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The Fingerpointing Begins: House Armed Services Chairman Slams Obama's Syria Policy
Yesterday we showed the full transcript of Barack Obama's surreal, confrontational, stuttering 60 Minutes interview, specifically the part dealing with the US foreign policy fiasco in Syria, and by implication, with Vladimir Putin.
For those who missed it, please watch it here. Below we have transcribed the key section which is must read for anyone curious what it looks like when the president of a formerly undisputed superpower of a unipolar world, is clutching at straws (or as far left website Vox put it, delivering "sick burns"), and in this case, clutching at the place where the teleprompter stood for advice on how to make Putin appear to be the loser in two conflicts which have either expanded Russia's geographic territory or have boosted Russian sphere of influence by orders of magnitude in the middle ease.
Steve Kroft: A year ago when we did this interview, there was some saber-rattling between the United States and Russia on the Ukrainian border. Now it's also going on in Syria. You said a year ago that the United States-- America leads. We're the indispensible nation. Mr. Putin seems to be challenging that leadership.
President Barack Obama: In what way? Let-- let's think about this-- let-- let--
Steve Kroft: Well, he's moved troops into Syria, for one. He's got people on the ground. Two, the Russians are conducting military operations in the Middle East for the first time since World War II--
President Barack Obama: So that's--
Steve Kroft: --bombing the people-- that we are supporting.
President Barack Obama: So that's leading, Steve? Let me ask you this question. When I came into office, Ukraine was governed by a corrupt ruler who was a stooge of Mr. Putin. Syria was Russia's only ally in the region. And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had in Syria, which they've had for a long time, Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally.
And in Ukraine--
Steve Kroft: He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He's challenging your leadership--
President Barack Obama: Well Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we'll get in Paris. My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire world community to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. And with respect to the Middle East, we've got a 60-country coalition that isn't suddenly lining up around Russia's strategy. To the contrary, they are arguing that, in fact, that strategy will not work.
Steve Kroft: My point is-- was not that he was leading, my point is that he was challenging your leadership. And he has very much involved himself in the situation. Can you imagine anything happening in Syria of any significance at all without the Russians now being involved in it and having a part of it?
President Barack Obama: But that was true before. Keep in mind that for the last five years, the Russians have provided arms, provided financing, as have the Iranians, as has Hezbollah.
Steve Kroft: But they haven't been bombing and they haven't had troops on the ground--
President Barack Obama: And the fact that they had to do this is not an indication of strength, it's an indication that their strategy did not work.
Steve Kroft: You don't think--
President Barack Obama: You don't think that Mr. Putin would've preferred having Mr. Assad be able to solve this problem without him having to send a bunch of pilots and money that they don't have?
Steve Kroft: Did you know he was going to do all this when you met with him in New York?
President Barack Obama: Well, we had seen-- we had pretty good intelligence. We watch--
Steve Kroft: So you knew he was planning to do it.
President Barack Obama: We knew that he was planning to provide the military assistance that Assad was needing because they were nervous about a potential imminent collapse of the regime.
Steve Kroft: You say he's doing this out of weakness. There is a perception in the Middle East among our adversaries, certainly and even among some of our allies that the United States is in retreat, that we pulled our troops out of Iraq and ISIS has moved in and taken over much of that territory. The situation in Afghanistan is very precarious and the Taliban is on the march again. And ISIS controls a large part of Syria.
President Barack Obama: I think it's fair to say, Steve, that if--
Steve Kroft: It's-- they-- let me just finish the thought. They say your--
President Barack Obama: You're--
Steve Kroft: --they say you're projecting a weakness, not a strength--
President Barack Obama: --you're saying "they," but you're not citing too many folks.
While there's much more humiliation piled upon embarrassment for the president (or as a ranked democrat put it previously, handing over Syria to Putin on a silver platter is "letting him hang himself") we'll stop there and instead cite one highly placed "folk" who in the aftermath of Obama's gruesome performance, decided to provide Russian media with just the soundbites they will need to make Putin's triumph complete, when the Chairman of the House Armed Services, Mac Thornberry, slammed the Obama administration's policy on Syria in an interview published Monday.
Thornberry called the White House's recently canceled $500 million program to train and equip 5,400 Syrian rebels "a complete failure", The Hill reports, and said the president has not yet presented any plan that has any signs of making a difference in the region.
"As a matter of fact, it’s going the other way,” he told the Times Record News. “As time goes on, the options for Syria get worse and worse. I think it’s getting harder and harder to see a way forward here."
Furthermore, as we have repeatedly warned, the chairman is concerned about Russian airstrikes in Syria to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad and the possibility of an accident escalating into something bigger, the paper reported.
He said Russia's involvement in the conflict would only worsen sectarian fighting in the region. "It is only going to inflame the Sunni versus Shia aspects of this conflict and may drive some of the Sunni countries to ratchet it up," he said.
But the peak in embarrassment came with Thornberry told the paper that he could not recall anytime during his 20 years in Congress where Russia or any other country told the U.S. when and where American forces could fly in another country.
There is always a first time for everything, and just in case Mac didn't read our article from Friday, the same week as Russia telling the US where to fly, China told the US not only are US warships not welcome next to the disputed islands in the South China Sea, but that China will not tolerate any provocations on its territorial waters.
Perhaps the only left way for Obama to save face will be to start World War III? Just think of the upside in the S&P - all those broken Keynesian windows...
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Spoken like a true Fascist.
bankrupt superpowers don't last forever
American Policy Hubris, should be the first concept put upon the blocks.
Vladimir... what do you have to say about this?
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Barrack
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Vladimir Putin, October 2014: "Playtime is over. Children, put away your toys. Now is the time for the adults to make decisions. Russia is ready for this; is the world?"
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused a Syrian Kurdish militia supported by the United States of committing war crimes by driving out thousands of non-Kurdish civilians and demolishing their homes.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/amnesty-accuses-us-backed-syrian-kur...
Obama will not finish his second term! Current Events Linked to Ancient Biblical Prophecy! http://motivationdose.com/is-america-babylon/
You know, you would have more credence if you had said that Biden will join Obama in his fate.
Standard Disclaimer: Death by piss poor web site design... happens all the time.
"Russia can't afford this". We can ?
Agreed. But it's one thing to be broke, quite another to have everyone know you're broke.
I'm not flying on an airplane with Kroft anytime soon.
Brokeback Barry. Kroft is one of the first journalist to ask the POTUS some hard questions. I would have added, 'WTF are we doing in Syria anyway?"
Esp since barry himself accuses Putin of "running his economy into the ground" by sending troops there, then what did Bush do before Barry and Barry doing now with hundreds of thousands of troops still in that region? By extension of Barry's own words, he is running the American economy into the ground.
Steve Kroft deserves an award for that interview. My guess is Barry will invite 50 or more thugs to the wh "for a beer" before he ever invites a mensch like Kroft.
Tim Russert got whacked by the Bush crowd
They can't afford not to.
The Debt-Money Monopolists have used their vassal government militaries to push the bear into a corner.
The Banksters overthrowing the Ukraine and then financing terrorists they use to scare their home populations into letting stranger feel inside their children's pants is so over the top... and it isn't like the consumers in these societies posses an iota of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from these political Debt-Money Monopolist financed and promoted sophists.
Thornberry told the paper that he could not recall anytime during his 20 years in Congress where Russia or any other country told the U.S. when and where American forces could fly in another country.
Hilarious …. The USA can go all over the world and tell everyone else what to do but when another country does the same it is unacceptable. The funny part is he doesn’t even recognize how ridiculous that sounds when you analyze his statement.
When and where to fly -- plus when and where to sail our ships!
if only they had filled Iraq with weapons factories instead of craters
the usefulness of sock puppets
1) you can always get them to do what you want, and not appear to be pulling their strings - they'll happily take all credit for it
2) when shit goes wrong, you can always scapegoat them for everything - they'll also take all the fall for it
3) find the next puppet, rinse & repeat
4) profit
"when shit goes wrong, you can always scapegoat them for everything - they'll also take all the fall for it"
Obama is hardly a sock puppet and he'll never take the fall for anything.
The liberal news media will never allow the first black president who is a Democrat to look too bad.
The stories about the Obama regime's policy failures will be buried and mostly igrored by the news media.
Most people in the U.S. have other diversions and don't care to hear about the Middle East.
The new NFL season has begun and there's new episodes of DWTS.
You are right, The news media will cover for him just like they have always done.
If the news media did their job, this man would have never been president.
He would have never even been close to getting the democratic nomination.
You let the guy that you are "Now" castigating destroy Libya, Yemen and Syria bankrupting your Country far beyond anyone's wildest imagination and now you are telling him he has no intestinal fortitude?!!!
Where is yours?...Gonna get on your soap box and join Charlie Rangel in a "Draft party"?... Or will you deliver us from evil with another epic 9/11 and keep the military an all volunteer force?... Only this time with no salary!!!
To coin a great Mike Rivero - WhatReallyHappened.com quote...
Mac "here is your parachute, M16 rifle and one way ticket to the Syrian conflict"!..
I'll be interested to see how many representatives from the House and Senate will be joining you aboard the C-17 you'll be flying to defend that very weak and hollow bravado of a U.S. military that you helped to create as a silent partner to every invasion the U.S. has taken on since Iraq in 2003!
You've got it all wrong.
We don't use M16s anymore. More like M4s and various other cousins.
Except.
In Syria our guys have been using AKs.
n Syria our guys have been using AKs.
You're right. My apologies.
I keep forgetting we probably buy AKs from the Russians to furnish our proxies with to kill innocent civilians and American soldiers with!... Too bad we don't purchase Russia's latest defensive missile systems and fighter(s)!...
I think we'll be needing them here shortly when 3rd generation fighter meets 4th generation fighter!
But we'll let the Brits huff and puff for us!
Curiously the US sanctioned Russia to block the import of AKs into the U.S. - now we know why - so that they could buy up that supply and drop it in Syria?
They bought thousands of them and stored them at the bluegrass army depot. Was the rumor 3 yrs ago
The same missile systems adept at shooting planes outa the skies ?
M4 is a M16...
True, it is an AR frame, but it's a greatly shortened weapon, so much so that an M4 Carbine is a carbine, not a rifle.
This small change dramatically changes how the platform functions in combat (handles better in close quarters, ballistics are shit at long range, stopping power overall has been reduced).
Both descend from the Eugene Stoner design. The AR-10 started things. In the nearly manly 7.62x51.
Well dammit. Who do the Ruskies think they are telling us we cannot bomb people in other countries whenever the hell we want. What is this, some kind of communist conspiracy to take over the world? We are FREE, durrr, to bomb anyone we want, anytime we want, anywhere we want. Got that!?
STOOPID! IT BURNS! What he doesn't remember the Cold War? Lying, arrogant, piece of shite.
Disgusting to see these evil toads fight over who wants endless war more and we have to bomb and kill more.
The corrupt govt does nothing to protect the border, enforce any laws against the elites, stop the police state attacking Americans, stop the endless corruption, Congress exempt from insider trading, the corrupt banks, mega corporations paying zero taxes, Soros running the State Dept and the list is endless.
All they worry about is having more and more war. more and more weapons to give to Al Qeada and fake ISIS adn other fake amrie sthey created whil the media lies 24x7.
They may moan about obama but did anyone stand up to him or his people or his puppetmasters?
The Pentagram? What a joke. Endless money, endless war.
Eisenhower warned us. Too bad he did not warn JFK more.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
Add him to the traitor list. One day there will be justice, like Nuremberg, but with party hats and trumpets.
and...
(choose your own adventure)
Michele Bachmann is on the intelligence committee. Who appoints these people?
you mean pelosi, waters, and jackson lee are not on it. i thought we would have our best people on it.
we reallty need Hank Johnson as the chairman.
These fuckers on CONgress need a big gulp of 'shut the fuck up'.
CONgress abdicated it's power to declare war a long time ago.
CONgress is about as useless as teats on a bull.
Even worse for this generation when they start up the military draft again. I've seen what it does to a society during some of Americas "good years". Just imagine--now.
Can you imagine Stevie "I got a trophy for participating" and Stacy "we do not keep score" going against people who are not raised in that bullshit world.
Fuck, I hope the armed forces have lots of counselor.
I'm proud to say that my son never got a trophy he didn't win.
Exactly.
1% of the military is hardcore special forces, combat pilots, etc, the other 99% are bench warmers that would not last 2 seconds in a real fight.
military draft = political protest and awaked population....so a good thing. I'm in favor of a draft, which likely means the govt knows how bad that would be for them; so it won't happen. And of course you don't need a draft when you have 15% unemployment.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/high-dimensioned-games/
There is a reason our activist foreign policy is not working : It can't. Human minds are not up to problems that would take all of the particles in the universe working at peak super-computer rates for >>age of the universe.
It seems to me that despite our vaunted intellect, humans can point to few things that show the effects of us using that intellect well :
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/lebowski-enlightenment-6/
We can do science and engineering, but many many errors. Anything more abstract, I think it is hard to show statistical evidence for the effects of thought in civilization.
> Thornberry told the paper that he could not recall anytime during his 20 years in Congress where Russia or any other country told the U.S. when and where American forces could fly in another country.
Maybe it's not in the last 20 years, but the Berlin Air Lift would certainly qualify.
The US did not allow the Soviet Union to deter those cargo planes. I seem to recall that it began after the ground routes from West Germany to West Berlin were closed by the Soviets. So they did get away with telling the US where not to drive.
Will he volunteer up his son to die for a Free Syria?
No, but the draft is approaching. A political hot potato for sure but it will become a necessity for US survival as a civilization. But once the nukes start-it don't matter anyway.
"the draft... will become a necessity for US survival as a civilization."
Good one!
Anyone who fights for the US government is either 1) brain dead, 2) evil, or 3) some combination of the two.
We surrender unconditionally.
maybe we could get france to surrender for us, they do it so well.
Obama made a hole in one......lol
Reggie scored a hole in one using his putter.
wow, that exchange with the president looked and read exactly like the quote, “Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and then struts around like it won the game.”
that's a funny quote
We had these same kind of morons having these cognitive spasms after it became obvious we got bested in Viet-nam after Tet. Their tiny little minds just could not handle the overload.
Lots of Generals and Politicians just could not mentally adjust to the new reality. The troops grasped it easily.
So let me help you out:
1.Your broke, beyond comprehension and could not fight a full out 90 day war without budgetary constraint
2.Your bungling bureaucracy can in no way keep up with the Shoigu man who works at lighting speed and takes over Crimea without a shot in 2 days and builds fully functional airports in a month. Carriers? LOL All this before you can get the signatures on a requisition request filled out.
.3 Your whole philosophy of carrier based power is based on WWII concepts that are obsolete and outdated with modern missle tech. But we hammered them Japs at Midway by God.
4. You have fell behind in critical areas wasting trillions, like the 1.5 trillion dollars on bullshit aircraft and show boat ships and equipment for an industrial welfare state, Or losing 3 trillion in just plain corrupt accounting while others have spent their money efficiently in areas like advanced missle systems, air defence, radars and EWS for a combined arms warfare approach you have yet to comprehend.
5. You have waged constant wars, been in Afganistan 15 years without a bonafied strategy or objective and waste your money trying to maintain and upkeep a world wide military complex of 800+ bases.
6. Your political and military heirarchy is nothing more that a kiss ass crony ladder that promotes blithering idiots such as yourself and Hillary Clinton to positions of power rather than a merit based sytem like the Russians seem to have.
7. you don't like to commit boots and bodybags to your ridiculous endeavers due to public outcry so like all falling empires you try to depend on Mercenaries of questionable ability and most important loyalty.
8. You never read Sun Tsu's book...........but always want to fight Asian nations and wonder why you keep getting your butt kicked.
9. Your full of yourselves................... and others exploit this and your arrogance
I could go on but that is enough to kick your weasly ass back out of any desert or jungle.
+1
Midway to some extent was luck. It could have gone either way. All wars are banskters wars including WW2. This does not take away from the US Naval aviators at Midway.
The game has totally changed and the world knows the Russian missiles and jets are top of the line. Meanwhile, the USA wasted $1 trillion or more on the worthless F-35 and the F-22 is not than much better.
I think the world was shock by these fairly small missile boats all the way back in the safety of the Caspian Sea sending advanced cruise missiles close to 2,000 miles. Across Iran and Iraq. They were so shocked they had to claim 4 crashed in Iran.
yes , they are still trying to figure out how a tiny little corvette can launch med long range missles when our missle ships require a 500ft ship. But most of all they are sweating bullets because they suddenly realize these things can easily hit any where in Europe clean to Portugal from say Crimea. Putin was not ever going to allow them to take that.
Kinda threw their whole nuclear balance of power equation and limitation treaties clean out the door legally with a brilliant work around,. And suddenly they are remembering all those small decommisioned subs and that these tiny boats that can go up rivers. Plus they have a version of this missle system that looks like a plain shipping container.
Trust me they are downplaying this but they are shitting bricks.
They won't be harrassing Putin's aircraft for a while.
Besides missiles and aircraft you did not mention Russia's advances in Electronic Warfare - the ability to blind the enemy, disarm his low orbit satellites and hide from him the radar source. One US General commented that Russia's electronic warfare weaponry was so advanced it was 'eye-watering'. And Russia has moved all that into Syria and now owns the skies there. What America is doing today over Syria is only with the permission of Russia - and they can't implement a no-fly zone because they don't have the tehnology to go against Russia's.
My apology, I used the military term EWS in #4. This means Electtronic Warefare systems. Writer's mistake of forgeting who the audience is, because I am not one
To Freddie: Yes we owe our future to those brave pilots at Midway, many who did not come back, it finally turned it for us.
And, the F22 is a fine and capable aircraft, But it was discontinued because of the astronomical maintenance cost. it will probalbly never be reinstated due to the crazy retooling cost. Thats why they call it the Scrapbird. These people here talking about how our F-22s will save the day are just plain silly.
Cheaper to just start on a new one( a decades long process). Once again building too complex a system that drive cost into the stratosphere. We currently cannot field a more capable air superiority fighter aircraft in large numbers than the old 1980s F-16(which is a fine plane by the way but still gen 3). We could use F-15 I guess but its more of a multi-role plane.
Thats why I say we are currently not ready for this and just go home, to many gaps in the armor. They don't get it.
MIDWAY was fortunate..
good post
Ah, yes, back in the day ...
"Hey Martha, how about a cool drink"
"Get it yourself, George ... and while your at it, get me one too"
20 minutes later, George serves the drinks, and they both sit out on the veranda, enjoying a cold one with a cool breeze.
"Isn't is great Martha" George breaking into the reverie, "we have an ocean on one side, and an ocean on the other, no one can bother us now, and its too far and too much trouble to go bother someone else. America is going to ne an awesome country, prosperous and peaceful."
---
those were the days, all right. s*
If you worry about the guy who has his finger on the launch codes, then never watch Obama off-teleprompter.
It's as scary as the idea of Hillary doing a pole dance.
not really if his finger hits the button at least it will be over quick. the horror of hillary doing a pole dance would damage you for the rest of your days.
Nolo contendere. What you say would be more merciful. Some things cannot be unseen.
Downvoted, nothing personal, but you used the words hillary and pole dance in the same sentence. Now I need an ambien to wipe that image from my brain
I agree with the red, but am going with personal for the mental assault.
save face, launch nukes... perfect thinking
Somehow this was Bush's fault, right? Or perhaps McCain led the dear leader astray?
But regardless of where the fingers point, watch them all pretend they are working for different people, different interests.
PUTIN IS RACISS!!!
"Perhaps the only left way for Obama to save face will be to start World War III?"
Obama has no interest in starting anything.
As a "man," he is terrified.
More importantly, his handlers have no clue what to do next.
I am glad there is one adult in the room...Putin. watching the 60 Minute interview with BHO WAS One of the most deeply disturbing deranged brain diarrhea happenings ever. sort of like watching the Miss Teen America epic statement about education that sounded like she had a stroke. The last couple weeks with Putin running the show in Syria, my stress level went down 25%. The 60 Minute interview...just went back up again. what scary now what horror will the deranged man-boy nancy inflict on us. We have the 25th amendment for removing a crazy president..but am sure no one has the guts to pursue it...so we all end up dead because the puppet masters chose a hugely narcissist creep to oversee disolution of this country...my fear he will not only take this country down but most of the rest of the world.
Community Organizer Foreign Policy - Yeahhhhhhh
We need to support and fund the terrorists before we can fight them.
Ahhhhh yea.
not.
Mac T needs to get over his small penis issue and grow up.
First time since 2007 USN has no carrier in Persian Gulf.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/10/432800/US-warship-Persian-Gulf
what a disgrace for a nation to have a war criminal in charge
"He said Russia's involvement in the conflict would only worsen sectarian fighting in the region"
And the USSA policy of "Equiping" by dropping 50 tons of ammo into the war zone helps how? Freaking retards. Too stupid to be stupid. Hang the traitors.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-12/us-paradrops-50-tons-ammo-syria...
You see, the leader of the speech making world and commander-in-Peace Prizes, says its all gonna be OK because he stopped Iran. Those chants of death to America, those intercontinental missile tests and that messianic, apocolyptic outlook don't mean a thing 'cos Iran will never dare invent a nuclear warhead, at least not right now. Besides they gonna eat Israel first and leave us to last and that at least should make some fools happy.
"Thornberry told the paper that he could not recall anytime during his 20 years in Congress where Russia or any other country told the U.S. when and where American forces could fly in another country."
All of Thornberry's comments reflect the presumptive mindset of so many power-elites who run America. They base their comments on the arrogant and misguided belief that the Pantygon and CIA have unfettered, unilateral authority to do what they like, where they like and when they like with complete dismissal of other nations' sovereignty.
Recent events are proving to be a lesson for these arrogant upstarts, hence the utter mess that Obola has gotten American into over Syria where Russia, Iran and China are challenging the US's claimed unilateral authority. We all know the consequences of the US exercising these claimed unilateral rights: the chaos that became Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Ukraine plus others. Syria is but the latest.
These claimed unilateral rights emanate from the US believing that it is an invincible empire. Events - militarily and economically - are proving otherwise. The American people will continue to pay the price for the psychopathic leadership the country has.
USA or Roman Empire... You decide.
I've seen several comments about USA being number one on many or most things, but can your president beat this:
Membership numbers
R939 360 000
Of course this dipshit fails to mention one pesky fact: while the Russians have been invited into that country, we, have not. Arrogance R US