Foreign Policy: The President Is a Screw-up
by Michael Wolff
“A wholesale reconsideration of a strategy,” as the Times described the Obama administration’s present position on Afghanistan, might not be as bad as it sounds. If the Bush White House had ever had a wholesale reconsideration with regard to Iraq, the world would likely be in a better place.

Still, it doesn’t fill you with confidence. What it clearly says is we’ve got no idea what to do. Now, this could be because of changing circumstances and a new set of problems that puts you back at square one—shit does happen. Or because you’ve just been faking it.

Or worse. You’ve been totally making it up as you go along and have come to believe you’re a natural.

It seems pretty clear that the Obama foreign policy is being run in all important aspects by the president himself. On this subject, he fancies himself the smartest boy in the class. He’s the decider and he’s decisive.

Both the State Department and the Defense Department seem to be curiously content about letting him run with it (is Hillary Clinton wily or traumatized?).

To cover for our loss in Iraq, he was going to get a quick and big win in Afghanistan. And then, in a tour de force of enlightened government—and trying to do it better than Bill Clinton did—he was going to aggressively manage both Israelis (no settlements) and Arabs (shake hands, come on) and solve that problem. Except then it turned out there’s no winning in Afghanistan and no managing the unmanageable.

In fairness, of course, why should he be better at this than, say, George Bush? Obama may have exotic relatives, and have met a few Muslims, and have run for president promising peace, but nowhere in his career has he paid much more attention to foreign policy conundrums than Bush ever did. They’re both naifs.

George Bush, knowing nothing, let others do it for him. Barack Obama, know nothing either, is doing it himself.

Maybe the latter is better. At least Obama, having to think through and choose the next steps, will be forced to deal with the failure of his own logic. Well, perhaps.

The way he’s seeming to deal with it now is to let it be known that he’s dealing with it. According to the Times, “the president is having second thoughts about how deeply to engage in an intractable eight-year conflict that is not going well.” Well, yes. Good idea. And then?

Not to put too fine a point on it: There isn’t any indication or reason to believe he’s savvy enough or humble enough to get this right. So far, he’s not only been wrong, but, always a bad sign in foreign policy matters, a bit of a cocky ass.
More of Newser founder Michael Wolff's articles and commentary can be found at VanityFair.com, where he writes a regular column. He can be emailed at michael@newser.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NewserColumns.

Further clarification.. President Obama continuously expresses, that God Almighty, the Grand Father of us all, is the cornerstone of who he is. Adding that he stands on the shoulders of many who have perished, for him to have opportunities extended to him. As the late James Brown reflected back in the 1960s, "I (meaning the oppresed), don't want no one to give me nothing. Just open up the door (allow us an equal chance), and I'll (we'll) get it myself."

African-Americans, assisted by Nuyoricans, Chicanos and the like. We have long been fighting against oppression, and civil liberties for all. However today, have many of us purposely forgotten that this group, of which I proudly represent. Is who pressed and died to open the doors for those Spanish speaking and all People of Color? Even having a physical as well as intellectual affect, to finally defeat apartheid in South Africa.. The greatest difference in compared to the colonialists and missionaries. We never attempted to dictate, as white Europeans consistently press upon us.

What I am saying is that unless you are whitewashed beyond repair, you know USA's violent history, against non-violent people. When I come in peace to my people. Yes Dominicans are my people too. I see love and peace even in the barrios. For me and for us. I speak very little Spanish, so my language of choice is a smile and sincerity. It is in my group to bring and suggest peace, wherever we go. Its in my blood. Family of the Dominican Republic, its also in your blood too. As the late Curtis Mayfield wrote: High Yellow Girl.. You're just the surface, of our dark, deep well. So its best we recognize who we totally are. As the saying goes, "We can live as brothers. Or die as fools."

President Obama represents our innate dreaming of total universal peace. He will receive the award and accolades. Yet all of us who were involved in any civil rights struggle. We too humbly bow in acceptance. Because our happiness comes with love and peace. Not by arrogance and sarcasm. For we have many bricks, in the peace foundation, of my and our Brother, Barack Obama. President of these United States of America.

World Bank Press Review
<newsbureau@worldbank.org>
Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

"US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for 'his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.'..." [BBC News]

AFP adds that "...the committee attached 'special importance to Obama's vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons' and said he had created 'a new climate in international politics.'

'Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future,' it said...." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Surprised by this distinguished international award, that will elevate President Obama's international standing but will hurt him domestically in the USA, as it would increase the burden of expectations demanded from his performance.
It also worries me because the last African American who received the nobel peace prize was.......
the late Reverend Martin Luther King, who was cowardly assassinated by extremists groups.

P.S. In 2002 the Nobel peace prize was awarded to ex-president Carter.

You really should leave the USA as you hate it so much and your life is in danger or so you think. Go back to wherever. or learn to appreciate and give thanks for living in the country that so many people want to move to.

It does seem CW, Pirate Preacher Man is so humble......... he should spit out his perverted type of baptist ideas and seek some more sober type.
http://www.mainstreambaptists.org/mob4/liberty_of_conscience.htm
Yes -it is tough to clear up the mess that Bush left. We have to hope that the religious right in the US stop their hate messages and let him get on with it. Just for once Pirate Preacher Man could do the honourable thing ...... put his gun aside .....
S.
S.
S.

If they kill him, USA will be dirthier then Somalia.

[QUOTE=Incognito]

If they kill him, USA will be dirthier then Somalia.

[/QUOTE]

They killed MLK so don't be surprise if this is done again and don't forget 95 percent of the press in USA is owned by the same folks so another cover up is no surprise either.

Here is a article about cover up:


Media Cover-up
Leading Journalists Expose Major Cover-ups in Media

The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20 award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzzsaw. These courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world by helping to spread this news across the land.


Dan Rather—CBS, Multiple Emmy Awards. What's going on is a belief that you can manipulate communicable trust between the leadership and the led. The way you do that is you don't let the press in anywhere. Access to war is extremely limited. The fiercer the combat, the more the access is limited, [including] access to information. This is a direct contradiction of the stated policy of maximum access to information consistent with national security. There was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways the fear [now in the U.S.] is that you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. That fear keeps journalists from asking the tough questions. I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism. (click for more)

Monika Jensen-Stevenson—Emmy-winning producer for 60 minutes. Robert R. Garwood—14 years a prisoner of the Vietnamese—was found guilty in the longest court-martial in US history. At the end of the court-martial, there seemed no question that Garwood was a monstrous traitor. Several years later in 1985, Garwood was speaking publicly about something that had never made the news during his court-martial. He knew of other American prisoners in Vietnam long after the war was over. He was supported by Vietnam veterans whose war records were impeccable. My sources included outstanding experts like former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Tighe and returned POWs like Captain McDaniel, who held the Navy’s top award for bravery. With such advocates, it was hard not to consider the possibility that prisoners (some 3,500) had in fact been kept by the Vietnamese as hostages to make sure the US would pay the more than $3 billion in war reparations. [After the war] American POWs had become worthless pawns. The US had not paid the promised monies and had no intention of paying in the future. (click for more)

Kristina Borjesson—CBS, Emmy award winner. Pierre Salinger announced to the world on Nov. 8, 1996, that he’d received documents proving that a US Navy missile had accidentally downed [TWA flight 800]. That same day, FBI’s Jim Kallstrom called a press conference. A man raised his hand and asked why the Navy was involved in the recovery and investigation while a possible suspect. “Remove him!” [Kallstrom] yelled. Two men leapt over to the questioner and grabbed him by the arms. There was a momentary chill in the air after the guy had been dragged out of the room. Kallstrom and entourage acted as if nothing had happened. [Kallstrom was later hired by CBS.] (click for more)

Greg Palast—BBC. In the months leading up to the November [2000] balloting, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered elections supervisors to purge 58,000 voters on the grounds they were felons not entitled to vote. As it turns out, only a handful of these voters were felons. This extraordinary news ran on page one of the country’s leading paper. Unfortunately, it was the wrong country: Britain. In the USA, it was not covered. The office of the governor [also] illegally ordered the removal of felons from voter rolls—real felons—but with the right to vote under law. As a result, 50,000 of these voters could not vote. The fact that 90% of these were Democrats should have made it news as this alone more than accounted for Bush’s victory. (click for more)

Michael Levine—25-year veteran of DEA, writer for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today. The Chang Mai “factory” that the CIA prevented me from destroying was the source of massive amounts of heroin being smuggled into the US in the bodies and body bags of GIs killed in Vietnam. Case after case was killed by CIA and State Department intervention and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it. ... In 1980, CIA-recruited mercenaries and drug traffickers unseated Bolivia’s democratically elected president. Immediately after the coup, cocaine production increased massively. Bolivia [became] the source of virtually 100% of the cocaine entering the US. This was the beginning of the crack “plague.” … The CIA along with State and Justice Departments had to protect their drug-dealing assets by destroying a DEA investigation. How do I know? I was the inside source. ... I sat down at my desk in the American embassy and wrote evidence of my charges. I addressed it to Newsweek. Three weeks later DEA’s internal security [called] to notify me that I was under investigation. ... The highlight of the 60 Minutes piece is when the administrator of the DEA, Federal Judge Robert Bonner, tells Mike Wallace, “There is no other way to put it, Mike, [what the CIA did] is drug smuggling. It’s illegal.” (click for more)

Gary Webb—San Jose Mercury News, Pulitzer Prize winner. In 1996, I wrote a series of stories that began this way: For the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods gangs of LA and funneled millions in drug profits to a guerilla army run by the CIA. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America. ... The story was developing a momentum all of its own, despite a virtual news blackout from the major media. Ultimately, it was public pressure that forced the national newspapers into the fray. The Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times published stories, but spent little time exploring the CIA’s activities. Instead, my reporting and I became the focus of their scrutiny. It was remarkable [Mercury News editor] Ceppos wrote, that the four Washington Post reporters assigned to debunk the series “could not find a single significant factual error.” A few months later, the Mercury News [due to intense CIA pressure] backed away from the story, publishing a long column by Ceppos apologizing for “shortcomings.” The New York Times hailed Ceppos for “setting a brave new standard,” and splashed his apology on their front page, the first time the series had ever been mentioned there. I quit the Mercury News not long after that. ... Do we have a free press today? Sure. It’s free to report all the sex scandals, all the stock market news, [and] every new health fad that comes down the pike. But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff—such stories are not even open for discussion. (click for more)

John Kelly—Author, ABC producer. ABC hired me to help produce a story about an investment firm that was heavily involved with the CIA. Part of the ABC report charged that the CIA had plotted to assassinate an American, Ron Rewald, the president of [the investment firm]. Scott Barnes said on camera that the CIA had asked him to kill Rewald. After the show aired, CIA officials met with ABC executive David Burke, [who] was sufficiently impressed “by the vigor with which they made their case” to order an on-air “clarification.” But that was not enough. [CIA Director] Casey called ABC Chairman Goldenson. [Thus] despite all the documented evidence presented in the program, despite ABC standing by the program in a second broadcast, Peter Jennings reported that ABC could no longer substantiate the charges. That same day, the CIA filed a formal complaint with the FCC charging that ABC had “deliberately distorted” the news. In the complaint, Casey asked that ABC be stripped of its TV and radio licenses. During this time, Capital Cities Communications was maneuvering to buy ABC. [CIA Director] Casey was one of the founders of Cap Cities. Cap Cities bought ABC. Within months, the entire investigative unit was dispersed. (click for more)

Robert McChesney—500 radio & TV appearances. [There has been a] striking consolidation of the media from hundreds of firms to an industry dominated by less than ten enormous transnational conglomerates. The largest ten media firms own all US TV networks, most TV stations, all major film studios, all major music companies, nearly all cable TV channels, much of the book and magazine publishing [industry], and much, much more. Expensive investigative journalism—especially that which goes after national security or powerful corporate interests—is discouraged. Largely irrelevant human interest/tragedy stories get extensive coverage. ... A few weeks after the war began in Afghanistan, CNN president Isaacson authorized CNN to provide two different versions of the war: a more critical one for the global audience and a sugarcoated one for Americans. ... It is nearly impossible to conceive of a better world without some changes in the media status quo. (click for more)

Source: [URL]http://www.wanttoknow.info/mediacover-up[/URL]

What about Obama's disastrous policies on National Security (Guantanamo by the way is still open and rightly so), on funding partial birth abortion, nominating lobbyists and tax evaders to important positions, creating the posts of Czars who aren't accountable to anybody and having as czars, people like Van Jones and Kevin Jennings (supporter of a paedophile). I doubt if my friends see Obama as the socialist he is. Government Motors, and Nationalised Health care that he envisions, proves it beyond doubt. What about Obama's actions undermining the US constitution? Plus the fact that he has done nothing in the last nine months (Watch the video above).

Of course, I am not surprised. Part advertising is blowing the horn, loud. The only problem is, if you face people who are knowledgeable, they see right through your false cacaophony. As experts, its important to focus. As much as its important to know almost everything about your area of expertise, its important not to know too. And to stay mum when its about the 'not known' stuff.

In business too, Brands can't be everything to everybody. They've got to focus on target consumer segments and be only what's relevant to them. If brands try and be everything, consumers will recognise them as nothing, sooner if not later. A company trying to solve multiple consumer needs or needs of multiple segments, can't have one brand doing all the work, instead must have a portfolio that caters to either multiple needs or multiple segments.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5Kl38fSVY&feature=player_embedded

Perhaps, one of the reasons he was chosen for the award is for encouraging a certain direction of a leader rather than for what he has done. The international perception of elitism has lessened significantly in the past nine months since America is now viewed more willing to collaborate as a global partner, rather than boast and demand the singular role as the world leader that other countries despise, but let's not lose sight of the fact that he is Sending 40,000 more troops into Afghanistan - if he chooses to do that - is gonna look awfully strange coming from a recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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