Can An Impotent Commander In Chief Be A Good Thing--For The Moment?

Mods, please help if I selected the incorrect forum.

I may have recently finally found a reason to actually like our president. At least as a weak, indecisive, ineffective leader he may not get us in any more trouble than he already has. Even he must be aware at some level how badly he has failed at everything he has touched, and whether he will admit that or not, I hope it will be an incentive to keep him from taking any more chances to lower that approval rating even more dramatically. His recent reliance on hiding behind the podium and threatening without substance tells me he may have finally understood what a caricature of a world leader he is viewed as. I like to think that him being thought of as impotent by no means makes us as a country actually helpless.

I've kind of asked this question before, but to me it bears rewording and repeating. Do we need to hope and pray that Obama will find someone who can take the bull by the horns, rally the country, and stand up to Putin or do we need to push back or simply stay out of the way until or unless Russia crosses a line where the vast majority of Americans (and the world) really are endangered? In one thread recently I was told the following:
This will not end well, and if we put our nose in it ....... we may find ourselves told to butt out and forced to shut up courtesy of EMP gag order.

I need to know whether to root for us to stand up or back out because what I care about most is the lives of my children. Which answer leaves them the best future given the choices right now?

reply to post by samstone11


I like the fact that he's not overreacting at the moment. We'll see how this all plays out, he's letting the situation develop. Why in the heck should we go dashing headlong into a war? I wouldn't appreciate Russia getting involved if we decided to annex Mexico or some carribean island.

I know all about the treaties and I really don't care, we should hold off on starting a major row for a bit. We are THE military wing of NATO so make no mistake who carries the load in a NATO action.

Putin has long seen Obama's support of democratic change in the Middle East and elsewhere as a challenge to Russian power... so I'm not really sure that He-Putin, is seeing Obama as weak as you are. And according to Pew Research --Majorities throughout much of Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada express confidence in Obama’s handling of global issues. This includes at least eight-in-ten in Germany (88%), France (83%) and Canada (81%). Poles, Russians and Greeks, meanwhile, are much less likely to say they trust Obama to do the right thing.

However not trusting Obama to do the right thing doesn't mean that they perceive him as weak. In fact the single most important reason for Obama's slipping in status around the world...and it's really not that big of a slip if he's over 80% approval in some countries as of last year.... but the biggest reason for that slip is the drone strikes he’s ordered to take out Al Qaeda and other extremist-organization leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. He's seen as ordering more strikes than Bush. I think that's true but don't have the data on that.

He's not really seen as weak around the world. Just by Americans.

reply to post by amazing

amazing
Majorities throughout much of Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada express confidence in Obama’s handling of global issues. This includes at least eight-in-ten in Germany (88%)...

Those numbers are actually a little out-dated.
Ever since US industrial espionage/mass surveillance against Germany, and international law violation issues became known, only 35% of Germans still see the US and Obama as trustworthy/reliable (according to ARD).

I don't really think that Obama actually makes any decisions on his own, in fact he probably follows orders. If this is the case, it doesn't really matter who's president.

ColCurious
reply to post by amazing

 

amazing
Majorities throughout much of Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada express confidence in Obama’s handling of global issues. This includes at least eight-in-ten in Germany (88%)...

Those numbers are actually a little out-dated.
Ever since US industrial espionage/mass surveillance against Germany, and international law violation issues became known, only 35% of Germans still see the US and Obama as trustworthy/reliable (according to ARD).

That's a good point and that was last year. But I still think that puts him more of untrustworthy and not weak .

With Obama, his weakness, waffling and failed foreign policies, red lines, threats and retracted threats, inexplicable use of force, clandestine agreements with potential enemies for political gain, not resolution. The Russians have tested him and his administration in both Syria and Iran... It was clear to them that Obama would not intervene.

He made this possible, perhaps irresistible for Russia.

The time for strong leadership has come and gone. Maybe he can do no more harm, but his massive ego has been damaged, they are all laughing at him, making jokes and that can make him ultimately unpredictable. Perhaps he will overreact at some point as a result. If he begins to take all of this personally, anything is possible.

Hopefully Obama's options remain limited, and his public words governed. Hopefully the Russians are finished testing his administration.

Maybe there is a little "hope" for a "change" .

Crimea, isn't our fight. How many times have I seen the same political rhetoric about how the US is too involved in all the worlds problems and we should keep our nose out of other countries affairs?

Now, this happens, and you are all whining that he is doing EXACTLY what you wanted him to do from the start?

Make up your minds people, I get it, hate this guy cause of whatever reason (we all really know why) but when he does things you want him to do, don't cry about it.

I get so confused now Obama is impotent? Why he was just being called a warmonger with the airsrikes on Libya, troops in Africa, threating Syria only to have Russia freak out and give up the very weapons Syria denied having, the drone war, and of course taking Ukraine from Russia.

Then again we had the same problem with George Bush Jr. One second he is a warmonger because of Iraq and Afganistan and the next he is impotent because the US did nothing when Russia attacked Georgia.

The fact is Presidents have advisors that undstand the world and how best to react to diffetent crisis. Not every crisis is one where you make threats and call out the troops. And when your the US you hold all the cards. You talk softly and carry a big stick. Right now with Crimea the US has the power to wreck the Russian economy and possibly compeltely destablize it over the course of the next few years, while at the same time growing NATO and being cheered on by the rest of the world the entire time. Sure people today have short attention spans and if the Crimea things is solved in a couple of weeks they think the Russians won. However for people who undestand this sort of thing, Russia is in for a very bad time and in the end Putin will cut a deal or in time he will not longer be in power.

It worked out well for Nevile Chamberlain...Peace in our Time!
lol

the answer is no. warfare for any reason, when it gets to that point should be sharp, decisive and over with. that's what you want. if you have to start shooting, get it done and over with. send your message and get the other guy to either stop, or kill you. no middle ground. no making it "more" moral by trying avoiding killing the innocent. and when you don't do it that way?
you get Korea, Viet Nam, Gulf War 1, Gulf War 2, A-stan etc .... If the guy is supposed to be the commander, he should already know this or at least have someone around that understand that. What we have is a general officers corp that has been groomed to be "politically correct" vice "combat effective". I can't think of anything LESS merciful. The guys that do the fighting are ALWAYS the guys that do the dying. leadership can make the difference. experience can make a difference. basically, we're boned, and it has nothing to do with the courage or skill of the people who are actually staring down the gun barrel at the enemy. it has everything to do with leadership based on political machinations vice strategic/tactical manuver. If your gonna pull a trigger, then you shoot to kill. or else you don't even take aim. Gun safety and military strategy are one in the same. and if you CAN'T pull a trigger, you shouldn't be put in charge of a gun in the first place. Like our political and military leadership at the highest level, none of those guys should be allowed anywhere NEAR a fire arm. they might get someone killed. like they've been doing for the last 20 years in the first place! this is almost like asking is it better to have a brain surgeon that is bothered by the site of blood !

Obama has ignored a treaty.

He is a failed president. Weakness is never a positive attribute. Look how long (and the repercussions) caused by Carter.

Call Obama a puppet.
Call him a victim.
(it's the current meme)

He is a failure.

Obama is weak because inside he has no real beliefs. He has nothing he is passionate about, like Kennedy, MLK, Malcolm X, RFK, TRULY GREAT MEN WHO REALLY TRIED TO CHANGE THINGS…That's why their dead.

He has the common vanity of a man who enjoys the perks of the presidency, but in his soul he has no beliefs in anything strongly so he just goes along with the ptb and does theory bidding while pretending to be a progressive liberal.

If you look at Obama’s record closely you will see he never follows up on anything because he has no inner beliefs in anything… nothing propels or drives him but personal ambition…he is the perfect political puppet and fraud.

He got in office and immediately broke ALL his promises and carried on the presidency in the usual way, only serving the powerful interest of this country's 1 percent and only pretending to be a progressive. He’s a total fake.

A passion less puppet only with common pedestrian ambition