As a proud American, I have watched the worst president in U.S. history slowly degrade this great nation that much of the world has looked up to as hope or inspiration.
Yes, yes. America is so great and everybody loves us. But now we've been "slowly degraded" by Obama's policies and we hear great cries of despair from dark corners of the world as all traces of "hope and inspiration" fall away from their bleak, dirty lives. Or, more likely, the only thing the average world-dweller cares about in regards to Obama is whether America is presently dropping bombs on them or supporting the regime they live under.
I may respect the office of the president, but I personally do not agree with the man currently in it. Some think Obama is a great president, but they are terribly wrong. You may be asking why I think this?
In my experience, anyone who invokes the notion of "respect the office" only uses it as (1) a bludgeon when they feel the person holding the office should be above criticism or (2) as a rhetorical device to pointlessly soften their criticism of the office holder. Or, in other words, they don't actually respect the office. Not that you should, mind you. People in power are the most deserving of criticism, offices be ****ed.
(1) He has caused the rise of ISIS by withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq before military commanders had any confidence in leaving Iraq to stand for itself. [snip] Regardless of these reasons, Obama has been coward and has done practically nothing that could end the reign of this tyranical group once and for all.
We withdrew our troops from Iraq because the SOFA mandated their removal at that time. To keep them there would be inarguably a grave violation of Iraqi sovereignty and international law. Not that we're strangers to such things, but my point is that Obama's hands were more or less tied there. You criticize Obama for causing the rise of ISIS, which is certainly fair to a certain degree, yet I doubt you'd recognize the fact that its rise is far more attributable to the conditions created by Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq. The power vacuum and sectarianism that that invasion created in Iraq are DIRECT, not indirect, contributors to the success of ISIS's conquest. ISIS draws its support from the political exclusion felt by Sunnis from the US-backed Baghdad regime and from general Sunni Muslim anger at the destruction of the Middle East.
I have nothing to say on the subject of ISIS's atrocities in Iraq and Syria, because they are very well known. But what I would ask you is this: in your estimation, what would you, as a president who is presumably not a "coward," be doing to combat ISIS? Would you return troops to Iraq? What if the Iraqi government doesn't want American troops back on the ground in Iraq? Would you invade anyways? Are you prepared to invade Syria and inject America into a four-way conflict that has been raging for some four years?
Obama has authorized a significant air campaign which has, it is claimed, killed 12,000 or so ISIS fighters. That is, objectively, not "practically nothing." I'm not even attempting to claim that's a good course of action, I'm disputing your ridiculous characterization of Obama's policies.
(2) Obama has stirred the pot on the issue of race instead of trying to calm people down even though we have resolved this decades ago. All lives matter, there is no such thing as "white privelage" or any form of discrimination based on color (I personally see no difference between me and someone who has a different skin color, we are all human). In this great nation of ours, you can be whatever you want to be as long as you are willing to work for it with utmost desire (anyone can be another Bill Gates if they knew what they were doing).
"Stirred the pot?" Which right-wing news outlet did you scrape that little sound bite from? I only ask because I'm actually curious. At any rate, your views on the issue of race and social mobility are so naive they're hardly worth addressing. "We resolved this decades ago." Did we
really? If that were the case, how then do you explain the entire phenomenon that's roughly coalescent around #blacklivesmatter? Are all the people of color involved in it just doing it for the attention?
(3) Obama has made a mockery of this nation by making a fool of himself by showing a lack of confidence when he speaks (that is why he always leans on the podium the way he does and stutters a ton), signing terrible deals that will bring shame to him (& other involved) in the history books like the Iran Nuclear Treaty, not following through with his word (Obama did not do anything after the Syrian government crossed "the line" by using chemical weapons), allowing political correctness to rule instead of taking care of actual business (calling ISIS "militants" instead of condemning for who they actually are: "Islamist Extremists").
What you call a lack of confidence I call the kind of careful speech that's required of a politician. Your analyses of his body language and speech patterns are facile. I'll grant he has a more professorial demeanor than his predecessor, but what you call a lack of confidence is pretty clearly an overabundance of caution to me. This overabundance is, I think, borne largely out of the absolutely caustic environment the news media and the American Right has created since this man dared to step onto the world stage. No politician in history, in my belief, has been so routinely assailed with the same vitriolic yet utterly baseless denunciations as Obama. There was an entire movement that claimed he couldn't have been born in America and demanded he release his birth certificate. Respect the office, amirite. (Coincidentally, this is the first time we've come close to actually discussing the matter at hand -- Donald J. Trump. A famous "birther.")
I'll grant that the waffling on whether to carry out strikes on Syria was a poor decision, if only because it gave legitimacy to those Russian ****s. However, you should at least be happy that we are, in fact, now shooting missiles into and dropping bombs on Syria. As for Iran, I disagree strongly with your analysis, but at this point only time can tell there.
The notion that he is ruled in his foreign policy by whatever you think "political correctness" entails is simply idiotic. He has authorized drone strikes on militants throughout the Middle East, how exactly would calling them "Islamic extremists" make them any more dead? I suspect you want him to declare war on Islam, or on Islamic extremism, as if that would be anything more than an empty rhetorical flourish. We had a war that was prosecuted on rhetoric and supposed ideals. It's kind of what got us into this.
(4) He (more like his wife) has been starving American children by giving them terrible school lunches that do not give the amount of calories & nutrients children need while growing up and has allowed certain schools to ban lunches prepared at home (which is extremely stupid).
Oh man. I wish I had read this one first. I might have had a better idea of just how much of a fool you are. Please tell me where you read this.
(5) Has allowed illegal immigration to get out of hand by making decisions that encourage people to cross the border illegally, not enforcing the laws, and not increasing security on the border (if we really wanted to, we can easily make the border impossible to cross through strict security measures).
Really? We can
easily make the border impossible to cross? That's news to me. Then again I don't tend to believe Trump's ravings. The US-Mexico border is one of the largest in the world and the most frequently traversed. If it really were easy to make illicit crossing impossible it would already have been done.
(6) Obama also allowed Putin to invade Crimea and Eastern Ukraine even though we could has easily stopped him through military intervention, arming the legitimate Ukrainian forces, and strategic military tactics (like setting up Patriot missiles throughout Europe, Japan, and South Korea to make Russia's nuclear arsenal useless to decrease Putin's overall political leverage) that would have contained Putin's forces within Russian borders.
Yikes. You're starting to scare me. First off, I have a deep hatred of Putin. However, there is simply no way an intervention in Crimea would have ended well. Putin's takeover of Crimea was executed extremely quickly and with much support from the local population. I'm not justifying it one bit, but to think that you would risk an open conflict with Russia over that is what scares me.
Arming the "legitimate Ukrainian forces" is exactly what the EU and America are trying to do. The real problem is that there is a real perception in Russia and in parts of Ukraine that the West staged a coup in Kyiv, and arming the Ukrainian government would only serve to legitimize that claim and add fuel to a smoldering fire.
Also, Patriot missiles wouldn't make Putin's nuclear arsenal useless. I have only a cursory, Civilization IV-based knowledge of nuclear war, so if you can cite a military authority on the matter I'd love to be proven wrong.
Because of those reasons, I personally would be for Trump if he was the only choice I had (I personally would rather have Scott Walker as the candidate). I personally am neutral on Trump primarily because of his method on how illegal immigration should be handled. He thinks we should deport all illegals and expedite anyone we want back after we secure the border. The correct method of dealing with illegal immigration is to secure the border, develop a national id system to filter out who is illegal or not, give amnesty to those who are deemed beneficial to the country (supporting a family and truly desires to make a better life for their children through the American dream), and deport all those who should not be here (criminals stealing our tax dollars in the prison system, freeloaders who do absolutely nothing & collect welfare all day, & drug cartel members).
Since I had no choice for a neutral option, I chose Pro because I would rather have Trump in the White House instead of some democrat that will continue the very degrading Obama has started.
How are you going to round up all them illegals?
You're a fascist little twerp aren't you.
Good night.
- - - Post Merge - - -
I don't like seeing aggressive people win.
You're wise beyond your years.
