Posted on 07/21/2008 4:51:23 PM PDT by Syncro
AMMAN, Jordan, July 21, 2008
(CBS) This week is more than a series of photo ops. Barack Obama hopes to convince voters back home that he's comfortable on the world stage and can juggle a number of delicate and potentially explosive foreign-policy issues, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports.
During the primaries, Obama built his candidacy on the premise that he believed the Iraq War was a mistake he opposed all along. As he said: "a war that never should have been authorized. A war that I believe should never should have been waged."
Now he faces a delicate balancing act.
"What he has to do is pull off two difficult tricks," said CBS News consultant Richard Haass. "One is to be sympathetic to the troops there. At the same time, he's been critical of the policy. And secondly, he has to show some consistency with his policy. At the same time, he has to adapt to change. Pulling that off is obviously the political challenge in the immediate time frame that he faces."
Obama says he'd withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq within the first 16 months of his presidency. But later he gave himself flexibility by saying that after he talked to commanders on the ground he would "refine" his policies.
That's reassuring to some Iraqis who fear being abandonee by the United States.
"They don't like fast withdrawal because they are afraid of consequences, they are afraid create a vacancy that will be used by terrorists," said Dr. Mahmoud Othman, a member of Iraqi parliament.
Not only did Obama oppose the war, he opposed the surge - the addition of some 30,000 troops last year - saying it wouldn't work.
He said on Face The Nation in January of 2007: "We can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops. I don't know any ... expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to privately that believes that that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground."
John McCain is now citing this as a major error in judgment.
"He was wrong when he said the surge wouldn't succeed," McCain said. "He was wrong when he said an increase in troops would do no good."
But the success of the surge - it has brought violence in Iraq way down - has paved the way for Obama to propose sending in as many as 10,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
The rest can be read Here
"It's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of the negotiations," he said.
Whether Israel will share Jerusalem is just one issue. There is also the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in 1948, when Israel was founded.
But beyond the Palestinian Question, Israel and the United States now see an even greater threat to the region's stability looming: a nuclear Iran.
Officials in Israel estimates Iran will be able to build a bomb as early as 2009, and worldwide concerns over a preemptive Israeli military strike are rising.
"Right now, Iran is on the march," Shavit said. "We have not seen America and Europe able to stop it. We've not seen a real change of heart in Tehran; we've not seeing the Iranians where they feel they're paying a high price for their endeavor, which is a dramatically dangerous endeavor."
All these issues will be on the table when Obama continues his whirlwind tour. But the ultimate success of this trip will be measured back home, with American votes, on Nov. 4, 2008
July 21, 2008 2:02 PM
Greetings from Amman, Jordan, where the Obama press corps has spent the last 15 hours flying to meet Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on the non-war-zone part of his world tour.
And while we're here, courtesy of Multi-National Force-Iraq, here are some photos of Obama as well as the other two senators on the congressional delegation trip with him -- Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jack Reed, D-RI -- in Iraq with General David Petraeus.
Though Reed groupies, be forewarned -- Reed does not appear in any of the photos MNF-I sent us.
In this shot, by Army Staff Sgt. Lorie Jewell, we're told that Gen. Petraeus is explaining security improvements in Sadr City during an aerial tour of Baghdad. Sens. Hagel and Reed are in the chopper, but not shown.
Gen. Petraeus greets Sen. Obama at Baghdad International Airport. (Shot by Sgt. Jewell, Reed and Hagel not shown. Again.)
Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin scowls while Sen. Obama and Gen. Petraeus chat. (Yet again, the shot is by Sgt. Jewell and Sens. Hagel and Reed are not shown.)
Senator Bad-ass listens to Gen. Petraeus. (Ditto on Jewell, Hagel and Reed.)
Hey! There's Hagel!
In this one Gen. Petraeus is even looking at Hagel!
Gen. Petraeus and Sen. Obama after Obama's arrival.
Again. As they head to a Blackhawk helicopter for the aerial tour of Baghdad.
Yet another shot of the two stars of this shoot.
- jpt
Where are the shots of this marxist crypto muslim with the troops?
Google Search "obama troops iraq"
I imagine they are being saved for his PR team (ABC, NBC, CBS) to photoshop him in and reveal.
Body armor.
Interesting isn't it?
I think they are in Arizona.
:>)
Were Troops Ordered to Lie for Obama Photo Op?
Written by Melanie Morgan Sunday, 20 July 2008 The word from Ron Winter, respected military author and decorated veteran is that there is some funny business emanting from the Obama campaign now in Afghanistan.
From Winter's Soldiers blog "My military friends wasted no time today informing me that the word out of Afghanistan is that troops were ordered to attend the Obama "breakfast" that has been all over the media and blogosphere. More to the point, some troops also were ordered to alter their identities, at least as far as their home states are concerned, for the benefit of the Senator's campaign.
Apparently, the Senator's campaign people wanted to make sure that the photo ops showed the Senator talking with service personnel from the appropriate parts of the country. Appropriate in this case apparently meaning places where he needs a big boost in the polls."My goodness gracious. This could get very interesting. A Democrat party hack like Obama acting like, well, a politican? Unthinkable!
Obama is a magician—sleight of hand
It isn’t a balancing act. It is a bullshed act. Jive talking. Hustling. Speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
Get the dupes in the middle to believe his grifter’s pitch.
His base on the Left knows where he came from and where he has been for 20 years. He’s only changed his tune in the past couple of months.
And everyone knows that he’s got to “play” to the middle even though he has given ZERO evidence that he would actually govern from that position.
LYING LIAR.
The delicate balancing act stems from Obama’s lifelong view that the USA is an “oppressive empire” and his more recent stance that we should never have invaded Iraq and freed millions of Iraqis from a true evil dictator. How can you reconcile the two? He wants a concrete timetable for abandoning these people whether they are prepared or not. Hopefully, they are well on the way to being prepared, but unless Obama has a crystal ball, he cannot forecast such. I’m sure he didn’t forecast what has happened thus far.
Which they bought at a surplus store?
Seems like Google is scrubbing all pics of the crypto muslim.
Do a search for “obama iraq” or “obama afghanistan” under images and you will see a thumbprint, when you click on the link you get
“The page cannot be found
404 Error”
Now do the same for mccain and see what happens
This propaganda and disinformation apparatus set up by this marxist son of a bitch is par for the totalitarian course.
If he succeeds at winning the White House, he may just not leave it without a fight.
Unless he chooses Hilliary as his VP.
Then he will leave it after 2 years and one day.
Thanks for that clearing that up for me.
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