7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them
Obama’s national security policy has continued some of the most controversial moves of the Bush administration. Silence from much of the left.
Democrats were overjoyed when George W. Bush left office in January of 2009.
Obama had promised to end Bush’s hawkish foreign policy and the “war on terror’s” detention and interrogation regime.
But in the beginning of his fifth year as president, Obama’s record has been surprisingly similar to his predecessor’s in those areas.
1. Democrats fought George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq in 2006.
You would think Democrats would react the same way they did to Bush’s surge policy:
2. American deaths in Afghanistan have skyrocketed since Obama took office.
Actually, the death tolls in Afghanistan under each administration look like this:
3. President Obama’s drones and special operators are working down “kill lists” of suspected terrorists.
Obama even put Anwar al-Awlaki — an American citizen — on such a list.
Al-Awlaki was killed under secret authorization from the justice department in 2011.
In 2011, a teenage American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was taken out in a drone strike without a trial.
If Bush did this, Democrats would literally hyperventilate.
5. In Pakistan alone, the administration has launched more than 300 drone strikes.
Pakistani civilian casualties due to these strikes are as high as 800 according to international estimates.
6. Obama promised to end the Bush-era torture interrogation practices.
But last year the U.N. released three damning reports detailing torture in Afghan facilities under Obama’s security watch.
7. Obama was unable to deliver on his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which Bush had also said he would close.
“We may not be so different, you and I.”
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- matthewh10 thinks 7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked... is Fail & Win
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Hedgetopia 3 months agoThis is the best thing you’ve ever done and I love you and want to have your internet babies.
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jdunch 3 months ago
Some of the points listed above are legit but others really pissed me off. 1 - Surge in Iraq vs. surge in Afghanistan. NOT the same thing. Yes, both surges, but in Iraq we were fighting an illegitimate war based on evidence manufactured by the Bush administration. In Afghanistan we are trying to finish dealing with terrorist threats that Should have been our focus back in 2001. So making that comparison is just plain dumb. 2. Same problem. Obama promised to focus our efforts on Afghanistan, where we should have been focused all along. So yes, fewer people may have died in Afghanistan during Bush’s terms, but that’s because everyone was busy dying in Iraq, where they shouldn’t have been in the first place. 3. Drones are a problem. This is true. (The “yay drones!” enthusiasm from both Obama and Romney in the presidential debates was just creepy). But the whole issue of terrorism puts Obama (or any president) between a rock and a hard place. If he doesn’t use drones, I guess he sends in troops, risking more American lives? Or ends any military action completely? He’s going to face criticism in any scenario. 5 is stupid. Why are we in Pakistan? Because Al Qaeda is there. It’s Because we are in Pakistan that Bin Laden was killed. Civilian casualties are awful and inexcusable. But if we want to start talking numbers for comparison, well over 100,000 civilians were killed in Iraq (and I remember hearing that statistic toward the middle of Bush’s terms)… Finally, 6 and 7 are basically the same thing. Yes, he should be ending torture and closing Guantanamo. I’m pissed at Obama about this. But we do a lot of blaming Obama for messes that he inherited (economy, wars, torture, etc.). Making change as President of the US isn’t as easy as many assume it is. Our founders instituted checks and balances for a reason. Obama can’t just wave his hand and end all bad things initiated in the Bush era. Also, this author suggests that the Dems don’t care about this stuff, but they DO care— particularly about drones and torture. Many Dems in the House and Senate have been very vocal about ending these policies. Anyway, I’m not saying that I haven’t been frustrated with many of Obama’s policies (or failure to push for change on Bush’s policies). Obama is very centrist and, frankly, basically conservative. That said, there is still a HUGE difference between Dems and Repubs on many issues that matter (i.e. human/equal rights, approach to foreign conflicts). Dems may not be as liberal as we would like, but they are not as wacky-right wing as the major players in the contemporary Republican Party. What an annoying and misleading post.
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AlftheSacredBurro 3 months agoAlso doesn’t help that Republicans still control the Congress. That makes undoing and mending anything they did in the Bush Jr. era a bit more difficult.
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Bob Builder, The 3 months agoWhat he said ^^^^ …also. On number 7. “Obama was unable to deliver on his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center…”
Yeah, why was he unable again? That’s right, because congress literally passed laws making it illegal for detainees to be moved to prisons in the U.S. and closing the thing. Congress blocked him, you can’t very well blame him for trying and getting blocked.
…I mean you can if you’re making a stupid post about how nothing changes but you shouldn’t. -
peterg32 3 months ago“Also doesn’t help that Republicans still control the Congress.” Um, yeah. Except for 2008-2010 that is an accurate statement. Dems controlled all three branches during that time. That must have been during the time that everyone was focused on Jesus of Chicago turning water into wine and restoring sight to the blind. But let’s talk about other shit rather than extrajudicial assassinations.
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Rico Suave 3 months ago
Hey cool, this argument again. They actually had a filibuster-proof majority for around 4 months. During this time they overhauled the health care system.
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dennish7 3 months agoeither democrat or republican it’s all just crap to keep the public seporated and fighting among our selves instead of voting as an american should and get people in congress and in the oval office that will work for the people instead of what big business thinks is best for us. everyone can argue and point fingers but we are the ones that voted them in and as for the comments about the afghan war and all most presidents put things in place the next will get blamed for just like the added troops there. if you check more than one media source you would see how rediculous the whole conservative/ liberal bickering really is.
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deaddrift 3 months agoObama gets lots of grief for this stuff in left-leaning publications like Harper’s and Mother Jones. I don’t remeber that kind of ‘his side’ criticism coming from Fox or The National Review during Dubya’s tenure, at least not until 2006 happened and it became clear that the GOP’s star was fading, though. Nonetheless there is a strong element of truth here, and I think I know why. The Republicans, by marching in 100% lockstep solidarity all the time, and by absolutely opposing ANY Democratic initiative WHATSOEVER, have made politics in America a zero-sum game. In short, pick a side and then you’re done. Any weakening of your support empowers the other side, so in for a penny, in for a pound. If we had a party of the Left—which we do not—we would have safe ground from which to criticize the Dems. As it is, all we can do is prevent the Republicans from inflicting any more damage, at the national level, and hopefully, someday, present the Democratic incumbents with a primary threat that will actually force them out of their current center-right platform and into some semblance of actual progressivism.
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Steven Seagal 3 months ago
Wow your argument sounds exactly like the arguments that formed the Tea Party. Democrats truly are as simple as Republicans when it comes down to it.
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AlftheSacredBurro 3 months ago
Oh, young lions: this is your kingdom. Every beast has its poison. Every lion has its victim. Choose your crime; throw the ashes out the window. Empty mickey by the river, shattered like a broken arrow.
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jennifers70 3 months agoUnless it’s Bush and then he was personally to blame for everything.
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brendanmoore 3 months agoThat’s how you perceive it but I’m liberal and I don’t blame Bush for shit. I think Karl Rove and Dick Cheney were worse influences on this country than Bush was. He was a nice guy, father and husband but just not a great president, it was his inner circle and the top people in his party that fucked things up.
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NoLabelsOrg 3 months ago@Jesse, couldn’t agree more that partisan gridlock has prevented congress from getting much done, and that many politicians from both parties are more concerned with winning the next election than legislating to help the american people. There are over 40 members of both parties in congress who have agreed to put partisan politics aside and sit down once a month to put problem-solving first. Hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens from across the country have joined the movement, and you should too at nolabels.org/SOTU #fixnotfight
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isunstuck 3 months agoSo I tend to get my news about international and domestic affairs through publications like The Washington Post, The Guardian UK, and Slate. From them, I expect the level of nuanced detail that is required when discussing esoteric policy that cannot be digested without some sort of educational primer. I come to Buzzfeed to make me laugh. While I appreciate this website stretching out its influence by touching upon the political discourse, I’ve read two articles today that lambast an issue (specifically involving Obama) with little to no research or facts and motivated by mere conjecture—fyi, one of those articles was already discredited by writer and economist Matthew Yglesias. If you want to be part of the conversation, speak with a level of confidence that can only be achieved through research and critical thinking. For example, why not publish an article about the broad definition of ‘imminent’ in the leaked memo trying to legally legitimize the drone program? Why not try to differentiate between what defenders call a clean, clinical, and antiseptic method to warfare and what detractors are claiming to be an attack on civil liberties? These are all topics worth mentioning and requires a level of conversation that an Emma Stone GIF cannot accomplish. I want this website to succeed, but providing outlets for confirmation bias and motivated reasoning will only increase your targeted demographic’s propensity to lean toward the apathetic. Just read the comments on this article. Is this the type of discourse you want to encourage?
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Steven Seagal 3 months ago
Conjecture is what you have to rely on when an administration hides everything they do behind “state secrets” and clamps down on the whistleblowers that trickle out any information that can be used to confirm your conjecture. Compare and contrast the Obama administration’s treatment of John Kiriakou, who is going to prison for 30 months for being a whistleblower, while the guy who dreamed up our insane drone policy and supported torture (then lied about his support) was nominated for the CIA director position. You can whine about Buzzfeed’s reputation all you want, but as Shakespeare said “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” - facts are facts, regardless of their source.
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isunstuck 3 months ago
I don’t think you and I are so different in our opinions. I’m not commenting upon the lack of transparency the Obama administration has championed—but instead criticizing the medium in which the message is disseminated. I would, in fact, think it would be lovely if Buzzfeed ran an article on Kiriakou, but there have already been numerous publications comparing and contrasting the diverging paths between Kikiakou and Brennan. One’s going to jail and one is going to run the CIA. This narrative has been surfaced frequently enough amongst serious news publications to the point where it has been ossified amongst like-minded critics. I bring this up with the hopes of pointing to what I tried to illuminate as relevant in the previous post, which is, if Buzzfeed wants to make it mark as a pithy and edifying voice for its youthful demographic, then it requires a direction and strategy more rigid than the fatuous path it’s currently on. I’m not trying to be overly harsh, but this post screamed false equivalency, and while the message was clear and concise, the necessary variables leading to the conclusion sets a dangerous precedent in how we digest, shape, and understand our moral compass. For the record, I am frightened that expansion of Presidential power has slowly evolved into becoming the status quo. I am not one to believe that unchecked drone strikes, warrantless wire taps and spying, permanent detentions, and assassinations without the checks and balances of the law is something a government should strive for. These are fears and they often ameliorated by the lack of information coming from the administration. But I would love if it we can talk about what we do have—Kiriakou is one example, the definition of “imminent” is another.
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Rico Suave 3 months ago
It’s almost like the two party system means you have to vote for a person who most fits your views instead of someone who fits all of them. I’d vote for the guy who says gays can marry but we’re going to blow shit up over the guy who says gays can’t marry and we’re going to blow shit up. And don’t Ron Paul this because I want way more government than less.
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ethanm6 3 months agoFor a truly independent thinker, it is always fun seeing lefties and righties bashing each other and their parties. Both of you are correct! Fuck the Republicans, fuck the Democrats, fuck Dubya, and motherfuck Barry Hussein Obama-lama-ding-dong. Both parties have fucked America into this shithole and then have the absolute stupidity to blame each other. “OMG we inherited such a mess”…. stfu bitch! You didn’t inherit a damn thing! Everyone understood the mess and that’s what the current knucklehead ran on. Republican sheep hate Obama for what they loved Bush for…. Obama loving sheep are in full support of him for doing the same jackass shit they want Bush imprisoned for… what a fuckin’ joke.
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Rico Suave 3 months ago
What if you like Obama for things like the Affordable Care Act, ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and promoting Immigration Reform while disliking him for things like drones and Guantanamo? I’ll protest his use of drones but I’m still going to vote for him over the guy who would still use drones but also deny people their right to marriage and also somehow give more money to the top 1%. Until there’s no longer a two party system, you have to vote for who most represents your views. Unfortunately, that’s a pipe dream in modern America so you have to work with what you have. I can still dream of my Socialist Utopia though.
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