Posted on 07/13/2008 7:45:00 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama discussed his vision for the world in a wide-ranging foreign policy discussion with CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
The Democratic presidential hopeful answered some tough questions about how he would deal with the world's crises, what he would do if Osama bin Laden is caught and his plan for Iraq.
Here are some highlights from the interview, which aired Sunday on "Fareed Zakaria -- GPS."
ZAKARIA: Tell me, what is your first memory of a foreign policy event that shaped you, shaped your life?
OBAMA: A first memory. Well, you know, it wasn't so much an event.
I mean, my first memory was my mother coming to me and saying, "I've remarried this man from Indonesia, and we're moving to Jakarta on the other side of the world."
And that's, I think, my first memory of understanding how big the world was. And then, flying there and landing. This was only maybe a year, or even less than a year, after an enormous coup, the military coup in which we learned later that over half-a-million people had probably died.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The timeline doesn’t work.
His mother married, divorced, got pregnant and had BO then remarried by 18?
Or married, got pregnant and had BO then divorced and got remarried by 18?
Something is wrong with his timeline.
Even taking his statement at face value — it seems odd that a woman would remarry and the first ther child hears of him is right before the wedding.
Who would do that to their kid?
I’m sure Oprah will ask her that very question.
When pigs fly over Mecca.
Well, he’s just saying what most liberals in America believe. To the left, the 911 attack was a stroke of well-deserved justice, like a bully getting punched in the nose. That’s why they have no enthusiasm for the war on terror. To them, the terrorists have a legitimate gripe and our role should be to listen and accomodate, not to fight. It’s the “root causes” thing.
I mean, my first memory was my mother coming to me and saying, "I've remarried this man from Indonesia, and we're moving to Jakarta on the other side of the world."
Whoa! This send up the red flags. Think back. What is your first memory? Dollars to donuts it's a fleeting, disconnected snap shot that took place about the age two or three, i.e. "I remember my dad coming down the stairs...","I remember a Christmas tree...", "I remember walking through some leaves..."
If OB says first memory is his mother saying "I've remarried and we're moving to Jakarta..." either he's a bold face lying, or he's admitting he was pretty far behind when it came to early childhood development.
What a choice.
Another good point.
It just makes no sense.
Then you have to ask where was he born? Was he born during the first marriage or between marriages 1 and 2?
And the jihadi’s knew America would be so terrible when Islam was founded in what the seventh century and they’ve just been practicing ever since then?
“It isn’t to say that there is a direct correlation, but what is absolutely true is that there has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries, in order to make sure that opportunities are there, that there’s bottom-up economic growth.”
Isn’t this more or less the same thing that Bush has been saying, that we have to bring democracy and economic hope to the Middle East so that radical Islam will loose its grip? Sounds like, once again, he’s trying to co-opt a Republican idea.
Wow....I wonder if CNN's journalistic standards require any followup questions which will force candidates to get off rehearsed answers and actually justify their answers? It sure didn't happen in this interview.
How could someone major in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and not learn to speak at least ONE foreign language semi-fluently?
And once again, his English is faulty: "was my mother coming to me and saying, "I've remarried this man from Indonesia..."
It should be either "I've married again..." or "She told me she had remarried..." - but she didn't, I presume, remarry the Indonesian man.
But then, what do I know. I didn't graduate from Harvard.
“If OB says first memory is his mother saying “I’ve remarried and we’re moving to Jakarta...” either he’s a bold face lying, or he’s admitting he was pretty far behind when it came to early childhood development.
What a choice.”
My first memory was getting tangled up in some pea vines. It was heck. To be fair, though, the interviewer asked him “...what is your first memory of a foreign policy event that shaped you..? Uh, let’s see.
Islamic Jihad has a lot more to do with Leftist domestic and social policies, particularly the pervasive, inescapable public hypersexualization of everything, along with rampant promiscuity, perversion and permissiveness. The main connection to foreign policy has to do with the extreme weakness projected by the Clinton Administration as well as by the present Democrat party and liberal media positions favoring avoidance of conflict at any cost.
This stuff is not complicated or difficult to understand, and we HAVE TO explain it to the people around us, in person. When they hear it explained, they generally understand.
Yep. it's an elitist, globalist, marxist tranfer of wealth of the "rich" to the "poor" nations. Both parties are at fault.
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"Americans found that instability and lawlessness in a distant country can bring danger to our own. In this new century, we are less threatened by fleets and armies than by small cells of men who operate in the shadows and exploit weakness and despair. The ultimate answer to those threats is to encourage prosperous, democratic and lawful societies that join us in overcoming the forces of terror -- allies that we're finding across the continent of Africa. We fight the war on terror with our power; we will win the war on terror with freedom and justice and hope. "
"In a developing world, we have an unprecedented opportunity to help other nations achieve historic victories over extreme poverty with policies and approaches that are tested and proven. These victories will require new resources. The United States has tripled overseas development aid to Africa during my presidency. And we're making a strong commitment for the future. Between 2004 and 2010, I proposed to double aid to Africa once again, with a primary focus on helping reforming countries."President Bush, Meyer Auditorium at Freer Gallery June 30, 2005
Oh those poor Saudi's. They're so pooor - maybe we should set up a Marshall Plan to rescue the Arabian peninsula countries from their grinding poverty - give them opportunities for economic growth.
What was that? The greatest transfer of wealth in history, to the oil-rich countries? Yes, yes that's what we need. How come no one thought of that?
And since when does moving to another country at age four or five classify as foreign policy experience?
Did he know what the foreign policy of America was at that time so he could compare or know what to look for?
All of the things that he complains the Bush administration did wrong with Afghanistan, that we didn't finish the job when we had the Taliban and al Qaeda on the ropes, is exactly what he will do in Iraq. Now that it is beginning to look like we have the terrorists beat he will pull the troops out.
In a few of the gems of Obama wisdom:
We need to show leadership through consensus and through pulling people together wherever we can.
My point is this, that we should always strive to create genuine coalitions -- not coalitions that are based on us twisting arms, withholding goodies, ignoring legitimate concerns of other countries, but coalitions that are based on a set of mutual self-interests.
In a situation like Darfur, I think that the world has a self-interest in ensuring that genocide is not taking place on our watch.
Just like they did with Rawanda, the UN will be content to issue statements condemning the actions but when it comes to actually doing something about it there just isn't enough self-interest to send in the troops.
It takes a lot of arm twisting and withholding goodies to get other countries to do what is needed. If it was anything like this idiot thinks, the UN would be a great tool for keeping the world a place where free people can thrive and prosper. In reality, the self-interests of governments that rule the UN is to let the tyrants and terrorists kill whomever they please as long as they can continue to extract their own fortunes from their subjects in their own little corner of the world unmolested.
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