Presidential Politics And The Middle East
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-09-17/presidential-politics-and-middle-east
As violence intensified in the Middle East last week, it also sparked a fiery debate on the presidential campaign trail over foreign policy. The issue has taken a back seat to jobs and the economy in 2012, but the turmoil across the Arab world forced the issue front and center for the first time in the race. For President Barack Obama, the violence is a test of his handling of the Arab Spring uprisings and his promises of democracy there. And for Republican challenger Mitt Romney, questions remain over what principles would guide his decisions on the world stage. Guest host Susan Page of USA Today discusses presidential politics and foreign policy with her guests.
Guests
Michael O'Hanlon
senior fellow and director of research of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and co-author of "Bending History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy."
Michael Rubin
resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, senior lecturer at Naval Postgraduate School and author of the forthcoming book, "Dancing with the Devil" (Encounter, 2013).
David Sanger
chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times and author of the new book, "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power."
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Since the election of President Obama the extremists of the T-Party/Republicans have been portraying Obama as a Muslim and evil.Not one of us.Take America back. Anywhere in the United States it has been fair game for Islamaphobia, and even violence. What makes this so tragic is the the world believes Americans agree and side with these radicals.Protests even in Australia,an ally,to stop American ugliness.The T-Party/Republicans opened this "Pandora`s Box",and there is NO way to close it. It`s been disgusting and ugly to watch.It just highlights how low these power starved radicals are willing to go.
While extremists are attacking American embassies,businesses,and citizens,Mitt Romney believes his PATRIOTISM says now is the time to politically attack President Obama.With friends like Mitt Romney,who needs enemies? I am one American who believes this T-Party/Republican message of hatred,bigotry,religious intolerance reflects their values,not mine or the rest America.
Topic: Facts on the Ground, the President's policies have consistently defended Israel
Who put Hamas on Israel's border?
President Bush or President Obama?
Answer: After the 2004 election, the Bush Administration insisted that there be elections in Gaza, to the consternation of Israel who knew Hamas would romp the elections in Gaza. Yes, after Prime Minister Sharon pulled Israel out of Gaza to show good faith in the negotiation process, the Bush Administration gave Hamas de facto the welcome mat to Israel's gates by pushing for those elections in Gaza. Ask the children of S'derot, with bomb shelters next to their playgrounds how welcoming were the results of the Bush Administration's actions.
Who stopped Israel's Army in the last Lebanon War?
President Bush or President Obama?
Answer: When Israel's Army moved into Lebanon, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Generals said that they needed 5 days to get to the Litani River where Hezbollah amassed thousands of its katyusha rockets that they repeatedly fired into Israel. After two days of Israel's Army moving en mass into Lebanon, the Bush Administration capitulated to U.N. demands and voted for Israel to stop. No delay by the Bush Administration. 33 Israeli soldiers dead. Hezbollah injured, but its line of rockets intact.
Did President Obama say that Israel move back to pre-1967 borders, without emphasizing the need for direct negotiation between Palestinians and Israel? Yes. Has he changed his position? Yes. Has he helped Israel defend the children of S'derot? Yes.
It takes smarts to know when you're wrong, as did President Obama. As far as the Bush Administration,
where was their smarts, seychel? And the Bush advisors are advising Romney? Which are Israel's better friends? Guess.
Israeli Jews support Romney over Obama by a wide margin.
I could not find any more poling information more recent than July 2012 but logic dictates that the democrat national convention controversy that eliminated support for Israel in the platform and now the snubbing of the Israeli prime minister is certain to to make these numbers even worse for Obama. The cherry picked / misleading information in the above post is obviously irrelevant to the people of Israel. Unlike many block heads in this country Israel recognizes that George Bush is not on the ballot in 2012 and even if he were I doubt the numbers would be much different. Israel is a tiny country surrounded by enemies, it's people are more attuned to who supports them and who does not probably more than any other people on the planet.
"Between the two candidates for the American presidency, President Barack Obama, of the Democratic Party, and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who in your opinion assigns more importance to defending Israel’s national interests?" July 2012.
Israeli Jews
Barack Obama 18.6%
Mitt Romney 39.9%
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/ispoobama.html
Why is no one asking president Obama if he is responsible for the latest riots and murders in the middle east with his over the top campaign rhetoric "Osama is dead and GM is alive" instead the media focuses on a statement from Romney and the time lines for it. No one is rioting over Romney's time line! There is no better example of an Obama complicit main stream media and further the media is still toting the Obama administration line that it was all about the video and nothing else. How do these scumbag journalists sleep at night?
Wonderful, another program with three Neo-Cons and avowed Zionists discussing American Policy in the Mid East. A cursory Google search easily outlines these folks' opinions on the subject. Sheesh, NPR, do your producers have an agenda they want promoted?
partisan politics,I agree with your opinion of the lame stream media,especially the Sunday Morning talking heads.I have not seen the War Crimes Trial story and conviction in absentia of George W.Bush and his administration in Kuala Lampur.NOT ONCE!
As Americans we`ve seen many times when the Middle Eastern countries are angry at our President. How many times did we see George W.Bush burned in effigy? Not here.No Obama burning,but the open anger displayed against the "Islamaphobia",of Mitt Romney and the T-Party/Republicans.
How could Meet the Press have (R) Peter King of New York on the show? He Chaired "Let`s all hate Islam" hearings in Congress.DISGUSTING!!! How could This Week have Liz Cheney on, bragging about Bush/Cheney,while they were the ones who failed to protect America against terrorism on their watch? Does anybody believe Bush/Cheney would not have held a 5th Ave. ticker tape parade had Bush gotten Bin Laden? Heck,they had the "Mission Accomplished" party when the failed.
DID THE MEDIA TELL YOU HOW MUCH THAT "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" CLOWN ACT COST TAXPAYERS ?
"(US and) International naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike", September 16-2012:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9545597/Armada...
http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d...
Without the US's responsible leadership and generosity-of-resources, how would the rest of the civilized world deal with global-threats to world-trade and constructive international-cohesion: such as Iran's nuclear programme??
______________
Roderick V. Louis
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Hey Clifford, that vein in your neck is sticking out again.
So if the Obama administration were going to make aid to Egypt "conditional" upon them doing what we want why then would the U.S. not make aid to Israel which I believe is almost double what the U.S. gives Israel "conditional" upon halting all expansion of illegal settlements? Logical
Sunday morning on Meet the Press David Gregory had Prime Minister Netanahu on his program to discuss Iran. Not once did Gregory even get close to asking why Israel continues to refuse to sign the Non Proliferation treaty that Iran signed long ago while Israel sits on a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons. David also did not even whisper about Iran's right to enrich uranium up to 20% for peaceful purposes as a signatory to the NPT.
Then on Sunday evening we hear Leslie Stahl during her interview with former head of the Mossad Dagan repeat the debunked claims that Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the map" and basically indicated that the whole world is with Israel no matter what they do which we all know is not the case. Dagan admitted he would like to see the U.S. lead an attack on Iran if there is one. Could your guest discuss this comment by Dagan
So the realm of discussion on the MSM went from not if but when Israel or the U.S. will attack Iran based on unsubstantiated claims
I would really like to hear President Obama talk about the American value and right of free speech in light of both the birther movement and the so-called movie about Islam. Most Americans at this point consider the birther movement to be ridiculous to put it lightly, and some of us consider it to be absolutely offensive. But this sort of speech is protected and rightly so, because, who is to draw the line between ridiculous, offensive speech and legitimate criticism of the government? This is exactly the sort of freedom that many of these nations experiencing protests have been fighting for. The same analogy can be made for religion. Yes, the claims in this so-called movie are ridiculous and offensive, but Americans have the right to criticize religion. If President Obama wouldn't arrest "birthers" for making up stories about the leader of the United States, then it follows suit that he wouldn't arrest some crazy filmmaker for making up stories about Islam. (Although if the courts find this person guilty of a hate crime I would certainly support that decision, but I don't know enough about the details to make that call myself.) In the United States, if someone says something we don't like, we have the freedom to either ignore the comment or to respond as we see fit with our own words without the fear of being arrested. And that is a beautiful freedom to have.
I posted a similar comment on Friday after the show but I believe it is very relevant to this discussion as well.
My concern for the potential Romney presidency is his willingness to EMBRACE the hard line ultra conservatives from the Bush administration, etc. I watched Lynn Cheney yesterday and realized she is probably going to get a cabinet position if Romney is elected. Her inexperience is striking. What has she done? Talk. She spewed extreme anti-Obama redirect and encouraged a hate filled agenda against all except American Republicans.
Romoney would be terrible as president because he lies all the time. His foreign policy would not work because no one can trust him. Why aren't your guests talking about this lying and stop giving him a pass and ignore the truth. Call a spade a spade please. Jack Anderson we need you back.
Just to give a bit of information confirming one of Kathleen's point, the US government is the only government providing unconditional support to Israel... You can read sources such as Le Monde (Paris), Le Figaro (Paris), Dir Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), Il Sole (Italy), Die Neue Zuercher Zeitung or Der Tages Anzeiger (Switzerland) and you get the very same doubts about Israel's policies in the middle east...
Similarly, articles and comments always show surprise and concern at the support provided to Israel by the US..
Are you kidding me that you think that RoMoney would do as well as Obama. Where do you get these guests? They are not aware that the far right is controlling RoMoney and that he lies about and changes his views depending on his feeling at any one time. Stop the talk about issues and talk about process. Romoney has offshore money and invests his money in unknown places. He does not have a thread of truth in his responces to issues. He changes his views so that one never knows where he stands. Please get some guests that are not afraid to tell things like they are in reality.
kathleen wrote:
"while Israel sits on a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons"
Care to substantiate that, kathleen? A popular meme of the left, but, in fact, though unclassified U.S. documents allow us to know that Israel has nuclear capability, Israel has never admitted it, and NO ONE except Israel knows HOW MANY nukes they have ... not even you.
Every "estimate" you see is nothing more than a guess and, in fact, a WAG.
Whistleblowerdr,
I don't know why I even bother with you ... if DRShow had an "Ignore" button, you'd be near the top of the list. You present zero, not one, nada, no, nil, facts in any of your posts. You just spew hate for Romney. So what does that prove?
Whistleblowerdr wrote:
"He changes his views so that one never knows where he stands. "
When someone on the right changes his views he's a flip-flopper. When someone on the left does it, they're "smart" and "enlightended".
You could cut the hypocrisy with a knife.
I noticed that your guest and a caller referred to protesters as Arabs, not all Arabs are Muslims nor are all Muslims Arabs. It would be good if this could be pointed out on your show when people make this understandable but unfortunate mistake.
Conservative doctrine dictates "American Exceptionalism". That means you get to lie about everything. There is no greater lie than Christianity is the GOOD religion.The peace loving religion. We push this poo onto the Muslim world,and are amazed when they reject our tripe,sometimes violently. As a Christian myself,it upsets me when one of our Commandments,"thou shalt not bear false witness" is regularly violated. In the name of Christianity entire civilizations have been wiped out. Why lie and cover it up? Why would you want Christianity brought into your country?
Hi Diane & Susan,
I'm very unhappy with today's interviews which included Romney, and Obama foreign affair views and actions. Romney had negative reponses from the English and the Israelis during his overseas trip.
This is one of the few times we have had any indication of his foreign affairs abilities why was this not discussed?
The show did not seem balance today.
Jim from Byron, IL
One of your guests made what I believe is the most insightful comments I've heard yet about the middle east problems. We must look to history to see the future there.
Iran was another middle east country ruled for decades by totalitarian strongmen. The suffering masses do what all suffering pious people do. They turn to God. So as soon as the Shah was gone they turned to be led by the spiritual leader whom they trusted. He was their shelter during their most troubling times. Now they are led by new totalitarian "spiritual" strongmen.
Until the west comes to the understanding that the Mullahs , or Muffis in the muslim world really are the ones pulling the strings at their Friday prayer/political rally. They continue to incite the poor uneducated masses to exert control on the direction of the country. So they have to be included in all political discussion too. The moderates in the mosques have to be given a strong voice too.
JT wrote:
"Romney had negative reponses from the English and the Israelis during his overseas trip. "
That is patently FALSE!!!
The response in England was turned negative by the press when Romney answered a question honestly (his mistake, apparently). He could have/probably should have side-stepped the question, but he answered as one who has actually run an Olympics, commenting on stories in the BRITISH PRESS about security issues! The take away from the left is, "his trip was a disaster". Complete BS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-would-support-israeli-atta...
His reception in Israel was warm and his talks with Netanyahu very cordial and friendly. What you have stated is a bare-faced ... well ....
Clifford wrote:
"Conservative doctrine dictates "American Exceptionalism". That means you get to lie about everything."
But he has no comment about the falsehoods posted by kathleen ("Israel has massive stockpiles of nukes") or JT's statement ("Romney had negative response from Israel") both of which are demonstrably false.
So, Clifford, is the truth the truth? Or is it a political tool? "The right" held to account for everything anyone ever did in the name of Christianity or conservatism, "the left" able to "lie about everything"?
The folks protesting at our Embassies and Consulates in the Middle East do not represent the majority of their Country, Government, or Religion. They are in fact "radicals" within their own religious groups. Christianity has it's radicals just the same. For example; the Westboro Church Group protests at funerals of Service Members here in our Country. While they are not liked; they are allowed to exercise the "freedoms" for which those who are being laid to rest paid the ultimate price for. How ironic huh? I think it's important to not confuse the majority of Islams' followers with the few "radicals" who act like "cave men" when they feel threatened. Peaceful demonstrations and protests are the backbone of Democracy. Pillaging, looting, and murdering are "crimes" and should be treated as such.
Let us not forget the ideas put forward by the followers of Mohamed in the 12th and 13th centuries also. The ideas of Mohammedan exceptional-ism led to mass murder and genocide from the middle east to Bengal India. an area so vast it is still almost incomprehensible today.
Yet there it is, a religion still today in India many refer to as ,"cut throat" religion. Until some moderate muslim spiritual voice from within gains authority, there will never be peace in the world.
The followers need to be given equal shares of the oil wealth too. We rarely hear any dissent coming from the wealthy Saudis or oil rich peoples of Qatar!
As the election campaign proceeds, attempts to force candidates to adopt Netenyahu's policies are getting desperate.
However, it seems that hawks have overplayed their hand.
http://theoriginalamed.blogspot.com/2012/09/have-iran-hawks-overplayed-t...
There is one big advantage the Israelis have in their governmental processes - there is very little runup to campaigning for a majority in the Kinnessett (and prime minister).....and therefore little or no opportunity for outsiders to chime in to pressure voters or policies.
We can but imagine how the Israelis and candidates like Bebe would howl if American leaders chided them about their methods for months before a vote takes place. Maybe next time Congress and the Pres can complain loudly about settlements on Arab lands or declare to Israel "Tear down this bloody wall!"......and do it 65 days from their elections.
How about threats to cut off Israeli aid if there is even a whisper about "red lines".
But, but, but... We were always told everybody hated us because of Bush. Obama said the moment he was elected relations with the muslim world would improve. Is this not true??
First, the notion of bringing our so-called democracy to the Middle East is arrogant and misguided. They have their own history, culture, religion, and we shouldn't expect to impose our politics on them.
Second, that narrative is really growing old. We didn't care about these countries before 9/11. In fact, we were and are more than happy to support dictators. The democracy narrative is a sham.
In my opinion, we were looking for a new region to start a war with, after the end of the cold war. The Middle East was perfect, because it also has important strategic importance. 9/11 was clearly the perfect catalyst to begin this new wave of war. It was to feed the ever-hungry war machine. It was to secure various interests, like oil, appeasing Israeli paranoia, and provided a convenient distraction from the butchering of the economy back home.
@Clifford Let me get this straight Clifford... you believe the T-Party/Republicans are the cause of all the Muslim unrest, the reason for global warming, burned toast and all of the world's ills in general.... What part of jihad do you not understand? Let's see...Obama and his chronies Dodd/Franks destroy the banking industry and the world economy, then he takes 6 of those bail out bankers still carrying their money bags and makes them staffers and then gives a wink and a nod at occupy wallstreet's antics and believes that thru the Arab spring and destabilization of the middle east the people will finally seek democracy and brotherly love and change their hatred of "infadels" everywhere? Sorry but condoning anarchy, stupidity and violence are not good solutions for the world's ills. Jimmy Carter tried that back in the 70's when he threw those wanting democracy under the political bus. But hey that's ok - let's legalize pot and that will chill us all out... Smooth move Exlax.