Photo credit: Rolling Stone
My expectations for Barack Obama’s speech yesterday were guarded at best, given the deficits in his transparency to date. I was pleasantly surprised. To begin, here is the complete video of the speech, or, if you prefer, the complete text of the speech is here.
On the use of drones, I mostly agree with him. While innocent people have been killed in drone strikes, the odds are very high that more innocent people would be killed in a strike with conventional bombs or a ground attack by infantry. I support requiring a court to authorize drone strikes. I also support transferring control of drone operations from the CIA to the military. Frankly, the CIA spends far too much effort in field operations. The more of their resources they spend on operations, the less effective they have become at their main purpose, intelligence gathering. That puts us all at greater risk.
On Guantanamo Bay, I think these steps are all he can do without Congress. The prison there would have been closed years ago, had Congress not intervened to prevent it.
Chris Hayes discussed the speech with Keith Ellison (D-MN).
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I particularly liked Obama’s willingness to give back power. I do not remember seeing any other President do so.
I found Medea Benjamin from Code Pink both rude and offensive. Her tactics were worthy of the Republican Party. She used a technique called piling on or dump trucking. It involves evading honest communication with a barrage of so many different complaints and accusations that the other person cab not reasonably answer all at once. I am very familiar with it, because it is one of the ‘criminal thinking errors’ that I teach prisoners to recognize and avoid using. I have never seen a President stop to give a protester an opportunity to have an honest dialogue in the middle of a major speech. She blew it! She was not interested in that, and that is a shame.
All things considered, I thought it was one of Obama’s most effective speeches ever. How those ideas are transformed to action remains to be seen. Of one thing we can be sure. The Republican Party will do everything possible to sabotage his efforts.
11 Responses to “A Breath of Fresh Air”
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Am I wrong – or is this the Obama we thought would be in power before he was first elected? It does give me hope.
Better late than never. 3 1/2 more years t accomplish some good, hopefully.
This is the guy foe whom I voted… twice.
I agree that Medea could have been much more effective had she not acted like a RepublicanT.
Pres. Obama is doing the best he can with a "do-nothing but obstruct" Congress.
Patty, I agree.
Drone Strikes — I detest the use of drones, but I detest even more traditional bombing and military attacks that would, in my mind, kill even more people. We must also remember that today's combatants in Afghanistan etc move among the civilian population and are the ones putting those civilian populations at risk.
Rep Ellison — I thinnk he has more hope than I do when it comes to the Republican/Teabaggers coming to bipartisan solutions. Leopards do not change their spots. The GOP are obstructionists and I think they will continue to be so. But the midterms will hopefully change that.
I was impressed with the way Mr Obama handled the heckler by not making a joke etc but firmly telling her to sit down and let him finish.
I detest it too, Lynn, but then I think of the carpet bombibf during WWII. My brother-in-law was a decorated (DFC) B-17 pilot, and until the day he died he had frequent nightmares about the thousands of civilians killed in the bombing.
Sadly, I agree.
I agree. He gave ger respect, and she ought top have returned it.
Sorry I'm so late in responding – doctor appointments et al yesterday!
I agree with much of his speech, and yes it was the Obama that we voted for. How much can be implemented in this political atmosphere of an obstructive Congress is another story altogether.
If it were not for Candy Crowley (of all people) I wouldn't have known, but for an interview the day before on the recent obstruction of journalism from the 'AP' scandal, that journalists have been banned from Guantanamo for the next few weeks – ironically during this particular address the President gave, leaving journalists at a loss to find any response whatsoever from Guantanamo, or its guards – was that intentional? This administration, although "willing" to cede some of its power (at least stating so), has done more to suppress the journalists. The criminal detention of Manning and Assange (and others) will really be a blight on this country's freedom of the press!
Not fun!
To the best om my knowledge, the US has not detained Assange yet, and because Bradley Manning violated his military oath and broke the law, detainong him, pending adjudication, is not criminal. What is criminal is the manner in which he has been detained.
I am proud to serve under the Commander and Chief President Obama… 🙂
Good for you!