Here is the “reform” Obama promised us that we are receiving: 1. About face on CIA torture photos. 2. Retention of military tribunals. 3. Justice Dept. invoking “states secrets privilege” to get lawsuit on torture and rendition dismissed. 4. Vast increase in the “surge” in Afghanistan. 5. Withdrawal from Iraq more slowly. 6. Extended secret incursions over the Afghan border into Pakistan. 7. Pansy diplomacy with Muslim nations. 8. Continuation of the Patriot Act. 9. Electronic wiretaps. 10. e-mail intercepts. 11. Gitmo. Boy, he promised “reform” and we’re getting it. I guess he doesn’t pay attention to polls showing Geo. W. Bush with a 20% overall approval rating and Dick Cheney 18%. How can we square what this guy said while running for the Oval Office (and what he still says even today) with what he is doing? The Republicans are overjoyed! This guy is W light! Somewhere, probably in the S.M.U. gym in Dallas, Geo. W. Bush is smiling.
It’s so much easier to make promises during a campaign than to deliver once elected. Your guy isn’t doing worth a flip. And by the way, my guy goes to the Cooper Clinic for his gym work–I see the limousines lining Preston Road when he is there.
The most impressive thing about Mr. Obama is the way he so gently and softly talks to the Iranians, Afghanistans, Pakistanis, etc. etc. – it is sure accomplishing a lot. That is all we needed: soft talk and a limp little stick.
Paula.. Obama is a Community Leader. This is what one does when you are a Community Leader. The American People voted for a Community Leader.
Now, me. I didn’t vote for Obama. Nope. I grew up in the same neighborhood where he was the Community Leader. Geez, I thought: has America gone mad? Thank goodness he chose Rahm as his Chief of Staff. He is the only one with a brain and common sense.
I pray the years go by quickly. I believe America will survive.
What America needs today was a Harry S. Truman! Yep.
However, I will settle for a Ron Paul type in 2012.
Post from R Wilson, avid reader and former Gyrene: I recommend Charley Wilson’s War with Tom Hanks. It was precisely done and I knew that the stinger missiles would destroy the Russian’s helicopters, but then the USSR collapsed in 1989 and once more became Russia in 1991. No one wins in Afghanistan. Russia without its provinces remains larger than any other country AND they have thousands of atom bombs, AND the Russians continue to export oil and gas to Europe. As of today, the United States is building the troop level to an ever increasing number of soldiers and the primitive Taliban is taking on the US and Pakistan and killing hundreds while Osama watches on a TV set in a cave in the mountains where the Al Qaeda are strongly entrenched. Our nation has a war in Iraq, a war with Al Qaeda and with the Taliban and our intelligence has no foresight as to the eventual outcome of the nation of Pakistan which has more than three hundred nuclear weapons. Being in Afghanistan should be left to the UN, but the world wants to leave it to the responsibility of the US-go figure!
We are unable to attend to Iran and North Korea and Russia and China do not care nor does the world. We must stop being the local police department in countries which only want our money. In the movie Charley Wilson’s War, Tom Hanks hikes the contributions from five million to billions and after the Russians leave, we find ourselves fighting the same war!!