Al, surely you have not been on vacation the past eight years?
Burner02 wrote:
Al, here's what you missed...
the truth is that 8 years ago, just a couple of months into his first term, folks here said it wasn't Bush's War any more and O had said he would get us out. He took crap for not doing so immediately and it instantly became known as Obama's War. Bush is no longer President- was the refrain.
At the end of the 8 years, the new Prez says he inherited the world in a mess (welcome to the last century of Presidenting Mr. Trump) and folks here now say Obama should have waded in as deep as Hank's waders would take us...just like Trump is doing.
Guess what? Obama is out. It's Trump's war going forward, and I hope he lets his Generals call the shots whether it's charge or retreat.I'm cutting him slack as he has not been an insider privy to the workings of the world...hence my trust in the Generals over Trump and Bannon or whoever is the brain of the week.
frankj1 wrote:
That's not Burner's point, frank. He believes that America's military precipitously declined during the past 8 years under a Commander in Chief he did not respect. Even though that President adopted the military/intelligence driven black ops dark war to fight terrorism without American boots on the ground that evolved during the latter stages of the Bush Administration when the American people got war fatigue and didn't believe sacrificing our young men and women in the Middle East was going to solve their problems. (it still won't...ask the generals)
Under Obama, the black ops drone war against terrorism escalated tremendously, under the same two generals, Mc Raven and McChrystal, who developed and coordinated the program under Bush. It launched thousands of strikes all over the region, compared to the few hundreds under Bush. Critics, me included, believe that the number of strikes and the percentage of accidents (estimated at about 10%) that killed innocent civilians and the reliance of less than trustworthy locals for intel on who the "terrorists" were and where they hid, led to the creation of more terrorists than were terminated.
Obama did it without fanfare and the GOP-led Congress was kept informed and tacitly agreed, never openly praising or questioning that strategy. The mood in America continued to be "no more American boots on the ground in the Middle East." The GOP refused to hold a hearing, let alone grant Obama the war authority to strike Syria in 2013, when he requested it.
Military spending increased during Obama's terms, until the GOP-led Congress, determined to cripple the Obama administration, threatened the shut-down of the federal govt and enforced the budget sequestration that led to across-the-board budget cuts in federal spending, including some military budget cuts...GOP inflicted, and not Obama's idea...
Our military was, during the Obama years, and remains the most robust and powerful one ever, despite what Trump says...just add up all the Navy and Coast Guard ships, Air Force aircraft, Army and Marine tanks, missile launchers and armored vehicles, ICBM missiles w nuclear warheads, anti-missile defense systems, guided bombs and missiles including many with nuclear warheads that can be launched from numerous platforms on land, on the ocean, under the ocean surface, and from the air. Our military man-power and training, especially special operations, exceeds any other nation, and is the envy of most. The spec ops strike that took out Bin Laden demonstrated what the American military could accomplish...
We don't need to parade our military might down the streets of our capital...just take a look at all the American military bases all over the world...they are gleaming modern day fortresses that project strength and stability and protects American interests around the globe...do a google search on "strongest military in the world, past ten years"...those numbers didn't decline under Obama...and Trump didn't just pull that MOAB outta his thin air...
Edited by user
9 years ago |
Reason: Not specified
