Thomas Friedman: President Obama is embarking on something I’ve never seen before

[impik]

President Obama is embarking on something I’ve never seen before — taking on two Missions Impossible at the same time. That is, a simultaneous effort to heal the two most bitter divides in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Shiite-Sunni conflict centered in Iraq. Give him his due. The guy’s got audacity. I’ll provide the hope. But kids, don’t try this at home.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/opinion/01friedman.html?ref=opinion

[Lost4words]

1. yea because thinks are going so well in the USA

BTW dont you know Obama just won the war in Iraq?

[Teaser]

5. Yes, actually I do know that.

.

[Sheepshank]

6. Where did you get the idea Obama won a war?

Certainly not from his own mouth....please provide some support for your manufactured inferrance.

Oh, never mind, I'll just post the truth.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama

President Barack Obama marked the end of the nation's combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday without declaring victory, winding down the U.S. role in a war he considered a terrible mistake.

<snip>

"It's not going to be a victory lap," Obama said earlier in the day at Fort Bliss,

<snip>

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. THANK YOU!!! n/t

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. hope you bother to read your replies. n/t

yeesh oh, right..... no text.

[Lost4words]

11. aynone who knows me knows I dont support any portion of either phony war!

sorry I left out the sarcasm, and yea many times no text got a problem?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. Am I supposed to know you? How do you distinguish yourself

On a discussion board of many many thousands?

Oh, and the 'tude about n/t..... hate to break this to you, but I wasn't referring to YOUR use of n/t--because YOU hadn't used it. I was the one who used it and then decided to say something anyway.

Guess you didn't get that. It was a caustic little joke. Gee, if I can't trust you to understand witty but basically simple sardonics, how can I trust you with political comprehension?

[Lost4words]

19. I guess I wasn't clear, I apologize,

you are correct I totally missed it, sorry for the attitude you didn't deserve it. :hide:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. Thank you for that.....

It is extremely rare to see people apologize, especially since opinion-wanking (as we all, myself included, pretty much do here) is such an ego-based proposition.

I appreciate and respect you for it!

[Lost4words]

13. you mistake me for one of those Happy Democrats

I assure you I am not!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

15. i don't really give a fuck about your emotional state.

Just whether or not you read factual information presented to you.

[Lost4words]

20. what is your position! I know you are angry

but did you make a point somewhere?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

22. my point was, please READ the information that was offered by others responding to you.

That's ALL it was. Your original comment was based on some misperceptions (such as "Obama declared victory in Irag").

He did NOT, and I was advising you read the replies that spelled it out for you.

Your reply to me that you're not a 'happy democrat' and in fact your accusation that I am such are completely irrelevant to my recommendation that you read the accurate information offered kindly by other DUers.

So, yes, observing people willfully refusing to inform themselves, and continuing to needle me or others with irrelevancies makes me angry. On that, you were perceptive.

[Lost4words]

21. oh I get it, you are a NEW democrat, good for you

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. Well, if by "NEW" democrat, you mean the kind who reads accurate info. presented to her....

then, yeah.

[Phx_Dem]

14. Thank God we have so many problems at home,

otherwise what would you have to bitch about all day. Whatever would do with yourself?

[HughMoran]

17. Didn't we always attack Bush for doing the things we didn't need?

Some habits are tough to break it seems!

[mmonk]

2. LOL, "don't try this at home."

Witty.

[karynnj]

3. Nice to have a positive spin like that, but I think he misunderstood Iraq

I think that Obama used the Bush "deadline" to achieve what Kerry/Feingold/Murtha et al hoped for to make it Iraq's job to resolve the Sunni Shiite conflict - and there is still plenty there for them to resolve. This is not something we can do for them. They have a vested interest - unending unrest is painful - to do this.

Bush only went to the "deadline" after he declared the surge had worked, but the motive was that he was abandoning the neo con idea that he could fashion an Iraq that would be a centerpiece of democracy. It was the best exit strategy - with the time until the deadline providing a calmer backdrop when needed decisions could have been made. In the 2008 election, Kerry always said that it was Bush going with a strategy Obama had already endorsed (not mentioning that he, against the will of most Senate Democrats, fought for that strategy.

In 2006, Kerry had pointed out that the period up to the deadline was also the time frame that Iraq was proposing publicly. The Iraqis were always against the US staying long term.

[avaistheone1]

9. Friedman "misunderstands" free trade and outsourcing too.

I don't think Friedman is a feather in Obama's cap.

[Clio the Leo]

4. So Netanyahu and Abbas are going to be sitting at the SAME table tonight...

..... eating dinner and it's the least talked about story of the day.

Good grief.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

25. yes, that adds to the weirdness, doesn't it?

good grief indeed.

[scheming daemons]

10. Go Big or Go Home..... our Prez has balls.

[Lost4words]

12. of marshmellow perhaps.

you dont know what balls are. Nor does our pres have moxie!

[David Zephyr]

18. K&R.

Thanks for posting this.