Had this nation's Founding Fathers dealt with the British occupation and suppression of colonies in the same way that President Obama has with America's most critical problems this would have been the result: The War of Independence would not have been fought, the U.S. Constitution would never have been written, and all of us would still be British subjects. The Founders would have compromised their positions, made concessions to the British occupiers, and passively caved in to their demands. But, to their eternal credit they were true patriots who risked their lives, stood up to and fought their captors, and gave birth to America.
Oh, to have those kind of leaders in America today during these very critical, uncertain times! Yes, we badly need strong leadership but it is nowhere to be found as this nation is being led in exactly the wrong direction. Look at the kind of leadership we have had; we suffered mightily under G.W. Bush, a president with the barest qualifications for the job, one who took America into two monstrous, costly wars that are bleeding this nation dry. And now, after 8 years of that bizarre experience, we are saddled with a president who also embraces war, is an overly willing compromiser, an appeaser, and one who, when faced with a fight for what is right, simply backs down.
Republicans have turned Barack Obama into a presidential punching bag. That, as we know, is how the GOP operates, but why he keeps taking their punches below the belt without fighting back is painful to watch. He has managed to lose much of the respect and support of the liberal and progressive wings of his party, together with a large portion of independent voters, because of his feckless leadership. The only part of his former constituency that still enthusiastically supports him is the center/right leaning elements of the Democratic Party.
I won't bore you again with extensive details of all his failures on critical issues; I will simply identify most of them and let you judge for yourself how he has performed on each: Guantanamo, water boarding, renditions, Bush/Cheney legal abuses, Geithner, Summers, Wall Street manipulations, bank bailouts, mismanaged stimulus program, foreclosures, jobs creation, unemployment, health care reform, financial reform, Afghanistan and Pakistan escalations, drone attacks on civilians, tax cuts for the rich.
This is a president who has excellent communication skills but doesn't know how to communicate directly with the American people to gain their support to turn the tide on critical issues; but then again, it is becoming more and more apparent that he has no real interest in what people think. He takes his orders from the Washington Establishment, not the electorate.
Now let's turn to Obama's WAR, the issue that will eventually become the dark legacy of his presidency. His actions and decisions with regard to America's foreign policy are incomprehensible. He has, at every turn, caved in to the military and has escalated the deployment of additional troops in Afghanistan several times. He set a timetable for troop withdrawal to begin in July 2011. Without any shame whatsoever, he recently bowed down to the military yet again by resetting the timetable for withdrawal to 2014 or even beyond.
This is a president who has greatly expanded the use of the remote controlled drones over Afghanistan and Pakistan to rain missiles down on suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda enemies. There is only one big problem with this very ambitious program; it has resulted in the illegal, immoral killings of hundreds of innocent human beings. But does this president feel any remorse about what is happening to these innocent men, women and children? Not one word of concern or any kind of actions to remedy the situation; just more and more of the same from this master of military escalation.
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