Much of World Appears Ready to Rally Behind Obama's Leadership
Our job is to make that happen, and not let the failed Bush/McCain faction continue their dangerous rogue course.
Obama Would Be a `Strong' Partner, Karzai Aide Says (Update1)
By Bill Varner and Matthew Benjamin
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai came away from a meeting today with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expecting he would have a ``strong partner'' in the White House no matter who wins the U.S. election, his spokesman said.
Obama and U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed spent an hour and 45 minutes with Karzai and his top aides in the presidential palace in Kabul, including a lunch of Afghan rice, lamb and chicken, spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told reporters.
The Illinois senator, 46, is on a six-day tour that also will include stops in Iraq, Israel and Western Europe. Obama said in a CBS News interview in Afghanistan that that nation ``has to be our central focus, the central front of our battle against terrorism.''
``Losing is not an option when it comes to Afghanistan,'' Obama said in the interview. ``One of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here,'' he said, referring to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, which harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist network that launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
MALIKI'S PRAISE FOR OBAMA
Iraqi Leader Stirs up US Campaign
Obama is pleased, but McCain certainly is not. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki expressed support for Obama's troop withdrawal plans. Despite a half-hearted retraction, the comments have stirred up the US presidential campaign. SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation.
Comments made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with SPIEGEL (more...) published on Saturday have stirred up the campaign teams of both Barack Obama and John McCain this weekend. And late on Saturday, Maliki tried to distance himself from the statements, saying his comments were misunderstood.
NY Times: July 21, 2008
Obama Meets Afghan Leader and Discusses Terrorism
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 — Senator Barack Obama met with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for nearly two hours on Sunday and “conveyed that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continuing the war against terrorism with vigor,” an Afghan presidential spokesman said.
The meeting, which continued over a traditional Afghan lunch of chicken, mutton and rice, was conducted in a “very friendly environment,” the spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said.
Mr. Obama and the two other senators traveling with him — Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska; and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island — reaffirmed the United States’ bipartisan support for Afghanistan. And Mr. Karzai asked that the senators pass on the “immense gratitude” of the Afghan people to their constituents and the American public, Mr. Hamidzada said at a news briefing after the lunch.
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Obama said: “We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front on our battle against terrorism.
Mr. Hamidzada made light of Mr. Obama’s earlier criticism of Mr. Karzai as not getting out of his bunker enough to help Afghanistan develop, saying it was not so much a criticism as a statement of realism.
“While we are making progress, we are also facing the significant threat of terrorism that is imposed upon us and on the Afghan people,” he said. “We are spending a lot of time and resources on fighting terrorism,” he said, adding that the government hoped in the future to spend more of those resources on the development of Afghanistan.
Obama Would Be a `Strong' Partner, Karzai Aide Says (Update1)
By Bill Varner and Matthew Benjamin
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai came away from a meeting today with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expecting he would have a ``strong partner'' in the White House no matter who wins the U.S. election, his spokesman said.
Obama and U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed spent an hour and 45 minutes with Karzai and his top aides in the presidential palace in Kabul, including a lunch of Afghan rice, lamb and chicken, spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told reporters.
The Illinois senator, 46, is on a six-day tour that also will include stops in Iraq, Israel and Western Europe. Obama said in a CBS News interview in Afghanistan that that nation ``has to be our central focus, the central front of our battle against terrorism.''
``Losing is not an option when it comes to Afghanistan,'' Obama said in the interview. ``One of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here,'' he said, referring to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, which harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist network that launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
MALIKI'S PRAISE FOR OBAMA
Iraqi Leader Stirs up US Campaign
Obama is pleased, but McCain certainly is not. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki expressed support for Obama's troop withdrawal plans. Despite a half-hearted retraction, the comments have stirred up the US presidential campaign. SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation.
Comments made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with SPIEGEL (more...) published on Saturday have stirred up the campaign teams of both Barack Obama and John McCain this weekend. And late on Saturday, Maliki tried to distance himself from the statements, saying his comments were misunderstood.
NY Times: July 21, 2008
Obama Meets Afghan Leader and Discusses Terrorism
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 — Senator Barack Obama met with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for nearly two hours on Sunday and “conveyed that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continuing the war against terrorism with vigor,” an Afghan presidential spokesman said.
The meeting, which continued over a traditional Afghan lunch of chicken, mutton and rice, was conducted in a “very friendly environment,” the spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said.
Mr. Obama and the two other senators traveling with him — Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska; and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island — reaffirmed the United States’ bipartisan support for Afghanistan. And Mr. Karzai asked that the senators pass on the “immense gratitude” of the Afghan people to their constituents and the American public, Mr. Hamidzada said at a news briefing after the lunch.
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Obama said: “We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front on our battle against terrorism.
Mr. Hamidzada made light of Mr. Obama’s earlier criticism of Mr. Karzai as not getting out of his bunker enough to help Afghanistan develop, saying it was not so much a criticism as a statement of realism.
“While we are making progress, we are also facing the significant threat of terrorism that is imposed upon us and on the Afghan people,” he said. “We are spending a lot of time and resources on fighting terrorism,” he said, adding that the government hoped in the future to spend more of those resources on the development of Afghanistan.
posted by Faithful Progressive at 8:27 PM
4 Comments:
Folks, when did we start allowing other nations of the world determine who our next president will be?? This is a very dangerous course to follow for those here who have this love affair with the international community - it's the people here in our country, our citizens, that are to make such a determination, such a choice not the greater international community.
Whether you realize it or not, we are headed down a road that we will never get off of as it is with Obama and why you people can't see this is beyond me. Wake up people - you're being led blindly by this man - he has been, is and will be wrong for our country as president. How could we have come to a point of electing total ineptness? I marvel at our stupididy regarding the 2008 election.
Can't vote for the guy - stay away from him folks.... this is not right, he is not right for us and the fact that the international community is so smitten with Obama should be a major red flag - the international community is continually wrong on such matters.
mrc
As for 'heading down a road.' it's common knowledge now that the road Bush & Co. led us down was[is] the Road to Perdition. France, Germany, Japan, Australia & the rest of the world[international] community was clear in its opposition & for good reason when we just got convenient lies from Bush/Cheney. Besides more of same give us drunken sailor spending and a depreciating dollar, now at $o.64 down from a weak $o.72 just last week. Don't believe it? Just price a trip abroad & decide its unaffordability this summer, but now you may also visit your local supermarket or even your Wal-Mart where the deficit is beginning to play havoc.
The road inherited from the failed Bush regime will be difficult for Obama, even with a veto-proof Congress, or anybody else, when BushCo chickens start roosting. I will proudly vote my support for Obama's leadership over McChristian's Me-too-Iraq's-hundred-years. We have a rare opportunity not afforded often, and we must seize it to help return the country to its moorings. It's a real shame internationalists abroad cannot vote since their fate has been stained & marred by Bush's imperialistic misadventurism. Canadians have long complained about being a 51st state without the vote to go with it, deeply affected whether they wanted it or not by U.S. actions & inactions. Rightist-inspired attacks on our Constitutional rights by the current illicit regime establishes their denizenship at the expense of citizenry. Who has noticed? The international community & Obama but certtainly not McCain/McChristian or the Colorado Springs ultrarightists. Bush represents "total ineptness" & rightly spoofed nightly by Letterman on The Late Show. Bush's showing externally of his wet-brained alcoholism effects should scare all & make 1/20/09 great, if only we get that far.
The mistake of Nancy Pelosi is not moving straight to Impeachment Proceedings when accepting the mantle of the '06 elections. There ain't ever been anybody like Dubya before: we must work to see that there ain't nobody like him ever again either. One more thing: the transfer of wealth from the many to the few of the top 10% must be undone for the benefit of all, or a pall will hang close over any revival of Hope stirring amongst us.
Arden
NO, NO, NO Arden you are 100% wrong on this issue - we need leadership, character, moral fortitude, respectibility, humblness - Obama has none of this at all period and I will not - I totally refuse to be led down the primrose path to an administration that will make Bush look like the perverbial Sunday picnic!
You sir, are totally blinded by this man and for my part you can have him but don't ever say you were not warned. I'm washing my hands of the whole deal - you can't be reasoned with.
mrc
I think it's more than a bit misleading to contend that the world is greeting Obama with open arms. From Jennifer Rubin:
"And worse still for Obama, there are reports that European governments are not as enamored of the Agent of Change as are the teaming masses. In Germany “there is unease with the Illinois senator’s cult-like following and skepticism about whether he can live up to the hype.” Really? Says one European think-tank guru: “”We know what McCain stands for, we know who we are dealing with . . . Obama stands for change, he is an energetic, self-made man, and that is heart-warming, but we need to know more about his policies.” Well, we can relate to that sentiment."
www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/17071
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