Obama's Afghan listening tour

I'm curious Messrs Baker and McCormick... how does Obama being a tourist shore up his foreign policy credentials? I've been to Wisconsin Dells; does that mean I should run for president?

The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution list a Reuters story headlined "Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine."

The story relayed how Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Spiegel that "he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months ... ‘U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,'" the prime minister said.

The White House employee had intended to send the article to an internal distribution list, ABC News' Martha Raddatz reports, but hit the wrong button.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/white-house-acc.html

But Obama was almost invisible to most Afghans,

What...as opposed to the 100 and some troops and a few blackhawks that followed McBush?

How bizarre.Most of this reads like a McCain campaign press release. The reporters must want to get or keep a good seat on McCain's plane.

Quote: "I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of ... their biggest concerns," the Illinois senator said before leaving the U.S. "I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."

Let me get this right. He announces he will travel to assess the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan from the military leaders there. He then, before assessing, comes out with his positions. After taking his position, he is now assessing - talking to the commanders and getting a sense...

Is this guy looney or simply incapable of gathering information, digesting information, assessing available options to address what was assessed, then making a plan and taking action. This is how decision making is done. This guy wants to protect me as Commander-In-Chief and make decisions for the security, economics, and well being of this nation? He has trouble with a good decision process!
http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com

I'm glad he's getting out there in the world to show his stregths, but on the tax payers dime? Really you just raked in 52 Million last month. Why do I have to pay for you to travel during this economic down slope. I'm sorry, I guess I just take it as a slap in the face. Atleast when McCain last went he used campaign funds. Still voting for the big "O", but I still feel betrayed. Just don't want to vote for someone that jokes and sings about bombing another country.

===== OBAMA THE TOURIST =====
Obama goes into Afghanistan as a tourist and that transforms into a foreign policy stateman? NOT! And check out the media orgy traveling with him. Obama is the new Brittany Spears.

That's right, he's a ROCK STAR ha.

Yep, a flip flopper is a heck of a lot better John K.

I'll be curious how the troops handle his words of gratitude and support. That speech will be something to see....he brought his telepromter right? Lord I hope so.

It appears to me that Obama will not just seem to be more presidential after this trip, he will be more presidential. For him this is way more than a photo op. This is a fact finding excursion. I believe he will have info to share with us. The truth is, Obama is far more literate than McCain, who graduated at the bottom of his class. Fortunately, education is not wasted on Obama. I believe the taxpayers will get their money’s worth. We certainly haven’t gotten it from McCain!
McCain has never said anything except he went there a multitude of times. For what? We'll never know. Besides, McCain wanted to promote fear. However, fear can only exist in the realm of ignorance. So…maybe he didn’t want anyone to know what he found out in Afghanistan. Like his surrogate Black said, war is to his advantage in this campaign. It would make McCain look like our savior, and we would get four more years of Bush. The reason McCain has to make Obama look foolish is Obama is actually going to bring back some truth…for McCain, that can’t be good.

Taking the war to Pakistan is perhaps the most foolish thing America can do. Obama is not the first to suggest it, and we already have sufficient evidence of the potentially negative repercussions of such an action. On January 13, 2006, the United States launched a missile strike on the village of Damadola, Pakistan. Rather than kill the targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, the strike instead slaughtered 17 locals. This only served to further weaken the Musharraf government and further destabilize the entire area. In a nuclear state like Pakistan, this was not only unfortunate, it was outright stupid. Pakistan has 160 million people (better than half of the population of the entire Arab world). Pakistan also has the support of China and a nuclear arsenal.

I predict that America’s military action in the Middle East will enter the canons of history alongside Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Holocaust, in kind if not in degree. The Bush administration’s war on terror marks the age in which America has again crossed a line that many argue should never be crossed. Call it preemption, preventive war, the war on terror, or whatever you like; there is a sense that we have again unleashed a force that, like a boom-a-rang, at some point has to come back to us. The Bush administration argues that American military intervention in the Middle East is purely in self-defense. Others argue that it is pure aggression. The consensus is equally as torn over its impact on international terrorism. Is America truly deterring future terrorists with its actions? Or is it, in fact, aiding the recruitment of more terrorists?

The last thing the United States should do at this point and time is to violate yet another state’s sovereignty. Beyond being wrong, it just isn’t very smart. We all agree that slavery in this country was wrong; as was the decimation of the Native American populations. We all agree that the Holocaust and several other acts of genocide in the twentieth century were wrong. So when will we finally admit that American military intervention in the Middle East is wrong as well?

What...as opposed to the 100 and some troops and a few blackhawks that followed McBush?

Posted by: bill "Hussein" r. | July 19, 2008 3:32 PM

Yeah Bill, like Obama doesn't have the same security detail, give me a break. It's just that his press core in the main stream fails to report those details. The national media corronation tour has begun.

The trip is funded by federal dollars because he is going on a congressional trip, not campaigning. The writer of this post slipped in that unnecessary tidbit to inspire sentiments like yours, John K. There's nothing inappropriate about this use of money. Part of the job.

John K., this trip was paid for by his campaign - by the people who donated to his campaign for this very reason - NOT the tax payers.

This is what the whole wide world has been waiting for .Hold your horses and let see how the Illinois senator conducts himself.He will not do worse than the retards running the show now.He is a good listener and he has superior judgement compared to Arizona senator who is known to lose his cool under pressure.

This is what the whole wide world has been waiting for .Hold your horses and let see how the Illinois senator conducts himself.He will not do worse than the retards running the show now.He is a good listener and he has superior judgement compared to Arizona senator who is known to lose his cool under pressure.

Marlene F. Excuse me for correcting you, but if you read the above ref. article paragraph 7 it states that his trip is being paid for by the tax payers. By calling it a congressional deligation it makes it possible for Obam to do his little tour of the world on our dollars. One more reason not to vote for him. He seems to have no qualms about spending our money for his own personal purposes. What a crock! I guess that means we are also paying for his entire entourage, including the press that seems to feel they need to follow their lord and master. Please note the lower case spelling in the previous sentence.

OBAMA WILL HAVE DIFFICULTY MEETING EXPECTATIONS, INCLUDING HIS OWN ---

Obama’s impossible road ahead:

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-obama-will-win-but-cant-deliver.html

11, 2008, Barack Obama, once again proved that he has very poor foreign policy judgment, as he did in his disastrous 2006 trip to Africa when he openly criticised the democratically elected presidents of South Africa and Kenya, which were then the two most stable and economically advanced societies in Africa. Obama did so in 2006 for the sake of cheap publicity, from a horde of news media who accompanied Obama to Africa, to promote his own presidential ambitions at the expense of American taxpayers. However, what was and remains overlooked by an American press corps intoxicated by Obamamania was the fact that Obama used federal government funds to openly campaign for his then undisclosed first cousin Raila Odinga by appearing in Odinga political rallies to promote the Kenyan presidential candidacy of Odinga and chide the democratically elected government of Kenya, while openly extolling a bunch of Kenyan political operatives seeking to defeat the government. Last week Obama was at it again, displaying the very same character flaws that undermine President Bushes leadership abilities -- arrogance, dismissive of counter views and criticism, stubbornness, and a false sense of his own historical importance.

Prior to ever stepping foot in Afghanistan and before leaving on a purported "fact finding" trip to that country Obama in an internationally televised interview with CNN (which was televised on July 13,2008) had the temerity to publicly criticise Afghanistan's president, by proclaiming: "I think the Karzai government has not gotten out of the bunker and helped to organize Afghanistan and (the) government, the judiciary, police forces, in ways that would give people confidence," Obama said. So there are a lot of problems there," he added, ahead of an expected visit to Afghanistan and Iraq. "A big chunk of the issue is that we allowed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to regenerate itself when we had them on the ropes," Obama went on to say. "That was a big mistake and it's one I'm going to correct when I'm president."

Was this good foreign policy judgment in front of Obama's first trip to that country to openly criticise the democratically elected government of Karazi, as a freshman Senator with no foreign policy experience, save insulting the presidents of South Africa and Kenya in 2006? They are two important American allies in Africa fighting the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and jihad, as is Karazi.

Obama, whose only life experience was a stint as a civil rights worker in South Chicago before joining the Chicago machine and winning office by disqualifying all other candidates in the Democratic primary for state senator, made some off-the-cuff gaffs that the political press corps has all but ignored. Afganistan, like South Africa and Kenya is a multi-ethnic and tribalistic society. What would any person with a modicum of true foreign policy experience say publicly before meeting President Karzai? Little, if anything. For the conduct of foreign policy is given to the executive branch of the U.S. government by the Constitution. Obama, despite all his public arrogance, has not yet been elected to executive office. Moreover, Obama's rhetoric confuses glib and cheap campaign tactics of Chicago machine politics with the refined nuances of conducting foreign policy with democratically elected governments of sovereign nations. Obama needs to be reminded that Afganistan was not stabalised by the Soviet Red Army from its December 1979 invasion through its 1988 pull-out. Progress in Afganistan, like Africa, in political and economic development, as well as legal systems has been and remains slow and painful.

Furthermore, Afganistan is not an American possession and public criticism of its democratically elected government serves no purpose other than a selfish agenda to promote Obama's presidential bid by world-wide publicity at the expense of undermining the allied government of President Karzai. Perhaps Obama's criticism would be better directed to Pakistan's creation of jihadi madrassas established under the military rule of madman General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who overthrew the democratically elected government of President Ali Bhutto, hung Bhutto, established Shariah law in Pakistan. The creation of the nationwide web of jihidi incubators throughout Pakistan, through government sponsored and funded madrassas, is the root cause of present day radical Islamic fundamentalism and jihidi terrorism. Just look where the first World Trade Center bomber in 1993, Ramzi Mohammed Yousef, was indoctrinated - - a Pakistani madrassa, although he was a Kuwaiti by birth. Yousef lived in Karachi while he planned several terrorist attacks. Barack Obama, unwittingly revealed that he visited Pakistan in 1981, during the military rule of Zia, as did Islamic fundamentalist radicals, during the infamous "Bittergate" fundraising speech in San Francisco. Query: What was Barack Obama up to in Karachi, Pakistan in 1981?

How can the American press not take a grand standing presidential candidate to task for once again putting his own greedy, selfish and megalomaniac interests for free publicly ahead of America's vital interests.

Listening tour? That's a good idea, because everytime he's off the teleprompter he sticks his foot in his mouth and has to come back out and explain what he previously said. Even if he would screw up, Brian, Katie and Charlie would cover his backside gladly.

11, 2008, Barack Obama, once again proved that he has very poor foreign policy judgment, as he did in his disastrous 2006 trip to Africa when he openly criticised the democratically elected presidents of South Africa and Kenya, which were then the two most stable and economically advanced societies in Africa. Obama did so in 2006 for the sake of cheap publicity, from a horde of news media who accompanied Obama to Africa, to promote his own presidential ambitions at the expense of American taxpayers. However, what was and remains overlooked by an American press corps intoxicated by Obamamania was the fact that Obama used federal government funds to openly campaign for his then undisclosed first cousin Raila Odinga by appearing in Odinga political rallies to promote the Kenyan presidential candidacy of Odinga and chide the democratically elected government of Kenya, while openly extolling a bunch of Kenyan political operatives seeking to defeat the government. Last week Obama was at it again, displaying the very same character flaws that undermine President Bushes leadership abilities -- arrogance, dismissive of counter views and criticism, stubbornness, and a false sense of his own historical importance.

Prior to ever stepping foot in Afghanistan and before leaving on a purported "fact finding" trip to that country Obama in an internationally televised interview with CNN (which was televised on July 13,2008) had the temerity to publicly criticise Afghanistan's president, by proclaiming: "I think the Karzai government has not gotten out of the bunker and helped to organize Afghanistan and (the) government, the judiciary, police forces, in ways that would give people confidence," Obama said. So there are a lot of problems there," he added, ahead of an expected visit to Afghanistan and Iraq. "A big chunk of the issue is that we allowed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to regenerate itself when we had them on the ropes," Obama went on to say. "That was a big mistake and it's one I'm going to correct when I'm president."

Was this good foreign policy judgment in front of Obama's first trip to that country to openly criticise the democratically elected government of Karazi, as a freshman Senator with no foreign policy experience, save insulting the presidents of South Africa and Kenya in 2006? They are two important American allies in Africa fighting the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and jihad, as is Karazi.

Obama, whose only life experience was a stint as a civil rights worker in South Chicago before joining the Chicago machine and winning office by disqualifying all other candidates in the Democratic primary for state senator, made some off-the-cuff gaffs that the political press corps has all but ignored. Afganistan, like South Africa and Kenya is a multi-ethnic and tribalistic society. What would any person with a modicum of true foreign policy experience say publicly before meeting President Karzai? Little, if anything. For the conduct of foreign policy is given to the executive branch of the U.S. government by the Constitution. Obama, despite all his public arrogance, has not yet been elected to executive office. Moreover, Obama's rhetoric confuses glib and cheap campaign tactics of Chicago machine politics with the refined nuances of conducting foreign policy with democratically elected governments of sovereign nations. Obama needs to be reminded that Afganistan was not stabalised by the Soviet Red Army from its December 1979 invasion through its 1988 pull-out. Progress in Afganistan, like Africa, in political and economic development, as well as legal systems has been and remains slow and painful.

Furthermore, Afganistan is not an American possession and public criticism of its democratically elected government serves no purpose other than a selfish agenda to promote Obama's presidential bid by world-wide publicity at the expense of undermining the allied government of President Karzai. Perhaps Obama's criticism would be better directed to Pakistan's creation of jihadi madrassas established under the military rule of madman General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who overthrew the democratically elected government of President Ali Bhutto, hung Bhutto, established Shariah law in Pakistan. The creation of the nationwide web of jihidi incubators throughout Pakistan, through government sponsored and funded madrassas, is the root cause of present day radical Islamic fundamentalism and jihidi terrorism. Just look where the first World Trade Center bomber in 1993, Ramzi Mohammed Yousef, was indoctrinated - - a Pakistani madrassa, although he was a Kuwaiti by birth. Yousef lived in Karachi while he planned several terrorist attacks. Barack Obama, unwittingly revealed that he visited Pakistan in 1981, during the military rule of Zia, as did Islamic fundamentalist radicals, during the infamous "Bittergate" fundraising speech in San Francisco. Query: What was Barack Obama up to in Karachi, Pakistan in 1981?

How can the American press not take a grand standing presidential candidate to task for once again putting his own greedy, selfish and megalomaniac interests for free publicly ahead of America's vital interests.

Don't listen to me, ha. I'm just a bitter and racist Hillary supporter, ha. I'm also old, uneducated and crack myself up on every post, ha.

Isn't imposter watcher taking up a lot of space to say the EXACT SAME THING?????

Virgina 8:47am I couldn't have said it better myself !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePx57vkg5zI

warlord-I'm to sexy for my shirt!

YouTube - World of Warcraft too sexy for my shirt