress should not assume its constitutional responsibility to declare war, Boehner said there can only be one commander-in-chief at a time, and that is the president.
http://www.voanews.com/content/boehner-says-hope-is-not-strategy-to-defeat-islamic-state/2778966.html
Obama is waiting for this “authorization” so he can then say, “I have less authority than before, it’s the Republicans’ fault.”
Both of them are useless.
@Scott in Oklahoma, #10:
Barack Obama is the Commander in Chief of all United States military forces and President of the United States by way of two elections which he won by wide margins, in which record numbers of Americans voted. Apparently yours is not the prevailing opinion.
@retire05, #11:
Even if that were true, it wouldn’t change the fact that Juan Williams has asked a very important question. One which I notice you just wasted five paragraphs not answering.
Apparently I am supposed to believe that assertion without any further explanation simply because Jon Boehner said it.
Well, I don’t. Perhaps someone can explain.
Specifically how would granting the authorization Obama formally requested from Congress lessen the authority that he already has?
@Greg:
Let me touch it.
First, Obama doesn’t need authorization. He merely wants GOP DNA on the program for when it fails.
Second, foreign policy is Obama’s, not Boehner’s.
@Greg:
Juan was simply asking a “When did you quit beating your wife?” question. You seemed to not have noticed how he never mentioned that the left wing of the left is ALSO against Obama’s AUMF?
And Greg, in #14, isn’t able to dispute a word of what I posted.
@Greg, #19:
All you have done is state an opinion. It’s not my own opinion, nor, as I noted, is it the prevailing opinion. That’s why Obama was reelected to a second term, despite the fact that those on the right did everything in their power for 4 continuous years to discredit him.
@retire05, #18:
Nope. He’s asking a serious, straightforward, and critical question:
Do republicans really want to put a large number of U.S. combat troops on the ground in Iraq to go head to head with ISIS forces?
I’ll believe they’re sincere when their 2016 presidential candidates begin stating unambiguously that this is exactly what they intend to do, if elected.
Want to quibble about the meaning of the phrase “a large number?” What “a large number” means in this context is however many it takes to get the job done—a number that would be open-ended and totally impossible to predict with any degree of certainty. The battle wouldn’t stop at the Syrian border. The ultimate cost in dollars and casualties would be just as hard to predict.
That’s a scary thought, isn’t it? If it isn’t, it should be. Obama is honest about not wanting to go there. He recognizes the enormous risks. That’s more honesty than we’re presently getting from Boehner, or any of the republican presidential hopefuls.
@another vet:
Ever since 2008 when the idiots in this country elected a putrid moo-slime with a falsified background and lawyer concealed records — led off by the a$$hole MuckStain not having the guts to say the ‘RAT’s middle name and calling him a nice Christian guy with a nice family! That gutless a$$hole threw the election — some war hero – NOT! rMoney pulled the same chicken-out in 2012!
Actually the capitulation was the “Islam is a religion of peace” – abject lie! — kissing the Saudi’s a$$ by Boosch – practically before the 9-11 ashes had settled.
@Scott in Oklahoma:
You just described the PERFECT Democrat politician
I can remember when commencement speakers spoke words of encouragement to students to go out in the world and make something of themselves, and when politicians spoke words of encouragement at military memorial services. I miss those days.
@Budvarakbar: I think the Dems would have won no matter what in 2008. There was 8 years of Bush fatigue just like there will be 8 years of Obama fatigue in 2016. But with a few illegals here and a few illegals there from the backdoor amnesty program on the voting rolls………………
And just when you thought the DNC’s Memorial Day Twitter post couldn’t be outdone, here we have a suggestion from the Obama shrills at Vox.
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/25/8656381/war-resisters-memorial-day
@Greg:
“Perhaps someone can explain”? Explain what? You already have your opinion, which should be based on what the facts are; what the hell do you need explained? Do you not already know what is in the AUMF? The one submitted was weak and restrictive. Even if one authorized the use of nuclear weapons doesn’t mean we would have to; why restrict the options within an AUMF? That just tells the enemy exactly how far we are willing to go, though this is something Genghis Obama seems to prefer to do.
Did he need an AUMF for Libya? Was he going to use one when Syria crossed his frightening “red line”? All Obama wants is excuses to do nothing. He only wants something to blame failure on.
Sadly, Obama has made such a monumental mess of the entire region, this is exactly what will be required. Of course, as you and Juan are attempting to manipulate, it will be blamed on Republicans, though Bush left Obama a stable situation in Iraq.
@another vet:
Bush fatigue may have helped explain the 47% but RINO fatigue reinforced by MuckStain’s slime carried the day
@Bill:
The whole world was much more stable in 2008 than it has been ever since — thenks to the demo-COMMUNISTS and RINO enablers
@Greg: Greggie, who controls the House and the Senate?? When Obola was elected who controlled the House and the Senate?? Reason, Obolacare!! Who said you can keep your health insurance and/or doctor “period” which was a bold faced lie to get re elected!!
@Bill, #26:
Someone should explain specifically how the requested authorization from Congress—which is a legal requirement, if military forces sent into a conflict continue to be involved for more than 60 days—would give the President even less authority than he already his.
Jon Boehner’s statement is total bullshit. It makes no sense. Nobody actually has a clue how granting authority, as required by law, would diminish an authority that already exists. Is Boehner arguing that a president needs no Congressional authority to involve U.S. military forces in a foreign conflict for an extended time? This has gone on for well over 60 days already. Authorization was formally requested 6 months ago.
I don’t believe the American people will accept a third ground war in Iraq. Nor do I believe they will conclude that the current situation is all Obama’s fault—an assertion which would seem to be central to the 2016 presidential campaign argument that the GOP is trying to cook up.
Shall I tell you what I find disturbing about the GOP’s behavior? As with their previous presidential campaign argument that The U.S. economy is doomed, and only we can save it, it makes republican election success dependent on something bad happening to America. That raises a certain issue concerning what they actually hope will happen.
@another vet: #24
Let’s not forget about the voting machines that turned a Romney vote into an obama vote, and the voting districts where a person could vote more than once, and the voting districts that gave obama 98%, 99%, 100%, and even 108% of the eligible voters. They might have had something to with obama’s win. How many more voting machines will george soros have programed for him by the next election?
I carry wallet sized images of this, and give them to vets I meet. They like them. Feel free to print your own, or you can make your own THANK YOU note to hand to a vet.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35983084@N07/17952882490/in/dateposted-public/
@Greg:
Perhaps YOU can explain what this is even an issue with you or Obama when he didn’t bother with it in Libya OR with complying with the War Powers Act. Again, Greg, I must point out to you, intelligent people are not taken in by your silly left-wing political games. We see through them… ALL.
Obama’s entire knowledge of the Constitution is for the sole purpose of knowing how to circumvent it… not what his legal imitations are. Because, much of what he wants to do is ILLEGAL per the Constitution.
Obama seems to want to ham-string anyone actually interested in trying to halt ISIS. Why is that, Greg? Does he actually hate America, or does he just love Islam so much that he is willing to tolerate the torture and murder of innocent people (people HE put in the path of ISIS) in order to see Islam dominate the world?
@Bill, #34:
Obama notified Congress he was commencing air strikes against Gadhafi’s forces in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1973. Republicans—who had initially criticized him for failure to take action in Libya, but then abruptly reversed direction when he did—then condemned him for failure to seek Congressional authorization after 60 days had lapsed.
Point made. Yes, presidents are required to follow the law. So now, when Obama does seek authorization for a military response to ISIS—which most republicans apparently believe is necessary—Boehner decides to block any vote from taking place.
Are these people suffering from some form of schizophrenia? Or does the political game they’re playing only make them appear to have more loose screws than a Studebaker?
@Greg: Greggie, if they are so bad how did they take back control?? Oh yea, they won the elections!!
@Bill: Obama wants Islam to dominate the world?? This is where you go off the rails Bill.
Do you believe he was born in Kenya?
Did he attend and graduate from Columbia?
Is he a Muslim?
Does he hate America?
Is he gay? Does Michelle know?
@Greg: Bush carried out a months-long campaign to convince Congress of the threat posed by Iraq (using intelligence enthusiastically supported by the Clintons, Kerry, Schumer, etc) in order to get Congressional support for the use of force. For this, all you leftists could do was chant “Bush lied, people died”. Sorry, Greg, but Bush did it the way it was intended to be done.
Obama, meanwhile, could not pass up the opportunity to take on a tomato can like Libya and gather up some warlord cred. Republicans opposed? How about McCain and Graham? They cheerled they use of force, but they were wrong. Nothing about Libya required our intervention. There was no threat to US security, no strategic need and no humanitarian need; there was a civil war going on. We should NOT have been involve.
But get involved Obama did, and he did it without approval. Because He does not require approval. Then, after his 60 days had expired, he still didn’t need approval.
And hypocrites like you cheer him on.
He requested no approval to threaten Syria, but when his weak bluff was called, he sought approval because he would not get it, having an excuse not to carry out his weak, stupid threat.
If Obama wanted to protect those in the path of ISIS, he would. If he wanted a AUMF, he would propose it. Instead, he wants neither, so he proposes a weak, ineffective authorization. The only time Obama wishes to abide by the Constitution is when he is afraid to make a decision. Then he opts to use Congress to give him the excuse to not do what he never wanted to do anyway.
The really disgusting part is that people like you and Obama think you are so clever and brilliant that no one has caught on. This makes you guys the dumb ones, because EVERYONE is on to the ruse.
Is Boehner afraid to allow a vote on Obama’s request for authorization? Because there might be—God forbid—serious discussion and debate about what needs to be done in response to ISIS?
Hey, republicans know what needs to be done. They must know, since they keep loudly asserting that Obama obviously doesn’t. Wouldn’t this be a wonderful opportunity to reveal what they know?
Yeah, right. I must be dumb for thinking like this.
@Greg: You are dumb we are in agreement for a change!!
@Budvarakbar: Actually, the Mayor in Monument, CO in his Memorial Day speech had to inject political rhetoric. He meets your description.
@rich wheeler: @rich wheeler: #37
When I tried to post my reply, the spam filter stopped it, and I had to delete some of it.
I feel I should first warn you that most of the links are conservative sites, so as far as you are concerned, they are all lying, so you might not want to waste your time going to them.
####Do you believe he was born in Kenya?####
####Did he attend and graduate from Columbia?####
http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/obama-classmate-no-one-ever-saw-obama?rq=Remember
###Is he a Muslim?####
He has never said anything bad about the muslim religion, but he has about the Christian and the Jewish religions. common core has muslim teachings in them. obama is taking the Christian and Jewish religions out of the military.
####Does he hate America?####
Have you forgotten about his world apology tour, where he apologized to other countries because we are so successful?
NATIONAL CIVILIAN SECURITY FORCE
A few days after obama got elected the first time, he said he wants a national civilian security force that is as strong as, and equally funded as the military (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s). That part of his speech was not included in the transcript recorded. I knew right then that his intention is to overthrow the USA. Hitler’s national civilian security force was called the Brown Shirts, and obama is follow the same steps Hitler did to take over his country.
Why would he want such a force when there is the National Guard? The president can’t activate the National Guard. The governor of the state has to, then turn it over to the president. When Hurricane Katrine hit, the liberal democratic governor didn’t want Bush to get any credit for helping, so she didn’t activate it until it was too late. The propaganda media knew all this, but still blamed Bush.
SOME OF THE STEPS TO TAKE OVER A COUNTRY
Do any of these sound familiar?
(1) Take away the citizen’s guns so they can’t defend themselves.
(2) Take over healthcare so the government decides who gets treated and who doesn’t.
(3) Infiltrate their government.
(4) Infiltrate their churches.
(5) Infiltrate their news media so it can brainwash the citizens to an agenda.
(6) Get as many people as possible on welfare to drain the treasury.
(7) Spend the country into so much debt it can’t pay it off.
(8) Infiltrate their schools to brainwash the kids into doing what they are told.
(9) Take daddy out of the family. Without a daddy in the family, the kids are more likely to do drugs, quit school, get pregnant, be more violent.
(10) Lower the moral value of people through the entertainment industries.
(11) Give the people something to fight each other over (religion, race, nationality, inequality, money) so they are distracted with what is actually going on in their country until it is too late.
(12) Decrease the military as much as possible so it can’t stop an overthrow of the government.
(13) Let illegals in the country to help drain the treasury.
####Is he gay? Does Michelle know?####
I don’t care if he is.
https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/friends-on-obama-a-pathological-liar-exchanged-gay-sex-for-coke/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvuulZPbfBg&feature=youtu.be
NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE IN D.C.
@rich wheeler:
He wants an Islamic state that is so strong that the United States cannot challenge it. He wants the United States to loose all influence around the world. He does not view the United States as worthy or trustworthy enough to have such responsibility; the US is oppressive and cruel. So, Obama has no problem with the Russians, Chinese, Iran and anyone else challenging US influence.
No. I don’t.
I don’t know and neither do you.
I don’t think he has a specific religion. He will be whatever allows him to collect more power. He was raised a Muslim, then a Communist, and then, when he needed the black hood cred, a “Christian” in the racist Rev. Wright’s church. Now that he is done with “hood cred”, he is nothing again. Religion is just another tool in the tool box to meet an ideological end.
Uh, yes. He does. As I said, in his view, the United States is cruel and unjust. As Michelle said, she was never “proud” of her country until Barack had gotten close to gathering the political power he would need to “fundamentally transform” the powerful, protective, dominant United States to a nation that while it uses its wealth to benefit those who will not provide for themselves (he will solve the problem of his policies destroying the tax base of the economy he intends to sap dry later) but has no power or influence in the world. He cannot understand how this will make the once most powerful nation on earth easy pickings for the nations he expects to accept a role of equal partners in the world commune.
What the hell do I care? Possibly he is; he has lied about everything else.
I doubt it. She likes to control what everyone eats.
@Smorgasbord: Same ol same ol—thanks for the warning and saving my time.
Bill I needed a good laugh –thanks for providing one. RW
#44
Were you looking in the mirror when you said that?