Progressive Leaders Pan Obama's Decision for More War in Afghanistan/10 Reactions

[katty]

Progressive Leaders Pan Obama's Decision for More War in Afghanistan -- 10 Reactions

AlterNet. Posted December 4, 2009.

more:
http://www.alternet.org/world/144356/progressive_leaders_pan_obama%27s_decision_for_more_war_in_afghanistan_--_10_reactions

Tom Hayden says he's taking the Obama bumpersticker off his car, Laura Flanders says the Bush Doctrine is still alive, and more.

President Obama's speech announcing a troop escalation in Afghanistan did not go over well with many progressives. As soon as his intentions to send tens of thousands more troops became clear, dozens of progressive leaders and writers -- including many former prominent Obama supporters -- voiced their concerns in newspapers, on the radio and on the Internet. The following is a sampling of their responses:

1. Tom Hayden writes for The Nation:

"It's time to strip the Obama sticker off my car. Obama's escalation in Afghanistan is the last in a string of disappointments. His flip-flopping acceptance of the military coup in Honduras has squandered the trust of Latin America. His Wall Street bailout leaves the poor, the unemployed, minorities and college students on their own. And now comes the Afghanistan-Pakistan decision to escalate the stalemate, which risks his
domestic agenda, his Democratic base, and possibly even his presidency."

2. Laura Flanders writes on GritTV,

"...for those who’d thought they’d voted for the death of the Bush Doctrine. Sorry. Bush/Cheney live on in the new president’s embrace of the idea that the U.S. has a right, not only to respond to attacks, but also to deploy men and women in anticipation of them."

3. Jim Hightower used his most recent column to warn:

"Obama has been taken over by the military industrial hawks and national security theorists who play war games with other people's lives and money. I had hoped Obama might be a more forceful leader who would reject the same old interventionist mindset of those who profit from permanent war. But his newly announced Afghan policy shows he is not that leader."

Hightower says that just because we've lost Obama on this issue, it's not over; that we as citizens...

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R

[NJmaverick]

2. Who the hell elected these 10 people to be our Progressive "LEADERS"?

or a better question who has even heard of half these people and what exactly qualifies them to be considered "PROGRESSIVE LEADERS"?


An article that starts out with a dishonest title should not be recced (in my opinion).

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Thanks for your concern. K and R. n/t

[NJmaverick]

4. Thanks for confirming what I already suspected

[katty]

6. these are all well known leaders/voices in the progressive

community-in that respect the article is not dishonest. Opinions are simply opinions.

[NJmaverick]

7. Honesty would have required a headline that read

many people considered liberal disagree here is a sample of 10 of them.


That is if you want to be honest and accurate

[chill_wind]

5. Actually, that is a poorly chosen title.

You might still have time to fix it.

[moodforaday]

8. Under the bus, all of them!

K&R, of course.