I don’t care about the Far-Right. They’re just crazy ignorant Neanderthals. It’s the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this president that is shocking. On Thursday, almost every Republican had no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. They looked like they’re going to vomit every time they had to say “Mr. president”. They all had this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he spoke. Then they went out and started to spit their stupid talking points, to the delight of the media. Sarah Palin, a woman who can hardly read, thinks that he was “arrogant” towards John McCain, and somehow this is an important news. Because you see, “Obama’s Arrogance” is the talking point of the day.
Oh, those talking points. He is arrogant (because he knows the facts better than all of them combined). He is an elitist (because he uses big words that they don’t understand). He is weak on national security (because he actually thinks about the consequences). He divides the country (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he’s the president. He even dared to say so on Thursday. How arrogant of him. You’d think that previous presidents didn’t have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one president who treats even his biggest opponents with the utmost respect – is the arrogant one. I wonder why.
We all know why.
The fact is that for millions in America, Barack Obama is this uppity black man (Not even a “real” black), who received good education only due to affirmative action, and has no right to litter the sacred Oval Office with his skin color. They just can’t accept the fact that the president is a black man, who unlike his predecessor, was actually legally elected. But what’s really sad is that it’s not just the fringe, its deep deep in mainstream America.
Barack Obama’s ability to remain above all this slob, to keep his optimism and his strange and mostly unjustified faith in people, while continuing to gracefully deal with an endless shitstorm – is one of the most inspiring displays of human quality I have ever seen. And i can only hope that the Cosmos is on his side.
I’m not surprised by any of it. What does surprise me is that there hasn’t been an attempt on our president’s life yet.
This is why I do not much care if Barack Obama achieves any cliche definition of “success”. He has changed this country beyond the ability of any other president who has ever served in the office before him.
So in between stumbling upon a very interesting story about WKYC (stay tuned!), I watched the health care summit. I liked it. It was an exercise in transparency that I don’t think any president in my lifetime has ever attempted. So, what did we see?
We saw the Republican Party’s desperate refusal to govern in stark relief. Republicans not only said “no”, they said it in a rehearsed, robotic, scripted display of total obstruction. Late last night, Chris Matthews lined up all the instances of GOP talking points – “start over”, “kill this bill”, “scrap it”, “step by step”, “blank sheet of paper”, they said them all so often, so precisely the same, it was like watching North Koreans praying “Dear Leader”.
This was Barack going the last, agonizing mile to get any Republican at all to address the country’s problems. It’s hard to watch, hard to endure, but that effort will pay dividends. We are used to seeing Democrats cave to Republican obstructionism a lot quicker, with a lot less patience, than Barack Obama is displaying. Think about it – we are approaching March. This bill has been declared dead countless times since last August. It looks likely now to become law, over the protracted, petty, partisan, pathetic petulance of Republicans. The electorate very much likes, and rewards, that kind of determination.
Short term, the White House has their issue for the fall. The way is free for Democrats to pass this bill through reconciliation, and let the chips fall where they may. And if this bill has any visibly positive effects in the population before the election, any at all, Republicans won’t win either house of Congress.
Long term?
Barack Obama is proving that you will not outlast him. Ever.
Since I began supporting Barack Obama in mid-2007, I’ve believed he was more Ronald Reagan than Bill Clinton. More vision, less strategic. More governing, less tactical politics. More transformational, less transitional. Which means that when Barack Obama is through, this country will be changed for the better, top to bottom.
I’ve also learned since those early days that Barack is a very different kind of fighter. We’ve taken to calling it the rope-a-dope. I think it was Tolstoy who said, “the most powerful warriors are patience and time.” By deploying those two warriors, Barack takes a big risk that some other warrior will get short term advantage. Sound familiar?
Think of Ali vs. Foreman, the definitive display of rope-a-dope. By deciding to let Foreman punch himself tired, Ali took the substantial risk that one of those punches would land, and knock him out. In that fight, patience and time were always on Ali’s side, so long as he stayed committed to it. The temptation was there, every round, for Ali to exhaust himself fighting back against a younger, bigger, more powerful fighter. Ali resisted, saving it all up for one, final, decisive flurry of genius in motion.
Watch the last 3 minutes of the fight if you haven’t yet, and listen to the announcer.
This brings me to Evan Bayh.
In politics & governing, sometimes your allies are the ones you have to watch closest. Sometimes, you need to smoke out the people who aren’t going to be there when the going gets tough. This entire first year of the Obama presidency has been one long smokeout, to the point that Obama allies are leaving the field in retirement from politics itself.
When those fleeing the field include an ally who Obama had once vetted for vice president, Evan Bayh, that means the going has gotten VERY tough. Or it says a lot about Evan Bayh, that he would fight so hard for himself to be VP, and less than 2 years later turn tail and run when his country needs him to fight for them. Politics can be quite clarifying of one’s character, no?
Either way, the hysteria of today’s media environment, and Evan Bayh’s jumping ship, reminds me of how it would have gone down if oddsmakers were allowed to keep giving odds into the 3rd minute of the 8th round of the Rumble in The Jungle. Just a few seconds later, every one of them would have lost their shirts.
I’m watching the extraordinary appearance of Barack Obama at the House Republican caucus. It’s very recognizable to me. It’s Tony Blair’s Masochism strategy. Let them beat you up, loudly, publicly. The bet is that you’ll come out looking reasonable, courageous, and like a leader, while the ones beating you up look petty and partisan. Will it work? We’ll see.
Either way, I’ve never seen a sitting US president take questions from the opposing party in Congress, repeatedly, on live television. Let alone from a Republican Party happy to look completely disingenuous, petty, and partisan.
Time to comment on Martha Coakley, Scott Brown, health care, Barack Obama, and the Great Panic of 2010.
What the hell is wrong with you people? At this point in the Clinton presidency, Republicans were claiming that Hillary had murdered Vince Foster, put him in a trunk, and dumped in a park. At this point in the Reagan presidency, the economy was in the toilet, with predictions that Reagan wouldn’t even dare to run for re-election. At this point in Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, the country was teetering on the brink of societal meltdown.
Democrats just lost Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to an unknown Republican, so yeah, that sucks, and so do Democrats for losing it. Health care reform is on the brink, it shouldn’t be, and that’s our fault, too. Call the fucking wahmbulance. Remember this scene from The Godfather? ”AHHH what can I do! What can I do!”
Time to start acting like men. And women. Instead of like whining children.
Change isn’t easy. That’s the lesson that we are learning. If you thought you could walk down to the polling place, put a mark on a ballot, and get every single thing you wanted from your country, you’re a lazy, sorry excuse for an American. Grow the fuck up.
It don’t work that way. You get from your democracy what you put into it. If all you put into it is one campaign for president, and then you sit back and wait for your plate of goodies, chances are, that plate isn’t gonna be what you want.
This especially applies to members of Congress. Barack Obama called your bluff. Every member of Congress, Democrat & Republican, has been campaigning on health care reform for years. The White House said “show me what ya got”, and ya’ll came up with bullshit. Members of Congress have done nothing but play games to save their own skins, from Max Baucus, to Ben Nelson, to House blue dogs, every one of whom has made losing their seat more likely as a result. And Republicans showed their hand from inauguration day – they have no plan, and they want no plan to pass.
Does Barack deserve criticism for failing to show leadership on the issue? Maybe, but I tend to think not. I don’t know what else this president could have done to provide leadership on health care reform in a total absence of leadership from Congress. We do not have a system that allows a president to declare what health care reform should look like. We have a system that rewards leadership in all branches of government, punishes cowardice, and gives ample opportunity for change to those who choose between leadership and cowardice wisely.
As Barack has said, change will not come if we wait for some other person, or we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Democrats need to make better choices. We need to grow a pair. Republicans have nothing but, waving their flacid vapid arrogance around as if it amounts to policy. Once Democrats meet Republicans on that battlefield, we win. Every time.
Since Barack Obama was elected president, the opportunity to seize national security credibility from Republicans for the long term has been there for the taking, and awaiting only a few things. Capture or death of Osama Bin Laden is the big prize, of course. But the inevitable attempted terrorist attack on Barack Obama’s watch, and the Republican response to it, offers the same opportunity.
The Christmas Day attack has given Barack the best of all worlds. Thank God, the attack failed, hilariously. Just as hilarious has been the utterly predictable Republican attack in response, whose main effect is to place a hard microscope on the Bush administration’s failings under similar circumstances. That hard look, to date, has never survived a media environment skewed toward Republican war mongering. That environment is gone, but Republicans attack as if it were still there. Republicans imagine that Americans like partisan sniping during, before, and after a national security crisis. That is a grave miscalculation. Thank you, GOP.
Under this new microscope, the specifics of this attack point to a long term failure of the Bush administration to button down even the most minimal level of governmental coordination demanded by 9/11, the 9/11 commission report, and much else. Such a systemic level of miscommunication, when warning flags are evident, is the exact same failure that led to 9/11. There is almost no substantive difference.
Republicans will try to blame the Obama White House, but what will follow is deep congressional investigation into the systems that the Bush administration left behind, systems that should certainly have been strong enough to prevent this attack no matter who was president. Those investigations will be done by a Congress that is no longer oriented toward long term military commitment in foreign lands, but oriented instead toward making sure this failure never happens again.
In other words, governing is about to ensue.
The Republican Congress under George W. Bush was simply not interested in governing, on any issue, particularly the weeds of internal US security. They were interested in neo-conservativism, proving their ideology even as it failed spectacularly before their eyes, cementing their majority through fear, and endless partisanship designed to perpetuate a perception within the electorate that Democrats can’t protect the country. That same perception is now about to haunt Republicans, particularly if (big if) Democrats in Congress take the lessons to heart which the Republican Congress refused to even acknowledge.
I’m quite certain this is an opportunity Barack Obama will take full advantage of.
Once more into the breach. This time, with videos. Lots of them. I’d leave a comment, rec it, tip it, but my DailyKos days appear to be over for good. I’m glad people like BWD remain, doing their best to remind us how far we’ve come. Long way yet to go, but we are on our way, in a new decade filled with promise instead of trepidation, hope instead of fear.
Update: Welcome Daily Dish readers! Thanks to link love from Andrew you may notice the site is a bit slow. Getting hammered today with record traffic (12/29). Thanks for visiting, following on Twitter, friending on Facebook, bookmarking, and signing up for weekly updates! You might also enjoy these posts on this topic:
To those who think Barack Obama didn’t change this country enough for their liking, pay attention to how we as a society have already begun dealing with the Christmas Day terrorist attack differently. It is stark, pervasive, even in the air.
There is no fear. No panic. No alarmism. Not coming from this White House, not from any authorities, not from the passengers (who seem almost thrilled to be the heroes) and as a result, not even in the media. Republicans started whining from minute one, and got more whiny the less the White House used their preferred language of belligerence.
Under George W. Bush, or John McCain, the media narrative would already be settling on whether or not to invade Yemen. Now, the narrative is about soft power – how to reach these wealthy sons of bankers to stop them, how to tighten up our security at airports, how to support reform minded Muslims, how to give alternatives to potential Al Qaeda recruits who are not poor villagers but wealthy intellectuals with an axe to grind.
In other words, Republicans would be doing the terrorists work for them, by spreading more terror. Barack Obama is doing America’s work, by addressing the problem calmly, quietly, confidently. That leadership will translate into confidence in the American public the same way the panicked leadership of the Bush administration translated into fear.
Al Qaeda seems almost miffed that we aren’t panicking. I can’t really recall Al Qaeda so loudly and immediately claiming credit for any attack, not even 9/11. And yet, they’ve done so here, praising testicle toaster as a failed martyr, making him a banner headline, because the American response isn’t giving them enough ink.
In fact, there is a growing tinge of mockery of this terrorist for toasting his testicles. This dude who can’t light a fuse is gonna raise the terror threat level to orange? Please. It strikes me as practically British – laughing at the Nazis all the way to the rubble pile in the East End. We’re laughing at Al Qaeda, for the first time, in unison, as a country. Think about that.
Make no mistake – in the Muslim world to which Al Qaeda attempts to speak, this episode is a total humiliation, seen as such, and will hurt Al Qaeda. I can’t think of a more effective way to scupper Al Qaeda recruitment than to turn one of their attacks into a worldwide joke. Yes it will enrage them. Yes, they will try harder to hit us again.
But now, we have leadership that can crush them, by turning Al Qaeda’s weaknesses into our strength.
That’s change. Come to think of it….why didn’t we try this before?
Today, there’s a recced diary at Kos lamenting the departure of blackwaterdog, which I documented when it happened. The purge at Kos is ongoing, and it’s really a sad commentary on the state of the Democratic Party netroots, in one particular manner. When I returned to DailyKos after numerous bannings, I wrote about the value of what Markos Moulitsas has created in DailyKos.
If you want to change our country, DailyKos is a required arena of engagement. And for that, Markos Moulitsas deserves all the credit in the world. I’d love to someday debate Markos, have a drink, put the past in the past, and thank him, to his face, for creating with his own hands this historically powerful tool for progressive politics, the Democratic Party, and our country.
That’s the positive side of DailyKos. The damaging side? The commenting interface creates layer after layer of opportunities for users to force out opinions they do not like. Over time, if you are consistently deemed to have an opinion that enough users disagree with, you will inevitably be banned. That’s good if you want to keep out right wing trolls.
But that dynamic, created by the commenting interface itself, is now ripping DailyKos into pieces, focusing the echo chamber not in support of Barack Obama, but against. That was not only inevitable with me, it was inevitable for blackwaterdog, and now inevitable for anyone who strongly supports Barack Obama. If a Kos diarist engages in support of Barack just far enough, your clock is ticking at DailyKos. That’s just a fact.
That’s also a problem. A big problem. If the single most powerful online tool for political organizing on the left, DailyKos, cannot tolerate loud, aggressive, and unbreakable support for a Democratic Party president of the United States, DailyKos will become marginalized. There have been numerous, widely documented instances of such purges at DailyKos, but not until recently have the purges been targeted at supporters of the president we all just elected.
I don’t know if this can be solved. But unless and until it is solved, DailyKos will lose influence, and will never be the force for change it can and should be in support of electing Democrats, its stated goal. Leadership from Markos himself would be useful here. Otherwise, Markos’ site will not be a site for Democrats. It will be a site for people who claim to be Democrats when it suits them.
Earlier I posted about how far we’ve come in executive leadership by noting an article about a con man who duped the Bush Administration into thinking he could decode Al Jazeera broadcasts that contained messages for terrorists.
The recent failed attempt to down a passenger jet over Detroit again reminds me of how far we’ve come. A diarist at DailyKos does a good job of putting together thoughts on something that occurred to me while watching the never-ending coverage of a rich Nigerian son who burned off his nut sack in an attempt to kill over 200 people in an attempted act of terror.
The contrast between the reactions is stunning. As the diarist points out, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder nails it:
There is a reason why Obama hasn’t given a public statement. It’s strategy.
Here’s the theory: a two-bit mook is sent by Al Qaeda to do a dastardly deed. He winds up neutering himself. Literally.
Authorities respond appropriately; the President (as this president is want to to) presides over the federal response. His senior aides speak for him, letting reporters know that he’s videoconferencing regularly, that he’s ordering a review of terrorist watch lists, that he’s discoursing with his Secretary of Homeland Security.
But an in-person Obama statement isn’t needed; Indeed, a message expressing command, control, outrage and anger might elevate the importance of the deed, would generate panic (because Obama usually DOESN’T talk about the specifics of cases like this, and so him deciding to do so would cue the American people to respond in a way that exacerbates the situation.
Obama of course will say something at some point. Had the terrorist blown up the plane, it;s safe to assume that Obama would no longer be in Hawaii. In either case, the public will need presidential fortification at some point. But Obama is willing to risk the accusation that he is “soft” on terrorism or is hovering above it all, or is just not to be bothered (his “head’s in the sand, “golfing comes first,” )in order to advance what he believes is the proper collective response to a failed act of terrorism.
Let the authorities do their work. Don’t presume; don’t panic the country; don’t chest-thump, prejudge, interfere, politicize (in an international sense), don’t give Al Qaeda (or whomever) a symbolic victory; resist the urge to open the old playbook and run a familiar play.
In a sense, he is projecting his calm on the American people, just as his advisers are convinced that the Bush Administration projected their panic and anger on the self-same public eight years ago.
Of course wingnuts longing for the days of Bush would rather have the President on a megaphone talking about how we’re going to re-invade Iraq or some shit. I’m sure they have and will go after Obama as irresponsible to go golfing instead of kill him some Moose-lims. It’s obvious those days are long gone. We have an adult in the White House. Their other point will most likely be that it “wasn’t on Bush’s watch”, though they failed to blame Bush for 9/11 in any way. Utterly predictable these loons.
Back in the day before such calm leadership graced the White House this would be an opportunity to exploit the fears of the American people. Put administration officials on TV, including the Vice President, and talk about how dangerous “these people” are and bend language to later justify some planned overstepping. Maybe Obama should invoke Bush and tell the American people if we don’t pass health care reform the terrorists like Abdulmutallab win.
Steve Benen (also linked by the Kos diarist), hits the other nail on the head:
Obama and his team obviously prefer a far more mature, strategic approach. It’s about projecting a sense of calm and control. It’s about choosing not to elevate some lunatic thug who set himself on fire.
Indeed, notice the pattern throughout the year. The Obama administration has taken out Saleh al-Somali, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, and Baitullah Mehsud, while taking suspected terrorists Najibullah Zazi, Talib Islam, and Hosam Maher Husein Smadi into custody before they could launch potential attacks.
In each case, there were no high-profile press conferences, no public chest-thumping, no desire to politicize the counter-terrorism successes. Indeed, most of the country probably never heard a word about any of these developments.
It’s about competent and effective leadership, and it’s what the country was sorely lacking up until 11 months ago.
Mouth breathing Obama bashing Palin sycophants only understand monosyllabic grunts that talk about Muslims, terr-rists, and war. They don’t even recognize competent leadership when they see it.
This is what it means to be a modern day Republican. Obfuscate to the point where a late night (early morning) vote is necessary and then pray that those who might vote for health care reform cannot make the vote. They prayed for rain on Obama’s nomination acceptance speech. Now they pray that the ill are either too sick to make it or die before they are able to?
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon — nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation’s passage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight,” he said. “That’s what they ought to pray.”
Just fucking sick.
Coburn surely knew that Robert Byrd is in frail condition and had to be brought in by wheelchair. He made it, of course, and was heard giving the Republicans who forced such a late vote a “shame…shame” upon entering the chamber to cast his vote.
0-2 on the rain prayers. Apparently God doesn’t like Republicans or wingnut asshats.
Recently, it became almost impossible to say anything positive about this president. Not even if you back it up with facts and real news. So instead of just letting all that toxic to really burn me, i decided to create this little corner, where people can just share their support for the president, without being mocked and put down. It’s not a Forbidden-Obama-Criticism-Zone by any mean, and there won’t be any rules. Only one thing will be unacceptable: Disrespect towards the president or other posters. This is the president of The United States. The first black president. A terrific man who’s been a target of an awful hate machine since the day he decided to run for the presidency. And he’ll be shown the respect he deserve here. The same goes for the people who support him. There are plenty of blogs all around, where it’s almost required to insult Obama’s supporters, so if anyone wish to do that – Take it somewhere else
For those who don’t know, blackwaterdog was a regularly recommended diarist at DailyKos, who mainly posted a series of beautiful photo diaries, made up of White House photos of President Obama. Those diaries never failed to reinforce my pride in our president, and this country for electing him.
This week, blackwaterdog posted a fairwell diary, thanks to the poisonous environment which prevails at DailyKos these days. As Modern says below, the state of the DailyKos community at this moment is near toxic, so toxic, that even beautifully shot photographs from the White House staff photographer are met with near hatred. I’d cross post this in my account at DailyKos, if I didn’t think it might get me banned for the Nth time [UPDATE- I got banned anyway for calling out Jane Hamsher. Lovely.]. I don’t need that, especially since I was able to help convince the DailyKos community to light the blogosphere fuse for Jennifer Brunner.
The vicious demonization, by the hard right, of the first African American president in the history of the United States, is now joined by his most disloyal former supporters on the hard left. It was probably inevitable. And all over one provision, in one bill, on one issue, which if this president wanted to, he’d have been quite reasonable to ignore in the face of a calamitous economy on the verge of total inferno. I’ve had my battles with the hard left of our party, and I don’t shy away from it. I find this episode to be utterly predictable, but no less sad. And they will all look like a bunch of damn fools in a year or two.
Barack Obama’s genius is that he smokes out the people he can’t trust long term, without so much as lifting a finger. Barack doesn’t pick fights – he lets people self select the battles they want to fight with him, and then he goes about thoroughly defeating them, repeatedly, all with a smile. It was evident in the way his campaign handled the lefty blogosphere, it was evident in how he ran the campaign, and it is evident now in how he governs. When both the farthest right wing neanderthals and the farthest left of the Democratic Party both despise him, Barack’s getting somewhere.
Hey liberal groups and 2010 campaigns. You know what? That base you are pandering to? They voted for more troops in Afghanistan. So did you. Do me a favor and stop the breathless pandering to the anti-war bloc of the Democratic Party and get back on the O-train. It is, after all, what you busted your ass to get elected. My how soon we forget:
I highlight this image because it’s from a resulting search for “obama campaign afghanistan”. Side by side are results from July 20, 2008 and November 25, 2009. On July 20, 2008 during the summer of of the Presidential Campaign Barack Obama was very clear about Afghanistan:
“The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism,”
… Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.
“For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,”
The defense official said Tuesday that the military is planning to send three U.S. Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade with about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element of about 7,000; and between 4,000 and 5,000 support troops — a total of about 34,000 troops. CNN reported last month that this was the Pentagon’s preferred option.
You should not be surprised and you should stop sending me emails expected me to join in your outrage. Elections have consequences, we say. The consequences is this is the precise policy on Afghanistan your President advocated while campaigning. You remember, right? The guy you sent countless emails urging us to get out the vote for? The guy you sent email after email congratulating on his historic win? The guy who said outright he’d escalate in Afghanistan and begin to disengage with Iraq.
You know. That guy.
Lucy moving the football on Charlie Brown indeed. I’m keeping track of all of you. Brave New Foundation. Vote no on spending that would send troops to Afghanistan? Are you out of your fucking minds? Yes. Let’s do that. Elect a guy who says he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan and get out of Iraq then petition our members to oppose funding it. Holy fucking nose to spite your face batman!
MoveOn needs to make up it’s mind. You’re trying to ride the fence here. You don’t oppose a first round of troop increases, but you send your members a note encouraging them to screen the Brave New film against war in Afghanistan. Now after Obama’s speech you send out a tightrope walking note to members encouraging them to sign a petition (cough…list build…cough) to support this call to Congress:
“Congress must push the Obama administration to outline firm benchmarks and a binding timeline to bring all of our troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible.”
Stake out a position guys. LOL. Why don’t you send out a petition drive calling on Obama to be a decent enough President and hold him accountable to trying his best.
Listen. Half of these groups and campaigns sending out their little whining base pandering emails built their lists on the back of the historic Obama campaign. Now they cut him loose to pander to a base who voted for the precise thing the President is doing?
Please. Guys. Stop.
Spare us this charade of righteous indignation against a war that everyone knew we’d have to fight. Everyone is against war. Even those who fight it. No. ESPECIALLY those who fight it. Stop acting like you are somehow above it. I’d rather see you send notes of support for Obama having kept his word and his eye on the ball. I’d rather you appreciate the hard work we did to elect someone who could deliver the speech he did at West Point. It’s as if you completely missed the news.
There is new leadership in the White House. Principled, thoughtful leadership. We all busted our ass to get him there. I’m not going to join in your silly little parade of nonsense in trying to move the goal posts. Your team won and you blocked your guy into the end zone and you are already abandoning him in the locker room because he did exactly what he said he’d do?
Again, I’m keeping track of all you progressive groups, non profits, and campaigns. So stop. Please.
Get your progressive-values created “I’ve got your back, Barack” t-shirt
I like being in a political party, the Democratic Party, so resolutely anti-war at its core, and within its base. There is no “pro-war” Democrat. Those people are Republicans. Anti-war Democrats include us all. It means when we decide to fight a war, we make sure we do it right, because we want it to end.
Anti-war pacifists do not, however, include all Democrats. That too is a good thing. Ask any Kosovar Albanian, who last month raised a statue to our Democratic president Bill Clinton in gratitude for saving them from genocide. Ask Bosnian Muslims. Ask the whole of Europe, who to this day still treat the memory of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt with hushed reverence, even though Roosevelt waged more horrifying warfare in Europe on a wider scale than anyone would even imagine happening today.
This is why after September 11, the US was able to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter. Article 5 is the provision within NATO that commits other NATO members to military action if any other member is attacked. It was a historic moment of great sadness that the leader of NATO, the United States, had to become the first country in NATO’s history to ever do so. Our NATO allies responded as we knew they would – they came to our defense.
NATO exists to prevent war. Article 5 was designed as a deterrent against war. Once Article 5 is invoked, however, NATO’s credibility, indeed the existence of the oldest, most durable and positive force for peace and stability in the history of the world, is on the line. Barack Obama clearly understands that. As I noted last night after the speech, Barack cited Article 5 himself in the speech, both to remind us all of the stakes, and remind our allies.
What should have been done immediately after we invoked Article 5 was NOT done by George W. Bush. That is the tragedy which leaves us with today’s mess. It is also one small piece of the wreckage Bush left behind that Barack has to clean up. Not only does Barack have to fix the entire catastrophe (one catastrophe of many), he must restore NATO’s credibility on this very specific use of NATO’s reason for being.
Escalation of this war is not only necessary for the goals Barack outlined last night, it is necessary as yet another required step to restore this country’s credibility in the international community. We cannot be running around invoking Article 5 of the NATO charter, then frittering that away because of incompetence in our idiot president, then leaving when we fuck the shit up, particularly once a new president takes the catastrophe over. America must, at the very least, take every possible military step to make the invocation of Article 5 a credible deterrent again.
The strategy outlined last night will put that credibility back into NATO. I happen to also believe the strategy will work on the ground to achieve the substantive goals outlined in Barack’s speech. Would I have rather seen 150,000 troops go to Afghanistan in 2002 instead of to Iraq in 2003? Of course. Can we get this done now, with this strategy? Probably, but certainly not guaranteed.
But this war will end. It will end on Barack Obama’s terms. Anti-war pacifists will still be enraged. If Barack announced total withdrawal last night, pacifists would be enraged because every soldier wasn’t gone yesterday. Pacifists argued we should be focusing on Afghanistan, but not Iraq, and now that we are focusing on Afghanistan, pacifists move the football. Just like Lucy does to Charlie Brown. Where have I seen THAT before.
But that’s o.k. I prefer being in a party with purists who hold a pacifist view, than being in a party with Republican purists who hold the opposite. And I’m glad the pacifists are arguing their positions with passion. That’s what makes us the Democratic Party.
I just hope all of us, pacifists included, still got Barack’s back.
Get your progressive-values created “I’ve got your back, Barack” t-shirt
Tonight’s speech was nothing less than a total repudiation of the Bush doctrine by President Obama, in every way. There is no open-ended war. No good vs. evil. We know when, and precisely how, the war in Afghanistan will end. Barack put American values ahead of American might. And by giving this speech to a military audience, Barack made it clear that this new approach, “doctrine” if you will, comes from the top.
Invoking September 11, as weary as that has become, had to be done, but Barack did it in a much better way. Barack invoked Article 5 of the NATO treaty – the provision that binds NATO allies to defense of each other on occasion of attack. The last time we heard Article 5 mentioned this prominently was in the first days after September 11, when Colin Powell used the phrase “teed up”, to describe the US invocation of it.
Using Article 5 in this speech, tonight, on national television, not only reminded Americans of the stakes, it reminded our allies. That is a big deal. We are not in Afghanistan alone, never have been, and we are there for a reason so commanding it triggered NATO’s only effective provision, in fact NATO’s reason for existence. By putting NATO credibility this explicitly on the line, Barack not only made an argument against withdrawal, he made an argument for the escalation, and completion of the mission.
Pakistan was discussed more in this speech than in any speech any US president has made on national TV. That’s also a big deal, and it puts enormous pressure on the Pakistani side of the border, whether Pakistanis like it or not. I cannot imagine George W. Bush being this explicit about making demands, military and political, on Pakistan. Another repudiation.
Tying this speech so tightly to the economy was politically smart, a practical necessity, executed well, and a mission critical vision for our forces to whom Barack is issuing his orders. The price tag was clear, transparent, and explicit. It seemed to sink in to the cadets, too. Over time, this rationale will probably take hold within the day to day narrative from the White House. Good.
The most important takeaway for me is that next summer will be the hottest in Afghanistan since the war began. The new troops will all have arrived, and a spring offensive will certainly be coming from the Taliban. That means this strategy will succeed or fail by the end of 2010.
