A taste
[CommentaryMagazine] The members of Barack Obama's administration in exile have become conspicuously noisy of late‐even more so than usual. Former CIA Director John Brennan accused Donald Trump and his administration of engaging in "outrageous," "narcissistic" behavior typical of "vengeful autocrats" by threatening proportionate retaliation against countries that voted to condemn the United States in the United Nations, as though that were unprecedented. It is not. James Clapper, Obama's director of national intelligence, all but alleged that the president is a Russian "asset." Perhaps the most acerbic and incendiary series of accusations from the former Democratic president's foreign-policy professionals were placed in the New York Times by Obama's national security advisor, Susan Rice. In her estimation, America has abdicated its role as a "force for good."
It's no coincidence that these overheated condemnations accompany abundant evidence that the Trump administration is finding its legs. As the last administration's undeserved reputation as sober-minded foreign policy rationalists is dismantled one retrospective report at a time, its jilted members are lashing out.
Rice's attacks on the Republican administration deserve the most attention, if only because they are the most apoplectic. Donald Trump's recently released national-security review paints a "dark," "almost dystopian" vision of the world, Rice contended. His world is full of "hostile states and lurking threats." Rice claimed that there is "no common good" in Trump's worldview. What's more, there is no "international community" and no "universal values." There are just "American values."
Rice takes a theatrically dim view of what is essentially a restatement of the bedrock principle of almost all international-relations theory: The international environment is anarchic. There is no "international community," because there is no enforceable "international law." To the extent that such a thing exists, it is dependent upon the willingness of nation states to subordinate their sovereignty to international institutions. There's no mechanism to make them do this, save for the threat of force. The recognition that nation states exist in a state of perpetual competition is not some grim surrender to the darkest of human impulses. It is reality, the acknowledgment of which only conveys to other nations firm parameters in which they can operate without accidentally triggering a conflict with another sovereign power.
Rice acknowledges that Moscow is a threat to regional stability and peace, "Western values," and U.S. sovereignty. She implies that Trump is a menace because he declines to recognize that. In fact, it was Obama much more so than Trump who has failed to see the obvious.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/25/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
#1
IMO there has been no other Potus who has besmirched the office to the extent that Obama has.
#2
Quote me a single line from one of Obama's "Lincoln-esque" speeches. No? Then can we keep our Doctor and out Health Plan. Period?
Obama WILL be remembered for that one statement for certain.Sure he will.
What else?
Think people. He was the "Messiah", remember? The thrill up your leg man. And if you are Black and voted for him because he was too....well..what did he do for you? Make a list.
And what Else did Obama DO for the United States with 8 years of the Economy ? Lower your taxes and give you job? And how do you think Obama was greeted by a room full of Pentagon Colonels and just about ANY USMC platoon. Canned applause?
And let's not forget Michelle the Lunch Food Nazi . Yeah, Obama was a lot of fun. Eight long years of laughs. And excuses.Am I lyin' to 'ya?
I remember when Obama fired General McKrystal who was a real Marine.Refresh my memory about WHY Obama fired McKrystal. Because a Marine Corp General spoke the Truth?
Can't have that in an Obama PC world, can we?
#6
Her comment that "the US can comfortably tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea" is absolute lunacy.
Hello Susan, have you talked to fat boy Kim lately?
Add that comment to the $1.4 Billion in CASH to Iran to help them fund their terror activities and quashing the DEA investigation of Iranian activities in South America.
And oh by the way, what happened to that red line they were so big on?
A completely gutless foreign policy.
I hope Trump runs the UN out of town. The UN has degenerated into the League of Nations and a supper club for pampered diplomats.
#8
I believe General McKrystal was an Army officer.
Ooooooh, that scalpel is dangerously sharp, Besoeker! As well you know, the general was Army Special Forces Joint Command commander. But Blackbeard Ghibelline6635 is our old idiot, Hemingway.
[100PercentFedUp] "History shows that we can, if we must, tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea."
Those words were written by former National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Thursday in the New York Times, in arguing for appeasement towards Kim Jong-un.
It was also the perfect symbol of everything that was wrong with Barack Obama’s feckless foreign policy ‐ and it explains why the world that President Donald Trump inherited is so dangerous and unstable.
The Obama administration believed it was worth living in the shadow of terror and nuclear aggression as long as the U.S. could maintain a dignified posture that could not provoke anyone. ‐Breitbart
Noah Rothman of Commentary Magazine wrote a brilliant article about the "death rattle of Obama’s reputation". In his article, Rothman reminds us of the ineffective and dangerous path former President Barack Obama took our nation down, and why the successes of President Trump are forcing his corrupt inner circle to speak out against Trump in defense of Obama’s failed legacy.
The members of Barack Obama’s administration in exile have become conspicuously noisy of late‐even more so than usual. Former CIA Director John Brennan accused Donald Trump and his administration of engaging in "outrageous," "narcissistic" behavior typical of "vengeful autocrats" by threatening proportionate retaliation against countries that voted to condemn the United States in the United Nations, as though that were unprecedented. It is not. James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, all but alleged that the president is a Russian "asset." Perhaps the most acerbic and incendiary series of accusations from the former Democratic president’s foreign-policy professionals were placed in the New York Times by Obama’s national security advisor, Susan Rice. In her estimation, America has abdicated its role as a "force for good."
It’s no coincidence that these overheated condemnations accompany abundant evidence that the Trump administration is finding its legs. As the last administration’s undeserved reputation as sober-minded foreign policy rationalists is dismantled one retrospective report at a time, its jilted members are lashing out. Continues.
[DAWN] A SUCCESSION struggle in the PML-N appears to be nearing resolution. But consider that whoever is to lead the party in the next general election, that person’s last name will be Sharif. The largest political party in the country and a party that will be seeking a fourth term in government is still a fiefdom of the Sharifs. If Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... does not nominate his brother, Shahbaz, to be the party’s candidate for prime minister and is unable to find a way back into electoral politics himself, assuming the party again wins power next year, the PML-N prime minister will be little more than a proxy for the elder Sharif. If Mr Sharif does nominate his brother, Shahbaz, the PML-N will formally become a family affair. Matters could become worse if Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... nominates his son Hamza to lead the party in Punjab.
Certainly, it is the right of a party to choose its own leaders and it is the right of the voters to choose their representatives. But democracy will not take a qualitative leap forward if parties are simply transferred from one family member to another. The PPP has demonstrated both the good and bad sides of family control. Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... was a worthy heir to her father and a historic political figure in her own right. But few would argue that her widower, Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... , has on the whole served the party well. Indeed, the fact that the next leader of the party will be either Bilawal Bhutto or one of his siblings has likely prevented a leadership challenge to Mr Zardari emerging. In the PML-N’s case, Shahbaz Sharif would arguably be one of the most qualified candidates for prime minister in the country’s history, given his long experience as the executive head of a province with more than 50pc of the country’s population. But that would not be the reason for Mr Sharif becoming the prime ministerial candidate. The sole reason would be that he is the brother of Nawaz Sharif.
Another dispiriting aspect of the PML-N’ politics is that it has not sought to cultivate a broad range of next-generation leaders. There is a team of somewhat younger faces around Maryam Sharif, but it is clear they owe their position to loyalty to Ms Sharif’s ambitions. Nawaz Sharif has relied almost exclusively on a small coterie that was with him in the 1990s. In Shahbaz Sharif’s stints as chief minister there is no one he has recognisably groomed for future leadership other than his sons. If the present is discouraging, the future appears to be even gloomier.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
Asif Ali 
