What's next after Obama's Olympic Humiliation?

[mudwhistle]

I didn't plow through all the posts, so at the risk of being repetitive, for me it's not so much that Obama embarrassed himself by personally getting involved in this fiasco. It's the fact that he did so while generals are on a battlefield waiting to hear HIS strategy. Whether or not he talks to the generals directly or through the SECDEF isn't important. The important thing is that combat commanders had to wait for Obama to make a PR splash before they could hear from him what his plan for winning the war in Afghanistan. And even so, as far as I know, he still hasn't articulated his strategy yet.

Ever hear of Vietnam? If not, sit back and watch: we're repeating the same fucking mistakes again!

I was in Somalia in 93'.

I saw the changes Clinton made there that caused Blackhawk Down.

Half measures and Rules of Engagement that kept us from being successful.

It seems that Democrats are always trying to be nice to our enemies and put on this harmless front while they're leaving our troops in harms way.

When something happens that shows this policy is a mistake they pull us out.

I think Obama is waiting for some huge event where hundreds of our troops are killed so he can pull out.

He has no intention on succeeding.

Just to be fair, Clinton and the Democrats weren't the only ones to come up with ridiculous ROE. Same things happened in Beirut during the Reagan administration leading up to the barracks bombing. For example, in 1983, Marines could not load their weapons if assigned to "low risk posts." This was done primarily as a safety issue so that Marines wouldn't have any accidental discharges of their weapons. Well, problem is that the barracks, by definition, was considered a "low risk post." Conversely, the ROE in Bosnia, at least during the first year, were pretty reasonable. If I thought my life was threatened, I had the right to defend myself with deadly force. I didn't have to ask for permission; I didn't have to wait until fired upon; if it looked like the other guy was even thinking about it, I was authorized to act.

I'm not trying to defend the Obama administration nor the Clinton administration. I think this goes beyond partisan politics and has more to do with how squeamish the American people are across the board when it comes to combat. Remember the Highway of Death in Desert Storm? The decision to engage the fleeing Iraqi forces was the right thing to do. What Americans don't understand is that when you decide to engage the enemy, you're not out to make it fair or to give him a chance to fight back: you destroy the enemy with total and complete brutality. That's what we did in 1991. But once the American public saw the images of burnt out civilian vehicles that the Iraqi troops had commandeered to get out of Kuwait, it got pretty squeamish pretty quickly.

It's things like this that politically drive how ROE are defined. We don't want to appear brutal. But war is brutal. The one who is the most ruthless wins. It's been that way ever since the first caveman picked up a rock and bashed the brains out of his enemy.

When it comes to ROE, we're pretty bi-partisan at being wimpy about it.

Never let politics interfere with military tactics.

That is a constant. Congress has oversight over the Pentagon. They help set the rules of engagement.

Why are terrorists effective? Because people are terrified of them.

Terrorists love to go for soft targets. They're basically cowards.

If you show them that killing our people will result in terrible concequences they tend to have second thoughts.

I'm impressed with your knowledge of the Highway of Death. I used to drive around the craters that we put in that road. We not only killed Iraqis but we also killed Jordanian truckers transporting stolen Kuwaiti property up that road to Bagdad.

A brutal act I'm sure Obama and the Dems would be wailing about.

 

[The T]

I didn't plow through all the posts, so at the risk of being repetitive, for me it's not so much that Obama embarrassed himself by personally getting involved in this fiasco. It's the fact that he did so while generals are on a battlefield waiting to hear HIS strategy. Whether or not he talks to the generals directly or through the SECDEF isn't important. The important thing is that combat commanders had to wait for Obama to make a PR splash before they could hear from him what his plan for winning the war in Afghanistan. And even so, as far as I know, he still hasn't articulated his strategy yet.

Ever hear of Vietnam? If not, sit back and watch: we're repeating the same fucking mistakes again!

I was in Somalia in 93'.

I saw the changes Clinton made there that caused Blackhawk Down.

Half measures and Rules of Engagement that kept us from being successful.

It seems that Democrats are always trying to be nice to our enemies and put on this harmless front while they're leaving our troops in harms way.

When something happens that shows this policy is a mistake they pull us out.

I think Obama is waiting for some huge event where hundreds of our troops are killed so he can pull out.

He has no intention on succeeding.

I belive this to be correct. Obama is under relentless pressure to end our endeavours overseas by the extreme left.

But I find it curious that Under Bush Iraq, was the "wrong war" to them and they supported what was happening in Afghanistan.

Now that the Left has solid numbers in both houses and the WH? That tune has changed.

Of course we know what the intent is. And you are spot-on.

 

[Liability]

Though I loath Obama and everything he stands for, I cringed when he embarrassed himself by flying to Denmark to beg them for the Olympics. It's a major, MAJOR embarrassment for America as a nation to have our President both get personally involved in a matter so trivial and then to get bitch slapped by nobodies.

What's a Community Organizer to do?

The embarrassment to America was brought upon ourselves by ourselves in that "we" (majority-wise speaking) voted for President Obama.

Beyond the fact that he has demonstrated beyond a doubt that the world doesn't stop hating America just because we elected that lightweight to high office, the bitch-slapping President Obama received at the hands of the IOC was just plain funny!

I laughed out loud -- literally. I had JUST discussed the prosepect with a conservative friend. We thought that if Impeached and Disgraced Former President Clinton had enough savvy not to go get our reeporters back from N. Korea without first having the deal approved in advance, that surely President Obama (experienced communist -- err -- community organizer that he is) would be savvy enough not to place his own stock on the line without having assurance that it was a done deal.

But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Mere moments later I happily texted my friend to announce the amazingly humorous news. :



President Obama turns out not to be nearly as smart as even Impeached and Disgraced Former President Clinton!



Too funny!

I don't get how Chicago's failure to draw the olympics there is that funny unless you're just looking to slam Obama at any moment you can find, but meh.

I'm still wondering if any reports came out on WHY the IOC threw Chicago out in the first round of voting.

It's funny because the man-child we elected President demonstrated -- in a clear and embarrassing fashion -- that he is indeed a lightweight novice. His ego led him to conclude that going there to won'erful won'erful Copenhagen would seal the deal! And his ego took a bruising. I think that's a rup. PART of the reason is that I politically oppose almost everything President Obama stands for. So his failures are relished.

But PART of the reason was more pragmatic. Chicago cannot afford to do all that is necessary to get itself ready to host the Olympics. Not today. Not in 6 to 7 more years. Therefore, the costs would almost certainly be picked up by the U.S. Treasury in one way or another. OUR Tax Dollars hard at work for the Chicago thugacracy. No thanks.

I don't care why the IOC tossed Chicago out in round one. (A nice little exclamation point to the sound thumping they were giving to the President!) I am just truly pleased that they did so.

And if it underscores that President Obama, the empty suit in chief, is an assclown, so much the better.

 

[Liability]

[
Beyond the fact that he has demonstrated beyond a doubt that the world doesn't stop hating America just because we elected that lightweight to high office, the bitch-slapping President Obama received at the hands of the IOC was just plain funny!



Too funny!

I don't get it??
Was it a "bitch slapping" to King Juan Carlos of Spain??
Or PM Hatoyama, from Tokyo?
Who both attended.
Did Brazil's Pres Lula (also there) just have more personality?
Or maybe, just maybe, it was just there time.
Yeesh!

No. Their egos were not anywhere nearly as much on the line as the manchild we have as our "leader."

It was Rio's time.

Good.

I agree with DiveCon. I think it was pretty obvious that the odds favored Rio for several good reasons, already mentioned in this thread. Great. So why did President Obama put so much of his own political "stock" at risk on an odds-against gamble? Because he's a not particularly savvy rookie with a bunch of jackass advisors letting him down. Hard.

And I love it. The worse his insufferable ego gets battered, the better off all of us might end up.

 

[Toome]

Never let politics interfere with military tactics.

That is a constant. Congress has oversight over the Pentagon. They help set the rules of engagement.

Why are terrorists effective? Because people are terrified of them.

Terrorists love to go for soft targets. They're basically cowards.

If you show them that killing our people will result in terrible concequences they tend to have second thoughts.

I'm impressed with your knowledge of the Highway of Death. I used to drive around the craters that we put in that road. We not only killed Iraqis but we also killed Jordanian truckers transporting stolen Kuwaiti property up that road to Bagdad.

A brutal act I'm sure Obama and the Dems would be wailing about.

The unfortunate reality is that politics will always drive ROE, especially in today's world with incidents on the battlefield being posted over the internet within minutes of them occurring. A few years ago, a Marine clearing a house shot a wounded insurgent in the head and killed him. This was cause celebre for anti-war fanatics as a demonstration of how brutal the US military is towards unarmed civilians.

Anyone who's put on a uniform and walked with the Devil in the dark of night knows that there is a huge difference between an unarmed combatant who identifies himself, throws his arms up in surrender and fully cooperates as opposed to a person who is faking that he is dead. You search and detain the first one and you kill the second one. It's that simple.

But the folks who criticize this have never experienced the harsh reality of war. Unfortunately, I'm pretty certain that the world-wide internet publicity of this shooting probably resulted in more restrictive ROE. Like you said, it shouldn't happen, but politics will always factor into ROE.

 

[Zona]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

 

[bodecea]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

No, petty. That's what it is.

 

[mudwhistle]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

No, petty. That's what it is.

I could say the same for the way the Dems treated Abu Grab and Katrina.


Also the way they treated everything bad that has happened to us the last several years.


I would have to say this was a more personal failure that could in all honesty be laid directly at the feet of the Messiah himself.

The difference being nobody got killed as a result of it. So the criticism isn't as much in the gutter as when the Dems were doing it to Bush.

 

[Zander]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

I am glad Chicago lost, but not for the reasons you think. "We as America" did not lose the Olympic bid. A bunch of corrupt Chicago sleazebags lost. I don't think lining the pockets of Mayor Daly and his political machine is a good use of public funds. The games would have been financed by the public and once again the public would get screwed. Chicago lost because it is a sleazy town with too much crime. Having a few high profile murders just before the voting took place didn't help either!

Obama lent his fading credibility to the effort and that was a mistake.

 

[Toome]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

I am glad Chicago lost, but not for the reasons you think. "We as America" did not lose the Olympic bid. A bunch of corrupt Chicago sleazebags lost. I don't think lining the pockets of Mayor Daly and his political machine is a good use of public funds. The games would have been financed by the public and once again the public would get screwed. Chicago lost because it is a sleazy town with too much crime. Having a few high profile murders just before the voting took place didn't help either!

Obama lent his fading credibility to the effort and that was a mistake.

Well, testing the sense of humor in this forum, when I heard the news, I said to a coworker, "Oh, so instead of getting terrorized by gang members on the streets of Chicago, tourists will be terrorized by Brazilian drug lords instead."

 

[Zander]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

I am glad Chicago lost, but not for the reasons you think. "We as America" did not lose the Olympic bid. A bunch of corrupt Chicago sleazebags lost. I don't think lining the pockets of Mayor Daly and his political machine is a good use of public funds. The games would have been financed by the public and once again the public would get screwed. Chicago lost because it is a sleazy town with too much crime. Having a few high profile murders just before the voting took place didn't help either!

Obama lent his fading credibility to the effort and that was a mistake.

Well, testing the sense of humor in this forum, when I heard the news, I said to a coworker, "Oh, so instead of getting terrorized by gang members on the streets of Chicago, tourists will be terrorized by Brazilian drug lords instead."

Rio has it's own set of problems, that's for sure. But at least the US Taxpayer won't be paying for it.

 

[Toome]

I stand corrected on an earlier post I made. Apparently Obama did spend some time with General McChrystal while in Copenhagen. What still burns me about this is that there still was no final decision at the end of this meeting, and Obama is going to refer to his other advisors before making a final decision. Not that there's anything overtly wrong with this, but McChrystal IS the man on the ground. His word should have considerable influence over the others who are NOT on the ground. Seems to me that Obama is doing this backwards.

I can't rule out in my mind that this was a hastily-thrown together version of the Beer Summit designed to placate Obama's critics in the wake of the recent bad press, and that this meeting was more appearance than substance.

Pet peeve: White House photos showing Obama sans coat and tie with sleeves rolled up while meeting with General McChrystal. He's the President of the United States and ought to look like it! But this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, and I freely admit it.

 

[Liability]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

What rubbish.

America didn't lose the Olympic bid. Chicago did. Chicago is IN the United States of America but is not itself THE United States of America.

But it was destined to be America that ended up footing the bill. So, you're damn right I am VERY happy that Chicago lost that bid. Good news for Rio and good news for America.

Further, it comes with the extra added beneficial bonus of bitch-slapping down the President's inflated ego. That too holds the promise of serving America's long term interests.

Just because your messiah wants it is not a good enough reason for the rest of us to hope is hack-ish dreams come true.

 

[mudwhistle]

I stand corrected on an earlier post I made. Apparently Obama did spend some time with General McChrystal while in Copenhagen. What still burns me about this is that there still was no final decision at the end of this meeting, and Obama is going to refer to his other advisors before making a final decision. Not that there's anything overtly wrong with this, but McChrystal IS the man on the ground. His word should have considerable influence over the others who are NOT on the ground. Seems to me that Obama is doing this backwards.

I can't rule out in my mind that this was a hastily-thrown together version of the Beer Summit designed to placate Obama's critics in the wake of the recent bad press, and that this meeting was more appearance than substance.

Pet peeve: White House photos showing Obama sans coat and tie with sleeves rolled up while meeting with General McChrystal. He's the President of the United States and ought to look like it! But this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, and I freely admit it.

The McChrystal visit was clearly a photo-op. The rolled up sleeves were an example of it.....meant to show that Obama was rolling up his sleeves and doing his job.

He spent a grand total of 25 mins talking to his senior commander on the ground in Afghanistan. Hardly enough time to ask him how the wife and kids are doing.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Les' see heah. Follow Zander and the loonies or believe Morning Joe's take. Yep, not hard.

The Dems and the liberals in our high schools and universities are going to show the hole in contoid critical thinking on this one. The contoids are giving their children away to their enemies, and apparently doing it willingly.

Hey, Republicans, stop being the "party of no", get some respectable leaders, and come up with a believable and workable program. The Dems took more than ten years and six election cycles to understand that basic fact.

 

[DiveCon]

At least Obama has the gig at the UN Security Council he can fall back on

Anybody with an IQ over 100 could (read, Bush couldn't)...;O)

and yet Bush had better grades than Kerry

 

[DiveCon]

Les' see heah. Follow Zander and the loonies or believe Morning Joe's take. Yep, not hard.

The Dems and the liberals in our high schools and universities are going to show the hole in contoid critical thinking on this one. The contoids are giving their children away to their enemies, and apparently doing it willingly.

Hey, Republicans, stop being the "party of no", get some respectable leaders, and come up with a believable and workable program. The Dems took more than ten years and six election cycles to understand that basic fact.

keep proving me right in calling you a moron

 

[CrusaderFrank]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

USA didn't lose the bid; Obama did.

I think he mentioned USA twice in his speech and used the words I or me 42 million times

 

[Zona]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

What rubbish.

America didn't lose the Olympic bid. Chicago did. Chicago is IN the United States of America but is not itself THE United States of America.

But it was destined to be America that ended up footing the bill. So, you're damn right I am VERY happy that Chicago lost that bid. Good news for Rio and good news for America.

Further, it comes with the extra added beneficial bonus of bitch-slapping down the President's inflated ego. That too holds the promise of serving America's long term interests.

Just because your messiah wants it is not a good enough reason for the rest of us to hope is hack-ish dreams come true.

Ah, so Chicago is not part of the united states....who knew? The jobs lost and the revenue that could have been generated for AMERICA is irrelevant, right Rush...

Fucking un american commy pieces of shit hypocrites.

 

[Intense]

To be gleefull that we as America lost the Olympic bid....is un American Glenn Beck and Rush. You are such hacks...you see it as a win we lost the bid. All this proves is no matter what, if Obama wants it, you are against it.

PATHETIC!

What rubbish.

America didn't lose the Olympic bid. Chicago did. Chicago is IN the United States of America but is not itself THE United States of America.

But it was destined to be America that ended up footing the bill. So, you're damn right I am VERY happy that Chicago lost that bid. Good news for Rio and good news for America.

Further, it comes with the extra added beneficial bonus of bitch-slapping down the President's inflated ego. That too holds the promise of serving America's long term interests.

Just because your messiah wants it is not a good enough reason for the rest of us to hope is hack-ish dreams come true.

Ah, so Chicago is not part of the united states....who knew? The jobs lost and the revenue that could have been generated for AMERICA is irrelevant, right Rush...

Fucking un american commy pieces of shit hypocrites.

Just Love It When You Talk Dirty Baby!!!!! LOL