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Obama Visits the Troops in Iraq

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by rimrocker, Apr 7, 2009.

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  1. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    Before basso can repeat some made up wingnut outrage, and before bt can pen another post about how the troops hate Obama, have a look...

    [​IMG]
     
  2. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    And I might add we saw a curious lack of protesters burning the American flag or the president in effigy with our new president’s European trip.

    So refreshing
     
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  3. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking

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    The troops that don't like him won't show up. That sure is a small group for a Presidential visit...

    Obviously the armed forces overwhelmingly vote Republican...
     
  4. basso

    basso Member
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    mark must've missed the protestors in Turkey w/ Obama Go Home signs. so glad the muslim world loves us now- must be all that bowing before foreign potentates.
     
  5. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    Guess I hit a nerve.
     
  6. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"
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    If only team Obama would learn to photoshop in some duplicate troops some duplicate troops some duplicate troops some [core dump]
     
    2 people like this.
  7. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Obama in Baghdad, tells troops Iraq must take over

    By JENNIFER LOVEN and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers Jennifer Loven And David Espo, Associated Press Writers 1 min ago

    BAGHDAD – Flying unannounced into a still-dangerous war zone, President Barack Obama told U.S. troops and Iraqi officials alike Tuesday it is time to phase out America's combat role in a conflict he opposed as a candidate and has vowed to end as commander in chief.

    With violence diminished but hardly disappearing — a car bomb killed eight Iraqis just hours before Obama's arrival — the president met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and emphasized that "we strongly support" steps to unite political factions, including integrating minority Sunnis into the government and security forces.

    Iraqis "need to take responsibility for their own country," Obama told hundreds of cheering soldiers gathered in an ornate, marble palace near Saddam Hussein's former seat of power.

    "You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement," he told some 600 troops, saluting their efforts during six years of American fighting and losses.

    "We love you," someone yelled from the crowd of photo-snapping men and women in uniform.

    "I love you back," responded the president, repeating a sequence that played out at hundreds of campaign stops on his successful run for the White House last year.

    Obama met with top U.S. commanders as well as senior Iraqi leaders on a visit of a little more than four hours that was confined to Camp Victory, the largest U.S. military base in a war that began in 2003 and has cost the lives of 4,265 members of the U.S. military. Many thousands more Iraqis have perished.

    A helicopter flight to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles distant was scrapped, but White House aides attributed the change in travel plans to poor weather rather than security concerns.

    Al-Maliki, appearing alongside Obama after their meeting, told reporters, "We assured the president that all the progress that has been made in the security area will continue."

    American commanders told the president the country is experiencing a relatively low level of violence, although the car bomb explosion in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad was evidence of a recent resurgence. Obama flew from Turkey, the next-to-last stop on an eight-day itinerary that also included Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

    Aides said Obama chose to visit Iraq rather than Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are also in combat, in part because it was close to Turkey and in part because of upcoming Iraqi elections.

    In his remarks to the troops, Obama made no mention of the Afghanistan conflict — where he has decided to commit 21,000 additional troops — and it was not known whether it came up in his meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander, and other officers.

    Obama announced plans in February to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on a 19-month timetable, although a force as large as 50,000 could remain at the end of that period to provide counterterrorism duties.

    He said that for the next year and a half, the United States will be a "stalwart partner" to the Iraqis. And yet, he said, "they have got to make political accommodations. They're going to have to decide that they want to resolve their differences through constitutional means and legal means. They are going to have to focus on providing government services that encourage confidence among their citizens.

    "All those things they have to do. We can't do it for them."

    By contrast, little more than a week ago, the president announced a revamped Afghanistan strategy that calls for stamping out the Taliban and al-Qaida and broadening the mission to include pressure on neighboring Pakistan to root out terrorist camps in its lawless border regions.

    "We spend a lot of time trying to get Afghanistan right, but I think it is important for people to know that there is still a lot of work to do here," Obama said shortly after Air Force One touched down in the Iraqi capital.

    Earlier, before departing Istanbul, the president told students, "Moving the ship of state takes time." Referring to his long-standing opposition to the war, he said, "Now that we're there," the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."

    The military is in the process of thinning out its presence ahead of a June 30 deadline under a U.S.-Iraq agreement negotiated last year that requires all American combat troops to leave Iraq's cities. As that process moves forward, the increase in bombings and other incidents is creating concern that extremists may be regrouping.

    While Obama spent much of the past week overseas grappling with the worldwide economic crisis and the war in Afghanistan, a constant theme of the trip was his determination to turn a new page in U.S. relationships abroad after eight years of the Bush administration.

    Nowhere was that intention more evident than in Iraq, where a Bush-ordered invasion in 2003 began as a quick rout of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein before gradually turning into a murderous environment for U.S. troops.

    Obama said American forces had "performed brilliantly ... under enormous strain."

    "It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis," he said as an estimated 600 troops cheered. "They need to take responsibility for their country."

    In Europe, he and other world leaders pledged cooperation to combat a global recession, and he appealed with limited success for additional assistance in Afghanistan, a war he has promised to intensify. The new president drew large crowds as he offered repeated assurances that the United States would not seek to dictate to other countries.

    "I am personally committed to a new chapter of American engagement. We can't afford to talk past one another, to focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us." Obama said before leaving Turkey. The visit to a nation that straddles Europe and Asia was designed to signal a new era. He had pledged as a candidate to visit a majority-Muslim nation in his first 100 days in office.

    President George W. Bush paid several trips to Iraq while in office, and on his last, in December, he had to duck shoes hurled in his direction at a news conference by an Iraqi journalist. By coincidence, the Iraqi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday for the man, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, now sentenced to one year in jail rather than three.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ml_obama_iraq
    ___

    David Espo reported from Washington. AP writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed from Baghdad.

    Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
    Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
     
  8. basso

    basso Member
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  9. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
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    A great move by Obama -- his stellar world debut continues.
     
  10. ROCKET RICH NYC

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    If you consider no troop commitments for Afghanistan from NATO nations, a watered down global stimulus package that Germany, France, and others wanted no part in, telling Europe- America is not a Christian nation before Holy week, breaking traditional protocols with the Queen, Apologizing for America, giving control of American tax payer dollars to the IMF a stellar world debut, than have at it! Great Job Obama!
     
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  11. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member
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    That photo does not tell the real story. They are actually clamoring for him to rip him limb from limb. The cameras are meant to blind and disorient him so he can't fight back or run away.

    [​IMG]
     
  12. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    But he looked soooo good!

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Northside Storm

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    lol, ranting like a chicken without a head.

    I'm not even going to bother explaining why this fails.
     
  14. basso

    basso Member
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    you forgot the pro-Saudi groveling.
     
  15. ROCKET RICH NYC

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    Maybe because you can't.
     
  16. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Funny! That's like GW Bush was worse than Clinton because of the notable increase in womanizing once GWB assumed office.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    OH MY GOD IT'S A SUCK VORTEX RUN FOR YOUR LIVES D&D'RS ROCKET RICH AND HIS SINGULARITY OF FAILS IS BACK IN TEH HIZZY
     
  18. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    bush begging saudis for more oil
     
  19. ROCKET RICH NYC

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    Once again, all you guys can do is attack me personally. You can't explain any points that I brought up.

    How many troops did Obama ask Nato for? How many did he get?

    How much money did Obama ask Europe to contribute to the IMF? How much did they agree to?

    Did Michelle Obama break protocol with the Queen of England or didn't she?

    These were HIS words in Turkey

    “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. Uh uh We consider ourselves uh uh a nation of U.S. citizens”

    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ni4X9Be-wwA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ni4X9Be-wwA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>



    You can call me names but you can't tell me that his European trip was a success. He didn't succeed in what he set out to do. All he did was concede to the Euros and apologized for America and the "evil" Christians that ran this country before to the Muslims.
     
  20. finalsbound

    finalsbound Member

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    And how is this quote bad? It's completely true.
     

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