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Reader comment on item: Obama's Diplomatic Acrobatics
in response to reader comment: Response to Ron Thompson

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Sep 25, 2013 at 21:56

Mr AKDoc,

I can't tell if your tag means you're an MD (see below)

First of all, I entirely agree with your comment that Obama erred mightily when he refused to support the Iranian popular revolt of 2009.

But then I read just today a story in the New Yorker by Dexter Filkin on how George Bush's disastrous strategic blunder in invading Iraq removed Iran's worst enemy and not only invited the Mullahs to reach for regional hegemony and a nuclear capacity that destabilizes the world, but created a Shiite Iraq that now provides a broad highway for them to support Assad and perhaps further endanger Israel. (I won't go into the other levels of this perhaps worst foreign policy blunder in US history, like blowing $2 trillion dollars, and crippling our ability to start a justified preventive war)

With all his many faults, Obama hasn't accomplished anything like this yet.

Second, I wonder if you can complete the following sentence for me, as I have asked of others: "America shows its greatness by, alone among the developed nations of the world, refusing to provide health care insurance for all its citizens, BECAUSE …." I wish to be as much a champion of American Exceptionalism as anyone, but not for this reason, unless someone can tell me why this is something to be proud of. For all I can see in the behavior of the embarrassing 'tea party' and other Republicans is a callous mean-spiritedness, not to mention an action that detracts from the just example we have often presented to the world, if considerably less so in recent decades.

I of course am sorry if you feel personally inconvenienced by the law and would prefer to see 25,000,000 or more of your fellow Americans at the mercy of for-profit insurance companies or the humiliating use of overworked emergency rooms. For myself, neither my wife nor I have any such worries. Indeed, if we did, we might even feel slightly ashamed (did you complete the question above?)

More practically at the geostrategic level, it seems to me that the union of opposition to Islamic imperialism with these ferocious republican attacks on the legitimacy of the one government in the world ultimately capable of dealing with the threat from totalitarian Islam, may not only weaken that government in confronting the threat, but actually turn off public awareness of that threat by this domestic extremism. And what happens when those who claim to oppose Islam actually turn the Government into a financial deadbeat when they cause a default on its financial obligations, which I fully expect them to do?

Have you really considered the effect of the union of those polices in the minds of the Public? That those who oppose the ACA (since we never called Medicare Lyndoncare, I choose not to refer to the ACA as O…………) also, at the same time, want to do all they can to weaken the government and demoralize its employees (including stopping paychecks to its fighting soldiers and social security to 40,000,000 elders) in the face of the growing threat from Iran in particular and Islam in general.

I have many complaints about Obama, but these profoundly incompatible polices of the Republicans don't even seem Sane to me.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (38) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
This is a completion to a submission that somehow got away from me, and an attempt to explain that [445 words]Ron ThompsonSep 14, 2013 23:10209752
Response to Ron Thompson [377 words]AKdocSep 23, 2013 10:19209752
reply to AKDoc [544 words]Ron ThompsonSep 25, 2013 21:56209752
Obama's Incompetency in Executing Sound Foreign Policy [154 words]RexSep 14, 2013 15:31209743
Obama is the best [8 words]shanSep 14, 2013 08:15209737
The Litany of Misdirected, Gutless Presidents [323 words]Mark WerfelSep 13, 2013 23:33209730
1Disastrous policies, neutral outcomes [248 words]Dan SimonSep 13, 2013 16:37209724
Cruel (and revealing) pix [4 words]FFSSep 13, 2013 01:05209681
Too bad Eugene Rostow is no longer around to advise. [266 words]Wallace Edward BrandSep 12, 2013 22:56209678
1What a disaster [73 words]dhimmi no moreSep 12, 2013 19:27209672
2Reasons to support Syrian rebels [432 words]PrashantSep 13, 2013 06:52209672
Another candidate for "worst'? [101 words]Ron ThompsonSep 14, 2013 22:25209672
Bush and history [20 words]dhimmi no moreSep 18, 2013 07:35209672
1Capturing the Essentials of Failure [247 words]Bill PaxtonSep 12, 2013 14:53209670
Moving on [56 words]David W. LincolnSep 12, 2013 13:31209669
Never before... [17 words]james sorianoSep 12, 2013 13:24209668
1Very strict critics [348 words]AlexandrosSep 12, 2013 11:45209667
how about the Saudis or Turkey taking care of Syria? [373 words]lippySep 12, 2013 10:17209665
Diplomatic Acrobatics [372 words]StephenSep 12, 2013 04:52209661
Election reform idea to minimize the impact of failing administrations [116 words]PezDispenserSep 12, 2013 04:47209660
6President Obama and Syria [216 words]Ilbert A. PhillipsSep 12, 2013 03:02209659
Epic Failure [91 words]TomSep 16, 2013 10:30209659
Obama's Diplomatic Acrobatics [15 words]steven LSep 11, 2013 23:46209656
1The True Apology To The World [192 words]Mike RamirezSep 11, 2013 23:08209651
Re: Obama's Diplomatic Acrobatics [27 words]Rich McMahonSep 11, 2013 22:20209650
3Fall of Rome [144 words]jamesSep 11, 2013 21:38209648
1.. and its modern-day empire [134 words]Brigitte in ParisSep 22, 2013 07:47209648
1No, it isn't just Obama [159 words]SoloviewSep 11, 2013 21:27209647
Comment for Geekmom [172 words]CassandraSep 14, 2013 06:51209647
WHAT TO SAY ? [17 words]Susan KSep 11, 2013 21:21209646
end game for Obama's style of peace making, [320 words]rodney allsworthSep 11, 2013 20:13209645
1Still better then Bush [71 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
BillSep 11, 2013 19:15209643
Really Bill? No one wanted the Iraq war? Looks like at least 72% of the people did. [21 words]geekmomSep 13, 2013 16:45209643
not true that 72% "wanted" war [105 words]Ron ThompsonSep 14, 2013 23:22209643
crowds [62 words]Gunther H. SciffSep 11, 2013 18:44209641
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW [99 words]JACQUES HADIDASep 11, 2013 18:38209640
Image Caption [17 words]Mike RuebnerSep 11, 2013 18:12209639
He is the Emperor with no clothes [7 words]Robin RosenblattSep 11, 2013 18:12209638

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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