Mike Lester for August 30, 2014

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    Don Winchester Premium Member over 9 years ago

    Obama’s strategy is to close his eyes real tight and put his fingers in his ears and pretend there is no terrorism.

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    sw10mm  over 9 years ago

    And now federal and state authorities are warning of the threat of imminent terrorist attack on our southern border.

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    Gypsy8  over 9 years ago

    One question here is for how long the FOX News and associates can try to fool all the people all the time. One thing is certain, they have some fooled all the time. They are the ones that if Obama opens his mouth, they criticize it as weak and feckless. But if Cameron or even Putin opens his mouth, even if saying the same thing as Obama, they declare it as great leadership. But it is Obama that has ordered air strikes over Iraq. The FOX gang utterances are nothing short of unpatriotic and even seditious. Thank God the international community has a President who thinks things through, does not bow to irrational knee-jerk reaction, insists on International co-operation, and searches for a plan that will not make matters worse. And you can’t ignore the fact that the right thing may be doing nothing there, but spending the resources on defense of the homeland at home. One only hopes he doesn’t get railroaded into doing something stupid by people who only speak out of hate, ideology, and hunger for power.

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    Theodore E. Lind Premium Member over 9 years ago

    I would think the countries surrounding Syria and Iraq would be a little concerned. Europe is also a lot closer and a much easier terrorist target. If they can’t get together and work on the problem, maybe we should just let them fight it out and take on the winner if necessary.

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    ConserveGov  over 9 years ago

    To all you “Let’s stay out of it” people: that would be fine if we lived in a bubble. Unfortunately, this terrorist group has the resources, capabilities and stated desire to reach us here at home.“Having no strategy” does not make us safer, it simply puts us and our families at risk. If we sit back and watch them grow even stronger, sadly we will regret it.

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    Mneedle  over 9 years ago

    @RobertLanders: following your concept, we give up the republic and turn back to a pure democracy. In that system, we would still have slavery because that is what most people wanted.

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    mlester101 Premium Member over 9 years ago

    http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2014/08/30/isis-strategy/

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    ConserveGov  over 9 years ago

    Gypsy:Do you really think 9/11(when 3000 innocent Americans were killed) was going to be just a one time thing for OBL and Al Qaeda?Maybe we should’ve just pretended it never happened and hoped it wouldn’t happen again?You libs really do live in a fantasy world.

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    Don Winchester Premium Member over 9 years ago

    Oh no….does it make Democrats look bad? Awwwwww……..

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    Dtroutma  over 9 years ago

    When he announced the rather intelligent strategy of saying those in the local region, like Arab states, and European interests should play the major role, was pretty good strategy, folks.

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    Not the Smartest Man On the Planet -- Maybe Close Premium Member over 9 years ago

    Yes, President Obama should declare war without considering the financial or moral consequences, put on a flight suit and declare “Mission Accomplituted.” Because we know how well that worked out with Shrub.

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    Don Winchester Premium Member over 9 years ago

    We’ll see when you’re crying after Nov 11th.

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    Uncle Joe Premium Member over 9 years ago

    “Right now, the DA has hundreds of people with American passports who can enter the US with only the odd question about the beard, the kandoura, and their WMD.”So, sending troops is the only strategy? We smashed Al Qaeda in Iraq & wound up with ISIS. We can easily smash ISIS, but past performance may predict future results.Yet, the article says that we have identified several hundred US Passport holders who are potential threats. Somehow, I doubt they will be allowed to land at Dulles & run to the nearest fertilizer wholesaler.

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    OmqR-IV.0  over 9 years ago

    Read the spin carefully: ""The terrorist threat was not created by the Iraq War 10 years ago"Note how he doesn’t specify which terrorist threat. Before the 11th of Sept.’99 Islamist terrorists existed.Now, if you ask which group came along and when, then you get a different story.

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    Gypsy8  over 9 years ago

    “…..It existed even before the horrific attacks on 9/11, themselves some time before the Iraq War.” ~ David Cameron….”.You don’t think maybe Cameron was trying to justify his country’s support of the Iraq war? The threat of terrorism may have existed before the Iraq debacle, but the war expanded the threat exponentially.

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    OmqR-IV.0  over 9 years ago

    “…none of which the US has any bearing on whatsoever”

    uh-uh; a major grievance of most of these groups is US (or even plain ol’ Western) involvement or open support or manipulation of governments they have a beef with.Meddle meddle toil and trouble.The Iraq invasion kicked the cauldron over and the spill hasn’t stopped since.

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    ConserveGov  over 9 years ago

    Hey Gypsy!In case you can’t comprehend, I was talking about Afghanistan, not Iraq.Maybe read my comment slower this time.

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    ConserveGov  over 9 years ago

    You libs would’ve asked for a sit down with OBL and the Taliban after 9/11 to “see where we can find some common ground”.You simpletons!

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    Uncle Joe Premium Member over 9 years ago

    “Clearly you would be just fine with letting a bunch of Nomads, who represent NO country, dictate the foreign policy of sovereign nations.”Conversely, our foreign policy should never have been centered on a bunch of nomads who sit on top of large oil reserves. In 1990, after Saddam was driven out of Kuwait & his army shattered, there was no military reason to keep our troops on Arabian soil. Knowing that it was being used to incite jihadis, seems foolish in hindsight. But, our entire history in the Middle East revolves around manipulating local politics to benefit oil tycoons. “And no, terrorist attacks are NOT “criminal threats”. As the 9/11 Commission Report concluded, al Qaeda was at war with us, but we weren’t at war with them. I’m sure you would’ve drawn up an arrest warrant for Hirohito after Pearl Harbor.”Until ISIS managed to take over a big stretch of desert between Syria & Iraq, there was no state, no government to declare war against. We drove Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan with about 1000 special forces. It took more years of spy work & a tiny SEAL team to finally get Bin Laden.There is no comparison between Imperial Japan & Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda & other international terrorist groups operate like the mafia & drug cartels, not nations that we can fight & defeat with conventional military.Ironically, Hirohito was deemed more useful alive than dead & escaped the Tokyo War Crimes trials, despite being responsible for far more deaths than Bin Laden.

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    Uncle Joe Premium Member over 9 years ago

    “Those “nomads” as you call them are sovereign nations with seats at the UN.”I was talking about Bin Laden & the Gulf States, not Afghanistan. I used the term ‘nomad’ as a tongue in cheek response to, “a bunch of Nomads, who represent NO country”. I guess subtlety is lost on you. As I said earlier, we pushed Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan & put the Taliban in check with a tiny force. Even now, there isn’t much AQ in Afghanistan. The Taliban are an unresolved problem. I’ll leave it at that. Iraq, was a stupid mistake from the get go. Everyone seems to understand that other than a few neocons.You conflate 9/11 with the 2003 invasion. Whether Bush knew it at the time is debatable, but we know in hindsight that there was no connection. If Bin Laden was alone in anger over lingering US troops after Gulf War I, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But a lot of Saudis & other Muslim fundamentalists in the region took exception. Their views were ignored & squashed by their own governments. You haven’t provided any rationale for leaving our troops in Arabia after 1992. The role of our presence on holy soil can’t be understated. If you don’t think a minority faction should have any say in their country’s policy… well, I think the irony is lost on you.“It also doesn’t matter if you think the response to 9/11 should have been handled as a criminal matter or a military one. The UN disagreed with you, NATO disagreed with you, and a coalition of 46 Nations disagreed with you.”The UN never expressly authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I seem to recall a lot of anger over our French allies in NATO sitting out the war. In fact, your 46 nations mainly provided lip service, not troops. Calling Protectorates like Guam & the Solomon & Marshall Islands, “nations” seems dubious. Several of the nations included in the 46, don’t even have armies. That leaves about 130 UN members who’s absence spoke volumes. Virtually all of the troops in Iraq were American soldiers. The only sizable armed group supporting our soldiers were mercenaries like Blackwater.Compared to the 1992 war, 2003 had no meaningful support from any other nation besides Britain.“When you become the Secretary General to the United Nations, or an analyst for any First World Country, I’ll be glad to hear your point of view. Until then, not.”Hey, I come here expecting to be challenged. If you don’t want agree, fine. But that’s pretty much admitting you can’t understand or really refute anything I’ve said. It’s pretty obvious you follow the thinking that somehow more troops & more time would have made a difference in Iraq. History says otherwise, quite loudly & quite clearly.

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