2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHuffington Post: Clinton’s Flat and Misleading Foreign Policy Speech
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/hillary-clintons-flat-and_b_10278166.html
William Astore
Writer, Professor, Retired Lt. Colonel, Air Force
06/03/2016 09:31 am ET | Updated 4 hours ago
1. The speech featured the usual American exceptionalism, the usual fear that if America withdraws from the world stage, chaos will result. There was no sense that Americas wars of choice in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. have greatly contributed to that chaos. Oh, there was also the usual boast that America has the greatest military. Thats what Imperial and Nazi Germany used to boast until the Germans lost two world wars and smartened up.
2. Hillary mentioned were electing our next commander-in-chief. No, were not. The president is a public servant, not our commander-in-chief. The president serves as the civilian commander-in-chief of the military, and the military alone.
3. Hillary mentioned the US has a moral obligation to defend Israel. Why is this? Sure, Israel is an American ally, but why is Israel the one country were morally obligated to defend? Theres only one country were morally obligated to defend, and thats the USA, assuming our government is actually honoring the US Constitution.
4. The speech had no new ideas. It was a laundry list of neo-conservative principles about making America stronger, safer, and so on. As a friend of mine put it, Nothing that I heard her say deviated in any way from her hawkish record of recommending bombing at every opportunity.
Press Virginia
(2,329 posts)Response to Miles Archer (Original post)
emulatorloo This message was self-deleted by its author.
anotherproletariat
(1,446 posts)tonyt53
(5,737 posts)Madeline Albright was very impressed, and she has the credentials that make her hard to impress.
Wilms
(26,795 posts)Nor anything to be impressed with...unless you're of the kind that think the death of 1/2 million kids is "worth it".
icecreamfan
(115 posts)Holding the belief that Clinton is the best candidate to beat "trigger-happy" Trump when she is calling for a bat-shit crazy "no-fly zone" (US-imposed regime change) in Syria is really impressive.
Clinton doesn't seem to have learned anything productive from her failed policy positions in Iraq, Honduras, Libya and Syria.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)a clear description of a well-defined and terrifying foreign policy.
jonno99
(2,620 posts)winter is coming
(11,785 posts)It wasn't just the words I found terrifying. It was the number of flags they'd used to dress the stage. I've noticed that speeches trying to convince us that disastrous approach X is/was a good idea tend to have more/larger American flags for a backdrop, as if they think enough stars will switch off the critical thinking ability of the audience. Pretty much any backdrop containing more than two flags raises my hackles--and my suspicions.
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)!
Response to GreatGazoo (Reply #25)
TM99 This message was self-deleted by its author.
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)on that stage.
No doubt they wanted it staged so that no matter what angle a picture was taken from there were nothing but flags behind her.
You could wrap an elephant in 19 flags.
m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)and they accused anybody critical of the speech of being supportive of Trump or 'pro Trump" . I guess they hoped everybody ignored the part where she was channeling Dick Cheney. How fucking disingenuous.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)The retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor points out that the civilian President is head of the US government and as such is commander-in-chief of the US military, which is morally obligated to defend the US government as long as the US government honors the US constitution.
So the US military would be morally obligated to take down a US government (or President) that dishonors the US constitution.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)The author does not intend to raise the possibility of a military coup.
One Black Sheep
(458 posts)America is so damn special we have to defend everyone in the world from everything. And Hillary seems to go right along (happily) with that crap - just like the article says.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Which all too often translates into ignoring the lessons that other countries have learned. We're not just the land of the free and the home of the brave--we're also the bastion of Not Invented Here.
asuhornets
(2,405 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Can't she talk without a teleprompter?
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Did you really just criticize her for using a teleprompter?
A freakin' teleprompter attack?
Sid
asuhornets
(2,405 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]
YouDig
(2,280 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Well our healthcare system is exceptional....in a bad way because it is for profit.
Our slipshod helter skelter voting is also exceptional in a bad way.
We do have aspects of our nation to be proud of.....but in the end isn't the term obnoxious, as in we're better than you other countries?
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)She touched on all their hopes and desires. That fact that a lot of Democrats can't (won't) see this is astounding.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Good point. I cringe whenever a President says that over and over.
840high
(17,196 posts)emulatorloo
(43,979 posts)to create a fake "gotcha" is not a winning argument.
People know it refers to commander in chief of the military.
There are many interesting arguments in the article, but that IMHO that is not one of them.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Given they work two/three jobs a day and barely have time to think beyond the MSM Propaganda..how would they Know This?
BootinUp
(46,924 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,704 posts)highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)clearly "good" or "bad". If it aggrandizes Hillary it is "good". If it points out anything negative about her, it is "bad".
And you get to be incredibly gloating and can call yourself "a winner" and everyone else "a whiner" and lecture others about "math" and stuff.
You don't have to worry about things like laws or rules or wars or the economy hurting people and stuff, because it's all been taken care of, and you're in with the clan.
I'd join up, if I didn't see how much Third Way politics has hurt and is likely in the future to hurt so many people, myself included.
reddread
(6,896 posts)LibDemAlways
(15,139 posts)Exceptionally poor and crumbling infrastructure.
Exceptionally unaffordable higher education.
An exceptionally large portion of the national budget that goes toward military spending.
An exceptionally high infant mortality rate..
Exceptionally large numbers of homeless people, many of them veterans, that we choose to ignore.
Exceptionally high health care costs and people with no health insurance at all.
Exceptionally large numbers of people at the top of the corporate ladder making obscene amounts of money while exceptionally large numbers of workers at the bottom struggle to pay their bills.
We're exceptional all right. And there's only one candidate addressing how exceptional we really are, and is interested in finally making some long overdue changes. And that candidate is Bernie Sanders.
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)"...bombing at every opportunity." Just plain lie. The Iranian agreement sets this lie on fire.
Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)Thus, why would I give credence to any of his opinions? he has been bashing Hillary for months. And of course with Hillary having sewn up the nomination ...William Astore has joined those who are now on Trumps team. So this is opinion. And I disagree with this guy tearing down Democrats while giving the GOP a free ride... In any case, your source is worthless for anyone who is not already a Sanders supporter.
"Assuming its Hillary versus Trump in the fall, itll be Trump who has the ideas, crazy or divisive or unsustainable as they may be. And itll be Hillary wholl be running as the safe candidate, the anti-Trump, the one whose motto might be, the audacity of establishment incrementalism. He also writes at TomDispatch.
Is that what American voters are looking for? Establishment incrementalism? More of the same?
Stay in the race, Bernie Sanders, and give us a real choice this fall."
A retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor, Astore blogs at Bracing Views.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/stay-in-the-race-bernie-s_b_9837680.html
Several pages of google articles bashing Hillary Clinton mostly and attacking Democrats
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=william+astore+is+a+bernie+supporter
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... of the Democratic Party.