So What Did He Learn?

Perhaps a stop in Somalia for another photo op would help…

If “WE” cannot get India and Pakistan to lessen their differences, then what?
Tell them they are either with us or against us?
I am not convinced that this is some new inspired foreign policy but rather insipid foreign policy.
Nor am I convinced that “WE” are the best suited to resolve the issues between the two Nuclear states, especially after we unilaterally disarm.
Who the heck is “WE”

Obama and McCain are both manipulators. They call their manipulations “revisions of policy”, and a lot of voters fall for it.
How about this Obama “revision”:
Barack Obama spoke to the AFL/CIO in 2003 and said, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. That’s what I’d like to see.”
In January, 2008, Obama claimed in a nationally televised debate, “I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer.”
Revisions, or lies?

Seriously???
Pakistan is harboring insurgents and terrorists because of it’s concern about INDIA?????
Are you kdding me???

Not sure if Obama learned anything but I learned
(Obama) WOULD RATHER LOSE THE WAR AND WIN THE PRESIDENCY…WHERE McCAIN (often said) HE’D RATHER WIN THE WAR AND LOSE THE PRESIDENCY.

learned,
EXCEPT that McCain can’t define what WIN means. He wants to keep our troops in Iraq til 2012 or 2013. Why? Wants to make sure all his lobbyists friends finish out their no-bid contracts with Halliburton, Blackwater and CACI?

Obama does a fFLY BY in Iraq and now is a better military expert than General Petratus.
How can you teach a LUG head like Obama anything when he thinks he is mister know it all

Obama is only finding out now just how porous the borders are between Afghanistan and Pakistan? This is his 1st trip to Afghanistan and he wants to be POTUS? Talking about US diplomatic efforts in Pakistan when he all but threatened to bomb Pakistan in one of his debates with Hillary? Blaming motivations on the Pakistan side of the border on their concerns and suspicions about India? I thought India was just as concerned as the US about Al-Queda / Pakistani extremists! He thinks that “we” can broker a more sensible arrangement between the two countries and so relieve some of the pressure and help ‘us’ go after some of these forces along the border regions? Sounds like Bush’s reasoning concerning the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq! Maybe he should read up on history between India and Pakistan before he shoots his mouth off. The man has no foreign or diplomatic experience! I think his 300 advisors are not earning their money! Lol!

So, he had never visited many of these countries, has no foreign policy experience, made a lot of stupid and abrupt foreign policy claims before he left, and the whole purpose of this trip was to get some experience under his belt. What did he learn? NOTHING.
What do you call a spoiled little kid who you try to teach the right things in life, give him the right life experience, but in the end, he still thinks he knows it all and wants to do it his way. A brat.
And what do you call that brat when he grows up?
why…..I think he wants you to call him President Obama.
Sorry, America doesn’t agree.

Put the troop in, Pull the troop out. Is that what the leaders care, and respect about the troop. Our soldiers fight the enemy in Iraq and Afgahnistan hard every day,Obama and the democrat here keep saying wrong, wrong, wrong war right after they voted to authorize the war.
What Obama’s change is the same wars, He changes the Iraq and Afghanistan war by changing their order, Afghanistan and Iraq.
That is no wonder why the European people like him than McCain, If he is elected he will change the dollar by the Euro.
That change Obama people can do.
Yes, they can.
Good luck for Obama’s supporters.

How, exactly, would encouraging talks between Pakistan and India help neutralize those elements of the Pakistani ISI deemed to be compromising overt Pakistani action against the Taliban?

Some folks have made a most excellent point: The Obama chairs a major Foreign Affairs sub-committee and he only NOW comes to understand the porous nature of the Afghan-Pak border???
And we’re about to put this rookie in the WH WHY exactly??

My God…this guy doesn’t seem to have the foggiest clue as to whats going on. He didn’t even address Iraq. And to say that the key to answering the question of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is India is just…wow…

Mike D,
John McCain hasn’t been to ANY of his committee meetings, has the worst attendance record in Congress, and all he can say is “I know how to win wars” when the one he was in, he spent the majority of the war locked up, so what war has he won? The propaganda war?
Not too impressive, eh?

He learned the Iraqis agree with him more waaaay more than they do McCain.

The most interesting thing out of Senator Obama’s press conference in Amman was his reminder that the elected Commander-in-Chief establishes the mission, not the generals on the ground…that it’s the C-I-C who’s responsible for weighing foreign and domestic demands and priorities and making decisions based on the well-being of the American people.
It’s amazing that we need to be reminded that civilian control of the military is and always has been a basic foundation of American government. Maybe we’ve forgotten after eight years of watching Bill Clinton try to curry favor with the military and after seven years of of having George W. Bush delegate his C-I-C responsibities to General P.

no, the most interesting thing about obamas press conference, was how he lashed out at reporters who asked certain RESPONSIBLE questions. did you hear this guy?! like he shouldnt be asked certain things!!! defending himself before the reporters even asked the questions!!! now that was the most interesting part of all of this… this guy is such a joke. and somehow he still has support. i just dont get what has happened to people in this country.

Let’s get this right: McCain says we should reward those who made the bad choice of invading Iraq by electing them president because they now claim they fixed the problem. They have not fixed the problem they created because there are more terrorists in the world because of the war they supported in Iraq, our economy is in shambles because of the war in Iraq, we have over 4,000 dead because of the war in Iraq, and we are in trouble in Afghanistan because of the war in Iraq. That doesn’t sound like they have seceded to me.
Obama is acting like a President and McCain is acting like a spoiled kid trying to get more attention.

Jake Tapper
You are getting my respect by asking good tough questions when almost all the reporters have become American Idol hosts.

Bromfield— Indians in six.

McCain’s preoccupation with the surge is an obvious ploy to distract people while Obama scores in the Middle East. It must be very humiliating for McCain to have the Iraqi’s agree with Obama’s timetable for withdrawal. This is just one more reminder that the Republicans are out of touch.

I think you missed another story too- in your 10 stories in a row slaming Obama. The one TODAY where Obama was greeted by hordes of cheering crowds in Bagdad – and they weren’t latte-sipping Ivy League legacy grads – they were American GI’s – in Iraq. What do they know that the legacy boys don’t know? Perhaps is is what the surge has actually achieved. Ever seen a poll of who the Americans in Iraq would vote for? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not McCain.
As for Iraq/Afghanistan, can you provide a single quote where either McCain or Bush talk about the Pakistani problem? Which has existed for centuries, since the Pastuns do not accept national boundaries? No. Because there is not quote where McCain discusses that issue – except to attack Obama for saying we need to get tougher with the Pakistanis.

My theory is that space alien sorcerers controling weak minded people, and in politics and the media.And if Obama is our president we will have more wars and more wars, he will be a very weak minded leader and big trouble for us and other nations. We need a strong minded, expirienced and knowledgeble leader,who can deal with every situation.Iknow a lot of people do not believe in space aliens but they were behind all the wars even in the bible,and they post here, and in many blogs.But this is just my own theory, and i could be all wrong about it.

I think his response was adequate to the question. It would have certainly been unexpected if he would have endorsed the surge. The General Accounting Office hasn’t either as of late last month, saying that “the administration lacks an updated and comprehensive strategy to move beyond the surge of combat troops.”

Missed story Number #3: PP evidently didn’t consider it news when MCCAIN discussed the IRAQI/Pakistani border. Except – many Americans 6th graders would find a problem with this. Because there IS NO Iraq/Pakistani border – there is a big, big country in between Iraq and Pakistan. It’s called Iran – the country the diplomatic, experienced McCain wanted to BOMB BOMB BOMB. In sing-song – like a 6th grader. You can find it on any map. Just open a world atlas, Senator McCain. It helps to know geography if you plan on leading the second most powerful nation on earth.

The Unshrub, the battle of Iraq has not affected our efforts in Afghanistan. The Taliban and al Qaeda are showing more strength and boldness because of the ineffectiveness of some of the NATO troops whose respective countries will not allow them to fight. They are only allowed to act as peace keepers.
Finally, our economy is not in “shambles.” Unemployment is 5.5%, historically, a fine number. In the first quarter of this year GDP grew 1%. And personal income in May actually grew 0.4% (not including the stimulus checks which increased overall personal income by 1.9%). Certainly the gains could be better, but they are gains none the less–in spite of the skyrocketing energy costs, the slumping housing market and the subprime mortgage fiasco.

James Danley: If you think the economy is doing fine, you should apply for a job with the McCain campaign. Food stamps are at their highest level since 1970. Gas prices are at the highest level in American history.
Maybe you’re nt hurting – but millions of Americans are.

You expect to much. After all, he is just the Paris Hilton of Politics (famous for being famous). And as far as his Excellent Adventure – he’s just trying to get his Forrest Gump on (associate himself with someone else’s history/ accomplishment).

McCain demanding that Obama admit that the surge “worked” only makes sense if McCain admits that the war itself was a DISASTROUS MISTAKE in the first place.
McCain wants credit for applying a tourniquet after inflicting a horrific bleeding trauma on this country.
IS THAT REALLY ‘GOOD JUDGEMENT’?

The decision to invade Iraq cannot be characterized as “wrong” as many of you (and Obama) claim, since no one knows what would have happened had Saddam and his two crazy sons been allowed to stay in power. It was strictly a discretionary war – one that leading Democrats like Gore and Kerry had been clamoring for when Clinton was President. But now that Saddam is dead, we know for sure that he won’t do any harm to America – like Bin Laden did. And for that, at least, we should be thankful. (I know, I know, you’ll say that Saddam was never a threat, but virtually no one believed that in 2003).
As for the surge, it should be apparent that it was the “right” decision based on the conditions at the time, as well as the outcome, and that Obama’s plan of withdrawal would have been disastrous.
The state of the world today clearly indicates that we’re going to have wars regardless of who wins the election. We just have to decide whether we’ll win them or lose them.
Obama seems to be doing everything he can to simultaneously win the election and make sure we’re as weak as possible. And that is simply intolerable.

Snarxon, had we not invaded Iraq:
(1) Saddam Hussein would still be in power;
(2) We would not have proved that Iraq no longer had WMDs;
(3) Tens of thousands of Iraqis would still have gone missing; been raped, tortured and killed every year;
(4) Saddam Hussein would still be paying out up to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers;
(5) Saddam Hussein’s terrorist training camps would still be training terrorists;
(6) The Oil-for-Food sham would still be going on;
(7) Libya would still have its WMD programs.

He learned that when he leaves the country the McCain campain will cry like little spoiled brats ….
waaaa waaaa Obama is getting to much press.
You know why the press didn’t follow McCain abroad. Because they didn’t want to be embarrassed by a old guy that don’t know his geography. Just like his twin gwb who called Africa a country.

My my,
the Obamacons sure are sensitive today.
Could it be that Rassmussan now has Obama dropped to even with McCain, and Gallop has him down to the margin of error,
and,
Rassmussan has McCain up by ten in the critical state of Ohio? The RCP average is now pretty much at the margin of error, country wide.
Gee, for the messianistic chosen one (with the full court press from the press) shouldn’t Obama be……..well..
…..pulling ahead instead of….gulp…
…..falling backwards?

I have a good idea.
Why don’t McCain go look for radical islamist extemist on the Iraq/Pakistani border. Yeah and when he is done he can go over and stop alqueda from training in Iran.
What a fine commander in chief he would make

of course he had nothing to learn–he is all seeing!

biff
Are you delirious. The campaign camp is the one crying and whining like newborns.

Mccaingot press tonight/…oh and again he screwed up the influence of the shia militia and the surge…
yeah you all should be glad that his camera time is limited…
the idea of what Mccain use to be…is much better than what long camera time shows you what he is now…
a daily confusion …not of a word…or something like calling 57 elections 57 states…
but legitimate switching of facts because he either has them confused or he got them wrong…and doesn’t know.
which is better …when he has 50 % of the time had to have it explained to him what his flip was or mistake was more than once…

do you all understand that McCain made up another story of a conversation between a general and an insurgent tonight on CBS.
where he completely not only flipped the time frame and influences…but made up a conversation about it.

In fact,
with all of Obama’s talk of bridging the divide,
can someone point to a significant single act (legislative or otherwise) that can be said to cross party lines????
Remember, we’re talking acts here, not mere words.
Words are easy. Cheap really. Dressed up nicely they may appear expensive, but in the end without real acts to back them up, they’re cheap as borsht.

biff
you must remember this guy was not reaching across the isle. He was getting ready to leave the gop. Remember back when he was auditioning to be kerry’s vp.
McCain is soooo confused

I’ll make it even easier,
it can be a private one, of bravery or sacrifice, doing what’s right notwithstanding that it may not advance his immediate personal interests?
Anyone?
Anyone?

He speaks like a tenth grader trying to BS his way in a term paper.
Very poor stuff…
But Bush is an idiot, etc…

Omentum,
you are wise to not attempt to answer those questions posed truthfully,
for they would surely lead you to answers you do not wish to tell.
So, off you go, continue with the brush off’s as if any questioning of Obama’s credentials is out of bounds.

He as run on hell of a campaign taking down one of the most formidable political families in this generation. He will win by a landslide in the fall.
McCain served his country well. There comes a time when we should ride off in the sunset and enjoy our twilight years. McCain is about 10 overdue. He don’t need the money. Hey his sugar momma can take good care of him and he will not even have to spend his disability check.

ten years that is

nomomentum:
He as run on hell of a campaign taking down one of the most formidable political families in this generation. ”
Then your candidate should be AXELROD… NOT obama.!!!
Of course, that would be a horse of a different color…..

Wow! If Obama manages to lose this sucker in November we’re likely to
see a startling increase in the suicide rate in Nov./Dec./Jan. This would
have a beneficial effect in the long run. Jesse and Al would be back on
top, Hillary would be dieting for her
2012 run, Barack would be back in the
Senate “working across the aisle” and
a lot of surplus democrats bloggers
would have gone to that big Kos-Valhalla
in the ether. Gaia would once again
be in balance.

“If we had not invaded Iraq,” John Kerry’s 2004 platform would have been a promise to go to war to remove Saddam Hussein because he possessed WMD and was an imminent threat to America (just like he urged President Clinton to do), and that President Bush was too cowardly to confront Saddam in order to protect the American people. And many of you Obama supporters would have thought it was a great idea. Then when no WMD were found, you’d still defend the decision. And you know it. You just have an obsessive and irrational hatred of President Bush, and no matter what he does, you’ll oppose it.
Hindsight is 20-20.

Mara:
1. Actually Iraq did have an active WMD program at one time. They actually used chemical weapons against their own people and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. And they did have a nuclear program that Israel originally destroyed back in 1981. In fact, 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium that had been stored in Iraq was transferred out of Iraq (at Iraq’s request) and sold to Canada just a couple of weeks ago.
2. You are right, over zealous American soldiers would not have mistreated a few Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. BUT Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein would have continued to use the prison for their systematic torture and killing of tens of thousands of Iraqis.
3. You are wrong! Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam Hussein. This would not have stopped.
4. Valid point!
5. WRONG! During WWII, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled first that it had no jurisdiction regarding the POWs held under American command throughout Europe; and then ruled that Habeus corpus did NOT apply outside the United States.
6. MORE military personnel have died here in the United States in the past 6 years than have died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined!
7. Valid point!
8. Daniel Pearl and other kidnapped Americans had already been decapitated before the invasion of Iraq. So any waterboarding that may have been done, didn’t influence how Americans were treated when captured.
9. Many Democrats LIED about Iraq having WMDs for years leading up to and peaking in 1998 when Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 giving President Clinton the authorization for regime change in Iraq — due to Iraq having WMDs.
10. Sorry I don’t see your point! Without the invasion the dispute between Iran and Iraq would not have been resolved? So are you now saying that something good came of the invasion?

Omentum, got more??????
Didn’t think so! You could slip Obama’s resume under your fingernail. (And if you want to throw in “community organizer” be sure and toss in “20 years of Rev. Wright’s sermons” along with it.)

Obama; Wrong Then and befuddled Now

Barack Hussein Obama absolutely opposed the surge of troops into Iraq. This is an undeniable truth and his own words on the subject depict not only a man who opposed the surge but told us that he believed it would have the opposite effect. He said it…

Obama is all about the photo ops!
His trip has accomplished nothing constructive. All it does is make him appear to the public as arrogant as he really is. Assuming he is already President before the American public has voted in the election.
Obama voted *against* the surge. He was completely wrong and refuses to admit it. And he stated that the surge would *increase* violence. He was completely wrong about that!! He does *not* know foreign policy at all. His living in Indonesia when he was 12 does not qualify him for any adult diplomatic role. The Obama minions make one outlandish claim in his support after another.
Obama is all talk, and photo ops. David Axelrod is one of his campaign managers and is one of the best at manipulating media to get his clients elected. He actually worked for Hillary Clinton also at one point. I dare you to google David Axelrod and find out how much media manipulation is going on in the Obama campaign.

While the Iraq effort is almost exclusively American now, Afghanistan is a NATO mission, Obama, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on European and NATO Affairs, has never visited Afghanistan, and has not bothered to hold a hearing of the subcommittee covering the countries for which it bears legislative oversight responsibility. So, when we hear about Obamas extensive ‘experience’ in foreign affairs, most of which will be recently acquired in a mere week of travel and media fanfare. Perhaps Mr. Obama will now decide to hold the very first hearing of his Senate subcommittee, after all, there would be extensive media coverage. The American vote should thing once or twice about voting for this little experienced candidate for President. Media cover alone should not make one the President!