Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Posted by seumasach on November 15, 2012
So, the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens at Benghazi has turned out to be a defining moment for the US’ Middle East strategy. Obama made it clear the US is nowhere near deciding to arm the Syrian opposition fighters.
This stance won’t go down well in Riyadh, Doha and Ankara. Interestingly, Obama is also refusing to endorse the enthusiasm shown by Britain and France.
M.K.Bhadrakumar
15th November, 2012
President Barack Obama reiterated at his first press conference in Washington after election victory on Wednesday that his “top priority” will be far on the recovery of the US economy — “jobs and growth”. The only foreign-policy issues to figure were the Iran problem and Syria.
Obama emphatically stressed a diplomatic solution to the Iran problem. He phrased a compromise formula: “There should be a way in which they [Iran] can enjoy peaceful nuclear power while still meeting their international obligations and providing clear assurances to the international community that they’re not pursuing a nuclear weapon.”
Low-grade uranium enrichment to be allowed under strict IAEA safeguards? Seems so. Most significant, Obama confirmed his intention to “make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue” between the US and Iran “to see if we can get this thing resolved.”
Bravo! Obama said the onus is on Iran to “walk through the door.” He pointedly refrained from voicing coercive sentiments. He was manifestly conciliatory, stressing that US won’t stand on “diplomatic niceties or protocols” in working out the one-on-one conversation with Tehran, and “if Iran is serious about wanting to resolve this, they’ll be in a position to resolve it.”
On Syria, Obama said US will talk with the Syrian opposition’s umbrella group that was formed in Doha over the weekend and sees it as “a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people”, but Washington is “not yet prepared to recognize them as some sort of government in exile” despite it being a “broad-based representative group.”
He explained: ”One of the questions that we’re going to continue to press is making sure that that opposition is committed to a democratic Syria, an inclusive Syria, amoderate Syria. We have seen extremist elements insinuate themselves into the opposition, and one of the things that we have to be on guard about — particularly when we start talking about arming opposition figures — is that we’re not indirectly putting arms in the hands of folks who would do Americans harm, or do israelis harm, or otherwise engage in actions that are detrimental to our national security.” [Emphasis added.]
So, the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens at Benghazi has turned out to be a defining moment for the US’ Middle East strategy. Obama made it clear the US is nowhere near deciding to arm the Syrian opposition fighters.
This stance won’t go down well in Riyadh, Doha and Ankara. Interestingly, Obama is also refusing to endorse the enthusiasm shown by Britain and France. To quote Obama, US wants to make sure “we are encouraging the most moderate, thoughtful elements of the opposition that are committed to inclusion, observance of human rights, and working cooperatively with us over the long term.” [Emphasis added.]
Of course, Obama’s repeated reference to an “inclusive” transition in Syria will be noticed in Moscow and Beijing. The transcript of the press conference is
here.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: Obama, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 22, 2010
Wayne Madsen
Voltairenet
20th August, 2010
Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen has discovered CIA files that document the agency’s connections to institutions and individuals figuring prominently in the lives of Barack Obama and his mother, father, grandmother, and stepfather. The first part of his report highlights the connections between Barack Obama, Sr. and the CIA-sponsored operations in Kenya to counter rising Soviet and Chinese influence among student circles and, beyond, to create conditions obstructing the emergence of independent African leaders.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 20, 2009
Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
19th October, 2009
While the Nobel Peace Prize award has led to a chorus of praise from the Atlantic alliance leaders, it has also raised skepticism around the world. Rather than discuss the reasons that might after the fact justify this surprising choice, Thierry Meyssan exposes the corruption of the Nobel Committee and the ties between its chairman, Thorbjørn Jagland, and Obama’s associates.
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Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: Obama, Obama agenda, orange revolution | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on October 13, 2009
October 11, 2009
Here’s the thing: This may be our next “Vietnam moment,” but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that’s just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down — almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us. Because we never managed to leave Vietnam behind, even when we were proclaiming that we had kicked that “syndrome,” it turns out that we’re still there. Our military leaders, for instance, only recently dusted off the old Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine that once ended in catastrophe, shined it up, and are now presenting it as an ingenious new solution to war-fighting. Let’s face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 10, 2009
September 9, 2009 (LPAC)– Although several Presidents have had “czars” — a special advisor to the President on a particular issue — President Obama, in a mere 8 months, has far exceeded the use of czars by any previous Administration, having appointed at least 32, the latest being Lazard’s Ron Bloom as “manufacturing” czar. 25 new czar positions were created by Obama.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama, Obama agenda, Obama deception | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on August 25, 2009
August 24, 2009
counterpunch
By DANNY WEIL
In his first major speech on education since his election and swearing in as President, a speech made to an unscheduled meeting of the Council of Chief State School officers, held on March 10, 2009 in Washington D.C., Barrack Obama repeated the claims heard from many quarters that the United States must drastically improve student achievement to regain lost international standing in the world. He called for tying teachers’ pay to student performance (merit pay) and for expanding charter schools throughout the nation. In calling for merit pay for teachers, Obama argued:
“Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Arne Duncan, charter schools, National education association, No child left behind, Obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 19, 2009
David Michael Green
Counterpunch
19th August, 2009
Both President Obama’s health care plan and his presidency are going down the toilet.
This is well, and right, and just as it should be.
Obama is turning out to be a disastrous president, wholly unsuited for the times and our national and global challenges, and his job approval ratings reflect this.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama, Obama agenda, Obama deception | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 4, 2009
Andrew Cockburn
4th July, 2009
Voltairenet.org
Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, is to be installed as Under Secretary of Economics, Business, and Agricultural Affairs. This comes as one more, probably unnecessary reminder of the total control exercised by Wall Street over the Obama administration’s economic and financial policy. True, Hormats is “a talker rather than a decider” according to one former White House official, but he will find plenty of old friends used to making decisions, almost all of them uniformly disastrous for the U.S. and global economy
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama, Obama agenda, Obama and Wall Street, Team Obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on June 8, 2009
Obama is Morphing Into Dick Cheney
THURSDAY, 04 JUNE 2009 14:08 BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Matrixnewsnetwork
America has lost her soul, and so has her president.
A despairing country elected a president who promised change. Americans arrived from every state to witness in bitter cold Obama’s swearing in ceremony. The mall was packed in a way that it has never been for any other president. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: End of empire, Obama, Obama deception, Obamamania, Paul Graig Roberts | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 24, 2009
Andrew Hughes
Prison Planet
24th May, 2009
After 8 years of the Bush-Cheney nightmare during which we saw the wanton destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, the cynical negation of centuries of Law designed to protect the most basic human rights and a foreign policy worthy of Genghis Khan, there came along the “Great Black Hope” in the persona of Barack Obama. The collective world consciousness turned uncritically to what was presented as a new era for peace, change and trust in Government.
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Posted in "War on Terror" | Tagged: coup d'etat in America, Obama, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 24, 2009
PressTV
24th May, 2009
Barack Obama has vowed to keep US military dominance in the world by sending military troops to ‘theater of war’ when and where Washington deems ‘necessary’.
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Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: New Cold War, Obama, Obama agenda | 1 Comment »
