Obama Talks Turkey

“Invoking American historical ugliness such as slavery and segregation, the president gently suggested the Turks need to acknowledge their slaughter of Armenians during and after World War I. Though Mr. Obama did not today use the word “genocide” — which he did as a senator, urging Turkey to acknowledge its past barbarism.”
3.5 million Greek and Armenian Christians were slaughtered by the Turks from 1914 to 1923.
So, he suggests that the ugliness of American slavery and segregation in our history is comparable to genocide?

Big Guy thought they were going to lunch for turkey sandwiches before ‘prompter totus told him that Turkey is acually a country.

There are 4.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives left representing conservatively 10 percent of the survivors. If the Genocide wasn’t committed against American Indians and Alaska Natives their population would be over 45 million conservatively today.

Was Big Guy speaking Austrian in Turkey?

Keith:”It’s not in Europe, what’s next? Israel has to join too? Is this the magical resolution to all the middle east problems-get all those countries to join the EU? ”
While unlikely, that may just be the best suggestion I’ve heard for bringing peace in the Middle East. Remember the EU already contains a number of once quite bitter enemies (including the literal Nazis).

Obama in Austria:
“It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian — wheeling and dealing — and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics.”
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This perhaps ties in with his constant apologizing for the Bush administration- especially in Turkey.
Obama clearly is surprised that nations look out for their own interests and policies. Including the US.
Now, Bush may have been unpopular for the things he did- but much of that is because he wanted other countries to do what they didn’t want to do. It’s easier to blame him than admit compromises can’t always been reached- and in fact aren’t always the desired result.
In the US, Obama tried for approximately 5 weeks to listen to his opposition, then labeled them the party of “no” and started ignoring them.
Yet he is surprised and appalled when leaders do this on the world stage?
Eventually, he’s going to have to do something in America’s interest that other countries don’t want to do. Will he be able to? Will he want the next President to tour Europe, apologizing for him?

“Eventually, he’s going to have to do something in America’s interest that other countries don’t want to do.”
Excellent point.

Sigmond:”Then why did the government cooperate with Bush in Afghanistan if he was so hated.? Why would their hatred be any different than the leftists like you in the US who hated Bush even before the Iraq war?”
Don’t be foolish – IRAN cooperated with us in Afghanistan and we have talks with them regarding Iraq (where they are helping murder our servicemen), are they now our best buds? I did not hate Bush before the Iraq war, up until the bumbling of the rebuilding he merely appeared to be another big government Republican. And as I leftist, I don’t mind that too much – I voted happily for his father, Bush Sr (who is an under rated president in my opinion, the first Gulf War was a masterpiece of diplomacy and war).

jhw539 ..I agree that Bush, Sr. doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
Wata did George Bush do to Turkey that Obama needs to apologize for?

Bush in Instanbul, June 2004:
“Your country, with 150 years of democratic and social reform, stands as a model to others, and as Europe’s bridge to the wider world. Your success is vital to a future of progress and peace in Europe and in the broader Middle East — and the Republic of Turkey can depend on the support and friendship of the United States of America.
For decades, my country has supported greater unity in Europe — to secure liberty, to build prosperity, and to remove sources of conflict on this continent. Now the European Union is considering the admission of Turkey, and you are moving rapidly to meet the criteria for membership. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had a vision of Turkey as a strong nation among other European nations. That dream can be realized by this generation of Turks.
America believes that as a European power, Turkey belongs in the European Union. Your membership would also be a crucial advance in relations between the Muslim world and the West, because you are part of both. Including Turkey in the EU would prove that Europe is not the exclusive club of a single religion; it would expose the “clash of civilizations” as a passing myth of history. Fifteen years ago, an artificial line that divided Europe — drawn at Yalta — was erased. And now this continent has the opportunity to erase another artificial division — by including Turkey in the future of Europe. ”
Soooo arrogant.

Sigmond,
Almost half of the 30 million Turks had lost their lives between 1912 and 1922 by … I will not get into the ‘who slaughtered the Turks” business since a gang of nations had attacked Turks from all sides, which happen to be our neighbors today and we cannot afford to live hating our neighbors.

What is Obama implying when he says this:
“There is a simple truth to this story: Turkey’s democracy is your own achievement. It was not forced upon you by any outside power,”
hmmmm…..

“You’re either with us or against us
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Bush said that about fighting back after 9/11 in 2001. It was not about Iraq. Hillary Clinton said the exact same thing.

“we cannot afford to live hating our neighbors. ‘
Good point. If you live in Turkey and are Muslim, how do you feel about Christians and Jews?

“This isn’t flag football”
Look, war is chaos. There has never been a perfectly managed war in history. Total chaos – mistakes are made, innocents killed, atrocities, and so forth. I’m as good a Monday morning quarterback as the best of them, too.
Why blame Bush for Turkey, anyway for not allowing passage of troops? We found another way and are still friends with Turkey, no.?

MayBee:”Would things be better for Turkey now if we had followed Barack Obama’s urgings and pulled our troops out of Iraq at the bloodiest part of the war?”
When was that? If we had not started the war in 2001, there is absolutely NO question that more Iraqis would be alive now (albeit still under Saddam’s thumb).
Here’s a question for you, would more of our troops be alive if Bush had listened to Shinseki and started the surge in Feb 2003, when he recommended it: “I would say that what’s been mobilized to this point — something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about posthostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence.”
(Remember that Rumsfeld and Wolfiwitz slapped down General Shinseki’s comments calling them “wildly off the mark” and “hard to believe”.)
You really are in a small fringe if you are defending Bush’s political conduct of the war and ignoring generals for years as anything like competence.

Obama has rightly repudiated the last eight years of Bush-era policies towards the Muslim world. I have no problem with Obama specifically mentioning a break with the past as a priority for his foreign policy vision. Any Republicans whining about “no respect” for Dubya need to look at the election results from 2008…

“You really are in a small fringe if you are defending Bush’s political conduct of the war and ignoring generals for years as anything like competence. ”
How many generals and other flag officers were consulting the President and that had a different point of view about what to do than Shineski or others? And why would Bush deliberately make a decision he or they thought would be bad? You and I weren’t there to know. You and I are like everybody else – Monday quarterbacks defending our partisan positions, no?

When was that? If we had not started the war in 2001, there is absolutely NO question that more Iraqis would be alive now (albeit still under Saddam’s thumb).
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We went to war with Iraq in 2003.
Look, I’ve already said I’m not going to debate the entire Iraq war. My point is Obama keeps wanting to blame Bush for the mistakes he made, when Obama, as a Senator, advocated some policies that also would have had some pretty devastating effects. If he wants to play the ‘what if’ blame game, he’s got a lot of fingers pointing back at himself.
As for “more” Iraqis being alive if we hadn’t gone to war, I will remind you of the devastating humanitarian consequences of the Iraq sanctions we were imposing. There were several paths we could have taken with Iraq, none of them especially good.
Anyway, it’s just a very immature Presidency. As I said, he will learn soon enough that people won’t do what he wants just because he wants it, and he will get people in other countries disliking him for it, and blaming him for their problems.

“How many generals and other flag officers were consulting the President and that had a different point of view about what to do than Shineski or others? And why would Bush deliberately make a decision he or they thought would be bad?”
The problem was that the Bush administration prosecuted the war politically instead of purely militarily. From the lead-up to the invasion right through to the surge, they accepted advice from the military leaders that fitted the image that they wanted to portray as really happening and dismissed those that did not.

“The problem was that the Bush administration prosecuted the war politically..”
Welcome to the Monday Morning QB club. I’m sure you have no partisan bias, either, huh? Tell us about the good decisions Bush made. Thanks.

“…to appointing inexperienced political cronies to key rebuilding positions”
Who are you speaking of?

“bowed waist-deep to the King of Saudi Arabia”
I was worried that he would get a bloody nose when it looked like his nose hit the floor in that bow. That could have been even more embarrassing.

“I was worried that he would get a bloody nose when it looked like his nose hit the floor in that bow.”
Interesting since all the video I have seen has been a quick bend forward at the waist.
But hey you’re a right winger, lying is first nature, not second.

I may have said it before, but Donald Rumsfeld did the absolute best impersonation of Chicken Little that I’ve ever seen done by a Secretary of Defense. It engendered so much confidence in our leadership and was so endearing to our kids.

CBS News reports:
The Saudi Arabian newspaper al-Watan reported today that Turkish security services have arrested a man of Syrian origins Friday in connection with a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama during his current visit to Turkey.
The man, who was carrying an Al-Jazeera TV ID card in the name of M.G., confessed after his arrest that he was planning on stabbing the U.S. president with a knife during the Alliance of Civilizations summit held in Istanbul, adding that he had three other accomplices to help him execute his plan.
According to the paper, Turkish investigators were trying to verify whether the Qatari-based Arab TV channel has truly issued the ID card produced by the man, or if it’s a forged copy.
The suspect, a permanent resident of Istanbul, has been regularly attending all conferences and events relating to the Middle East held in the city.
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“Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not at war with Islam.”
Can someone tell me when BHO’s predecessor EVER said we were at war with Islam. My recollection is that he said exactly what BHO did, in fact even going so far to say that Islam was a religion of peace….

More from Bush’s 2004 speech in Istanbul:
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“The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has said that the finest view of İstanbul is not from the shores of Europe, or from the shores of Asia, but from a bridge that unites them, and lets you see both. His work has been a bridge between cultures, and so is the Republic of Turkey. The people of this land understand, as that great writer has observed, that ‘What is important is not [a] clash of parties, civilizations, cultures, East and West.’ What is important, he says, is to realize ‘that other people in other continents and civilizations’ are ‘exactly like you’.”
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“Many Americans trace their heritage to Turkey, and Turks have contributed greatly to our national life — including, most recently, a lot of baskets for the Detroit Pistons from Mehmet Okur. I know you’re proud of this son of your country, and there’s a lot of people in Detroit really grateful for his talents. ”
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Obama hit both of these themes.

“Many Muslims and certainly Al-Qaeda either believe we are or are trying to say we are.”
Shouldn’t it be the Muslim leaders of the world telling Muslims that Muslims are not at war with the United States?

After bowing subserviently to the king of Saudi Arabia, who is the next Muslim potentate that he will grovel to?
Remember the “tolerant” treatment of the Armenians in the genocide of 1915-17 and the Greeks in pogrom of 1955? T
he Kurds are currently receiving their own form of “benevolence” from the Turks.
The E.U. is right to be cautious about letting T
quo warranto, B.O.?

Jake, I confess, I didn’t vote for Obama though it was a hard and last minute decision. (I’m not Rep. or Dem.) One of the reasons I was drawing near during the election was, or what I understood was that, he is a Christian and whether a Christian or not, I do put a lot of instances on a person with Christian values (real ones that is). I have even started to really warm up to him, even to the point of thinking a vote for him would not had been a wrong vote. I must admit it was a big disappointment to find out he is a smoker however, in light of resent info, I must say, it is beginning to look like he, being a Christian, may have been for political gain. Now let me Qualify that statement. In a story I read yesterday, in News Week (May), about Obama’s trip to Turkey, Hadia Mubarak, an American born Muslim stated Obama as saying: “yes, he (Obama) told the world, Muslims Americans exist and our existence has enriched, not impoverished American culture”. So, what was he stating by using “our”, he is a Muslims? She went on to say about his election: “the mere hint that Obama practiced Islam was the surest way for he to lose”. Is she saying he hide his practice of Islam for political gain. Then in your 4/6 story you stated Obama as saying: “United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.” Again, what was he stating by using “I am one”? He is a Muslims or an American whom has Muslims in his family? It’s not that I have a lot against Muslims, unless their over ther in nut land, with some of the “christians” but lies and deceit I do.