Above via The Jawa Report.
Obama then:
“We welcome the fact that history is on the move.” – Obama on Iran’s brutal mass murders of unarmed civilian protestors
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there – Obama on staying longer in Iraq to prevent sectarian violence and terrorist attacks
Obama now:
“I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.” – Obama on jumping into Libya because Gaddafi’s forces are fighting armed rebels whose ranks includes Al Qaeda fighters
Obama then:
“But wouldn’t it be fair to say — accurate to say the United States is still sitting on the fence on this? Isn’t it time to make a decision, yes or no?” – Chip Reid on Obama not aiding the Libyan rebels a month into open war
“But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors… I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars. – On Bush going to war in Iraq
“After all, it’s easy to articulate a belligerent foreign policy based solely on unilateral military action, a policy that sounds tough and acts dumb; it’s harder to craft a foreign policy that’s tough and smart.” –On Bush’s wars
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Obama now:
“I am completely mystified… that this administration, of all administrations, makes a decision on a Tuesday night and does not bother to call anybody in Congress until Friday morning, 90 minutes before the policy is going to be executed, to tell them what is going to happen.” – Karl Rove on Obama’s non-Congress approved attack on Libya
Obama then:
“I promise I will never rush the decision to send you in harms way.” – Obama on not charging unthinkingly into wars the way Bush did in Iraq
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Obama now:
The White House is shifting toward the more aggressive goal in Libya of ousting President Muammar Gadhafi and “installing a democratic system,” actions that fall outside the United Nations Security Council resolution under which an international coalition is now acting. – Obama on how it is okay to impose democracy on Middle Eastern dictatorships
Obama then:
“The message I hope to deliver is that democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion — those are not simply principles of the west to be hoisted on these countries.” – Obama on it is not okay to impose democracy on Middle Eastern dictatorships
“I know — I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other.” – Obama on how it is really, REALLY not okay to impose democracy on Middle Eastern dictatorships
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Obama now:
President Obama has subtly shifted Washington’s public explanation of its goals in Libya, declaring now that he wants to assure the Libyan people are “finally free of 40 years of tyranny” at the hands of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, after first stating he wanted to protect civilians from massacres. – The New York Times quoting Obama on regime change in Libya
Obama then:
“But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.” – Obama on regime change in Libya
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What do you expect? He’s always been a flip flopper. That’s the natural result of never being honest.
That’s with one fourth the international support as Bush had for Iraq, mind you!
Not to mention:
Republicans are attacking the Commander-in-Chief during a time of war! … There should be no debate: we should be kicking [Gaddafi’s] a$$… Whose side are you on, Sarah: are you with the terrorists, Sarah, or are you with the President of the United States?… And I have to ask the question tonight: where is the patriotism from all of these war-hawks? Where’s the patriotism of the Republican party?… What about being a patriot? – Ed Schultz
VS:
“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.” – Hillary Clinton
But that’s spinning Dems on war for ya. Think their excursion will also result in 750,000 lives saved?
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PS. Sorry, not war – it’s kinetic military action. Totally not war.
See also The First-Person Presidency:
In sum, Senator Obama opposed tribunals, renditions, Guantanamo, preventive detention, Predator-drone attacks, the Iraq War, wiretaps, and intercepts — before President Obama either continued or expanded nearly all of them, in addition to embracing targeted assassinations, new body scanning and patdowns at airports, and a third preemptive war against an oil-exporting Arab Muslim nation — this one including NATO efforts to kill the Qaddafi family. The only thing more surreal than Barack Obama’s radical transformation is the sudden approval of it by the once hysterical Left.
THE SCOTTTCAST 