Obama's reply
A few words for those who are whining that Obama's wimping out.
First: To those who are claiming that he hasn't said anything and/or hasn't acknowledged the students at all: Please do a google search, just one, before shooting off at the mouth. You are idiots.
To everyone else:
Okay, now I get that most of you got into politics when it was cool (that is, during the reign of terror of Bush the Second), and I generally like to avoid the Old Skool 'learn your history, learn your roots' crap that waves like a banner that I've been following this stuff since before I was really old enough to get what was going on -- 20+ years now -- but seriously. LEARN YOUR HISTORY PEOPLE.
The thing that got us in trouble in the middle east was sticking our damn fingers in their politics. The CIA used to topple leaders in stable countries, throwing that country in to chaos, in order to replace them with a handpicked leader who said they'd be loyal to the west who turned out to be, like Saddam Hussein. We put him in power. Us. That is what happens when we go in and directly mess with middle eastern politics.
And I know you're saying "but this guy is different! He's a good guy!" -- but the effect is the same. We're still acting like big brother, looking at an established country and being like 'You're not good enough to decide your own shit, we're going to step in and do it for you'. Remember that Obama's trying to engage the Islamic world, to convince them that we're not the America who put dictators in power, that we're not the America who belittled their ability to decide their own fate. He's comitted to that, and I laud him for sticking to his guns, even when it'd be politically convenient to do otherwise.
Because sure, we'd be happy if he went in and waved his magic wand (well, the military) and made the bad men go away, but the people he's trying to engage, the people whose trust he's trying to win, would see it as another act of the old America, the hated America.
His words have also been critisized as being too mild. But remember that no matter how this thing turns out, he's got to deal with whoever winds up in charge -- and that might mean Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. We voted for the guy who said that he wasn't going to go out of his way to alienate the Arab world, and that he was going to keep trying to talk with Iran. He is doing exactly what he said he was going to do, and now you complain because he doesn't do every single thing you want him to.
Look, I'm sure that if he could, Obama would wave a magic wand and make everything all better. But he does not have the power to do that. And short of direct interference, there's not a hell of a lot that CAN be done by the US -- it's not as though the UN is going to do jack shit. (And if they do, it will take forever.) The outside forces that could do the most, directly, are the EU. But as for the US, our involvement -has- to be minimal specifically because we were such dicks in the past. This is part of the price that we pay for our previous bad behavior, and there's nothing really that can be done about that.
Oh, and for those who are about to say: 'YOU WORSHIP OBAMA LIKE A GOD OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!one': No. There are a lot of things Obama has done that I'm not happy with. I'm not happy -at all- with his economic policy. He brought in a lot of Chicago school guys, and I knew that wasn't going to go well. I'm also not happy with his stance on gay marriage. But I also knew about all of that before I voted for him, specifically because I -wasn't- a rabid Obama fanatic, and I decided that the good outweighed the bad. Thus, you don't see me complaining much about Obama doing what he said he was going to do, because Jesus Christ, people, he was freaking HONEST while he was running for office.
First: To those who are claiming that he hasn't said anything and/or hasn't acknowledged the students at all: Please do a google search, just one, before shooting off at the mouth. You are idiots.
To everyone else:
Okay, now I get that most of you got into politics when it was cool (that is, during the reign of terror of Bush the Second), and I generally like to avoid the Old Skool 'learn your history, learn your roots' crap that waves like a banner that I've been following this stuff since before I was really old enough to get what was going on -- 20+ years now -- but seriously. LEARN YOUR HISTORY PEOPLE.
The thing that got us in trouble in the middle east was sticking our damn fingers in their politics. The CIA used to topple leaders in stable countries, throwing that country in to chaos, in order to replace them with a handpicked leader who said they'd be loyal to the west who turned out to be, like Saddam Hussein. We put him in power. Us. That is what happens when we go in and directly mess with middle eastern politics.
And I know you're saying "but this guy is different! He's a good guy!" -- but the effect is the same. We're still acting like big brother, looking at an established country and being like 'You're not good enough to decide your own shit, we're going to step in and do it for you'. Remember that Obama's trying to engage the Islamic world, to convince them that we're not the America who put dictators in power, that we're not the America who belittled their ability to decide their own fate. He's comitted to that, and I laud him for sticking to his guns, even when it'd be politically convenient to do otherwise.
Because sure, we'd be happy if he went in and waved his magic wand (well, the military) and made the bad men go away, but the people he's trying to engage, the people whose trust he's trying to win, would see it as another act of the old America, the hated America.
His words have also been critisized as being too mild. But remember that no matter how this thing turns out, he's got to deal with whoever winds up in charge -- and that might mean Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. We voted for the guy who said that he wasn't going to go out of his way to alienate the Arab world, and that he was going to keep trying to talk with Iran. He is doing exactly what he said he was going to do, and now you complain because he doesn't do every single thing you want him to.
Look, I'm sure that if he could, Obama would wave a magic wand and make everything all better. But he does not have the power to do that. And short of direct interference, there's not a hell of a lot that CAN be done by the US -- it's not as though the UN is going to do jack shit. (And if they do, it will take forever.) The outside forces that could do the most, directly, are the EU. But as for the US, our involvement -has- to be minimal specifically because we were such dicks in the past. This is part of the price that we pay for our previous bad behavior, and there's nothing really that can be done about that.
Oh, and for those who are about to say: 'YOU WORSHIP OBAMA LIKE A GOD OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!one': No. There are a lot of things Obama has done that I'm not happy with. I'm not happy -at all- with his economic policy. He brought in a lot of Chicago school guys, and I knew that wasn't going to go well. I'm also not happy with his stance on gay marriage. But I also knew about all of that before I voted for him, specifically because I -wasn't- a rabid Obama fanatic, and I decided that the good outweighed the bad. Thus, you don't see me complaining much about Obama doing what he said he was going to do, because Jesus Christ, people, he was freaking HONEST while he was running for office.