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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Possibility Of Genocide Moved Obama To Act In Iraq"
Possibility Of Genocide Moved Obama To Act In Iraqby Josh Lederman at the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/obama-genocide-iraq_n_5664412.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
"SNIP..........................
Wednesday was a major tipping point. Obama was engrossed in three days of meeting with dozens of African presidents he'd invited to Washington. But roughly 6,000 miles away, the Yazidis were in trouble, having fled to the mountains to escape the extremists.
With Obama at the summit, his team met throughout the day at the White House, where they learned that the Iraqis had tried and failed to resupply the Yazidis, who were in dire need of food and water.
The Kurds, America's closest allies in Iraq, had sought to hold off the extremists. But on Wednesday, the Kurdish militia started falling back, moving precipitously away from Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam as they sought to consolidate their forces to protect Irbil.
Eventually, insurgents took the dam. If fully breached, the dam could flood major swaths of land, endangering the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, joined Obama for the limo ride back to the White House, where Obama said he knew the Yazidis' humanitarian crisis must be addressed. Obama had plans to join the first lady at an Italian restaurant, but the Oval Office meeting dragged on. Dinner would have to wait.
..........................SNIP"
pinto
(106,886 posts)"When many thousands of innocent civilians are faced with the danger of being wiped out, and we have the capacity to do something about it, we will take action," Obama said.
applegrove
(118,869 posts)see behind the scenes on what it is like to be in the WH.
pinto
(106,886 posts)humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)How did that work out in Gaza? Innocents being massacred and that could easily have been handled diplomatically here simple statement: If Israel doesn't stop killing Palestinians we will remove our ambassador and suspend all aid to Israel... Would have saved countless Palestinian lives but hey got some Christians on a mountain getting the headlines so that is the one he chooses to act on the one where he said he ended war, the one where we spent a trillion dollars and left the iraqis well trained and able to take care of situations like this.... The political calculus of who gets help and who doesn't makes me sick....
pinto
(106,886 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)This certainly hasn't been the rule so far. Thousands of innocent civilians har been killed across the globe since Jan 2009.
It is a helluva a commitment to make to the future too. How will this standard be defined? How much potential mitigation would have to be shown. In other words, it sounds noble but is meaningless except when the president chooses to invoke it arbitrarily.
pinto
(106,886 posts)How would you define it? How much isolationism works? How much is too much? Is it arbitrary or unconditional isolationism?
morningfog
(18,115 posts)This is Obama's policy, what is it?
pinto
(106,886 posts)personnel there. Possible air strikes to assist Kurdish forces who are on the ground to open a safe passage for refugees.
I support the airdrops of food and water 100%. As do France and England. I'm not looking to justify the military air strikes, yet I see the immediate, short term reasoning. Short term and clearly specified goals need to be the key.
I disagree with the "Obama policy" meme. It's simplistic at best. Do you feel Obama is advocating Iraq war III? That's a stretch, imo.
Opposition to the strikes is understandable, I share some of that. But overblown hyperbole? Nope. That benefits no one.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)in Gaza. It looks like he doesn't give a crap about the massacre going on there. The Palestinians desperately need some help.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)He's funding it and sending ammo.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)I meant, of course, turning a blind eye to the genocide going on there. We are in the unique position of weapons proliferation and funding war crimes. USA!USA!USA!
TBF
(32,116 posts)you could drive a truck through the cognitive dissonance.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)It makes his standard meaningless unless this is how it will beovon forward.
If he thinks the ISIS threat is different because he thinks he can definitively resolve, I just don't buy it.
JI7
(89,281 posts)would nto be happening if not for what the US(bush) did so there is a feeling of owing the victims something. and that genocide is very likely to happen.
conservaphobe
(1,284 posts)Imagine the sleep you'd lose knowing you had the power to stop it and did nothing.
The entire nation should be applauding now, not the same ole song and dance of "too little" or "too much."
morningfog
(18,115 posts)I am sure ISIS is quite pleased to have drawn the US in, and will no doubt want to maintain engagement as long as they can.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)unilateral military action directed by the president.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)The Magistrate
(95,263 posts)That is marsh-land well south of Kut or even Nasariya, and I doubt flow from a breached dam would carry that far, save as high water on the river.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)The Magistrate
(95,263 posts)Just finished a project which touched on the taking of Kut in 1915.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Like exactly what he said....what day is today?
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)political/public consumption and can't be proven or disproven. This is not to insult the Obama administration, because they all do this "exclusive backstory" stuff to spin and set the proper narrative, but I take it with a grain of salt.
indepat
(20,899 posts)Or is such form of seeming genocide copacetic in an extremely right-wing society?