BClinton warns Obama he risks looking like a "wuss" if he doesn't act on Syria.
link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/bill-clinton-obama-syria_n_3434393.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
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"You’d look like a total wuss,” he continued. “And you would be. I don’t mean that a leader should go out of his way or her way to do the unpopular thing, I simply mean when people are telling you ‘no’ in these situations, very often what they’re doing is flashing a giant yellow light and saying, ‘For God’s sakes, be careful, tell us what you’re doing, think this through, be careful.”
Clinton went on to say that a poll showing a lack of support wouldn't provide cover for Obama if things got worse down the road. The president would just be left looking "like a total fool," he said.
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In their joint appearance Tuesday, Clinton said he agreed with McCain's insistence that the U.S. get involved in the fight, saying he didn't "think Syria is necessarily Iraq or Afghanistan." While Clinton said he understood that many were likely hesitant, due to frequent reports showing a complex Obama couldn't view the conflict this way.
= new reply since forum marked as read
C'mon there are a lot of things you can take offense with this and you go for sexism. While I don't agree with Bill, any form of word(s) that imply weakness is not sexist. Some are, wuss, no.
to alert!
alert. crazy!
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PB
Exactly why I voted for this president.
It is noteworthy that BClinton has come down on the opposite side of Obama on other issues such as the Keystone Pipeline.
another
“Some people say, ‘Okay, see what a big mess it is? Stay out!’ I think that’s a big mistake. I agree with you about this,” Clinton told McCain during an event for the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Manhattan Tuesday night. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t overcommit — like, as long as you don’t make an improvident commitment.”
The remark from Clinton came as McCain, who recently took a trip to Syria and met with moderate rebel commanders, has ratcheted up his criticism that Obama has been feckless in the face of growing strength by President Bashar Assad in the civil war. McCain gave an address after the trip about the growing problems in the Middle East, saying the U.S. needs to seize the moment.
“Nobody is asking for American soldiers in Syria,” Clinton said. “The only question is now that the Russians, the Iranians and the Hezbollah are in there head over heels, 90 miles to nothing, should we try to do something to try to slow their gains and rebalance the power so that these rebel groups have a decent chance, if they’re supported by a majority of the people, to prevail?”
I get his point; Iran, Russia and Hezbollah are already there stirring the pot in Assad's favor. Should the West just watch from a distance and let them suppress a popular uprising?
That is one gorgeous banky!!! I love Minnie!!!
Thank you, my friend!!!
He was talking about leadership in general.
"If Clinton had ever blamed a lack of action because “there was a poll in the morning paper that said 80 percent of you were against it … you’d look like a total wuss,” he said. “And you would be. I don’t mean that a leader should go out of his way or her way to do the unpopular thing, I simply mean when people are telling you ‘no’ in these situations, very often what they’re doing is flashing a giant yellow light and saying, ‘For God’s sakes, be careful, tell us what you’re doing, think this through, be careful.”
Clinton continued, “But still they hire their president to look around the corner and down the street, and you just think - if you refuse to act and you cause a calamity, the one thing you cannot say when all the eggs have been broken, is that, ‘Oh my God, two years ago there was a poll that said 80 percent of you were against it.’ Right? You’d look like a total fool. So you really have to in the end trust the American people, tell them what you’re doing, and hope to God you can sell it” and that it turns out okay in the end.
Thanks for posting that.
Read the posts? The foaming at the mouth is incessant. Any excuse is always good enough to trash the Clintons.
it never changes.
We have attacked Iran, and they have attacked our allies.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/
Can you imagine any other reason for President Clinton to use this heavy-handed means of pressuring a sitting, Democratic President? That is not ordinary, nor is it good Presidential etiquette. Of course, etiquette gets tossed out the window when we're talking about national security.
This is a very delicate time for our nation.
-Laelth
But President Obama is getting significant pressure on this, I suspect. If Clinton is willing to comment on the subject in public, with Gramps (the best national figure the R's have), you know it's got to be immense pressure coming at the President from all sides.
So far, it appears that the President is saying, "no," but I do wonder how long he can keep the dogs of war at bay.
Here's to the President. 
My admiration for him grows as I watch this mess unfold.
-Laelth
At one time he was a respected journalist, but a few years ago he became a RW hack. He is the one who in his previous book claimed that Chelsea was the product of rape, that Bill had raped Hillary during a vacation in the Caribbean. What he wrote was so sick that even most RW media refused to interview him and panned the book. The guy is despicable.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/06/23/the-truth-about-the-truth-about-hillary-edward/133385
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/05/12/483210/edward-klein-obama-book/
Most people's jaws dropped on that nugget. It was the part of the book (which was published in 2005) that was repeated over and over. He received so much criticism from all quarters that he ended up taking back what he wrote. His claims are all B.S. He later on wrote an equally trashy book about Obama. In his latest book (The Amateur), he retells a supposed private conversation between the Clintons. According to him, Bill called Obama an amateur and angrily urged Hillary to run against Obama in 2012, but she refused. Pure made up nonsense. Ditto for the so called deal between Bill and Obama by which Obama agreed to help Hillary win the nomination in 2016. Even if there had been such a deal, how would Klein have known about it?
is still ongoing, and we still haven't intervened. 5 million dead since 1998.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War#Death_toll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M23_%28militia%29
No one really cares about the Syrians, or the Congolese, or anyone. This is about power, and it is about money.
Last thing we need is another pointless trillion dollar stalemate. 
BEIRUT — Nearly 93,000 people have been confirmed killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad began more than two years ago, the U.N. said Thursday, a sharp rise in the death toll as the fighting turns increasingly sectarian and the carnage gripping the country appears unstoppable.
The grim benchmark came as Assad's regime has scored a series of battlefield successes against the rebels seeking his ouster and international efforts to forge a round of peace talks have stalled. After regaining control of the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon, regime forces appear set on securing control of the central provinces of Homs and Hama, a linchpin area linking Damascus with regime strongholds on the Mediterranean coast, and Aleppo to the north.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/syria-death-toll-2013_n_3433153.html
Food for thought. Things are never as simple as some people would like them to be. When it comes to conflicts like the one in Syria, what is the right thing to do?
Post after post of nothing but vile. I don't care about your opinion of the Clintons. They could come up with a cure for cancer and you would still trash them. So why bother?
afford to be perceived as a 'wuss' for the Repugs would unmercifully label and bombard him as weak and soft among all other dastardly names and terms they could dream up. 
So much nastiness and drama, might as well have been at the Freepers. Same crap, different site.
As far as I'm concerned, Bill Clinton has earned the right to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He is entitled to his opinion and no, he's not backstabbing Obama (as some put it). He wasn't addressing the comments about leadership to Obama.
Sometimes this place is nuts.
folks have pointed out that he almost sounds like Senile Dementia with some of his ravings to the Media.
Wasn't here a DU Front Page Article about how he went to Afghanistan for a Photo Op and Meeting and the picture that was taken of him for Publicity...was with Terrorists?
He hasn't been clear since before he ran..and his Campaign was a Disaster in Judgement.
Why is Bill Clinton all CHUMMY WITH HIM...unless he's wanting to Get Obama into Syrian War>
Does BILL WANT TO RUN AGAIN? Or for PROXY...HILLARY?
Would this FLY with DEMOCRATS? Bill THIRD TERM? (Constitutional Amendment)...or Hillary?
Just a saying from when I used to be a "church person." Episcopalian thingy there. Sorry...but, it came to mind. Used to be "Dear Lord, Deliver Us from this Evil.." I know...harsh.
....and they will damn well get it by whatever means they deem necessary, KoKo.
If it means trotting out a former president to contradict a sitting one, that's no problem for them.
Hell, they killed a president to have their way in Vietnam.
U.S. officials have concluded that the Syrian regime of president Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against rebel fighters, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
Congressional sources told CNN that investigators concluded that Syria has used chemical weapons multiple times.
In a statement released on Thursday, the White House says U.S. intelligence concluded that the Assad regime used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent Sarin, against rebel fighters in the last year.
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National Security Council deputy advisor Ben Rhodes said on Thursday that the President Obama reached a decision on what the new support for the Syrian opposition would look like. According to Buzzfeed, Rhodes said: “The president has made a decision ”about what kind of additional support will be provided to the rebels. It will be “direct support to the SMC [Supreme Military Command] that includes military support.” Rhodes added that no decision has been made on the institution of a no-fly zone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/syria-chemical-weapons-assad_n_3437640.html
many people on this thread seem to think obama did the right thing to stay out, and that the clintons are wrong, earned them quite a few curses and associations with the Bushes. Will there be some very quick justifications for obama or will people stand by their guns and say not okay.
Very surprised quite a few are cool with nsa practices that we didn't like under bush, but that was all of 6 years ago. This is like, 6 hours ago. lol. This could be really sad.
Some come out of the woodwork to trash them. That's why they call it CDS, it's not based on reason.
BTW, I hadn't noticed your post count. Welcome to DU!!! It's a very dysfunctional virtual family, but family nonetheless.
Except that conservatives think that the Clintons are to the Left of Marx. Around here they think that they are to the Right of Reagan.
