Showing posts with label NATO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NATO. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Cuz he'll sound like, gasp, BUUUUSSSH!!!

September 20, 2014 George W. Bush , Iraq 0 Comments
WaPo: Why Doesn't Obama Say 'Coalition Of The Willing'?

President Barack Obama
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
By Justin Moyer, Sept. 15, 2014, Washingtonpost.com

When President Obama discussed his strategy to fight the Islamic State in a televised address last week, he spoke of forming a “broad coalition” to save Iraq and Syria. Before the speech, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel talked about forming a “core coalition” to fight the insurgent army.

Wait — doesn’t this sound like the “coalition of the willing” President Bush assembled in 2003 to invade Iraq?

Since “coalition of the willing” is inextricably linked with Bush’s unpopular war, Obama may not wish to use Bush’s term as he contemplates further action in a country he tried to withdraw from. But unfortunately for the administration, the cat is already out of the bag. Even without a “coalition of the willing,” Obama is running into headline trouble.

The New Yorker: “Obama’s Coalition of the Willing and Unable.” Foreign Policy: “How Willing is Obama’s Coalition?” The Wall Street Journal: “Obama’s Lackluster ‘Coalition of the Willing.’”

In fact, the term isn’t a Bush-ism — among foreign policy wonks, “coalitions of the willing” have been around for at least 20 years. As one NATO research fellow explained in 1999: “Western military interventions, based on coalitions of the willing regardless of whether NATO is institutionally involved or not, have in reality become the Alliance’s core military mission.” President Clinton used the term as early as 1994 to describe multilateral action against North Korea. “The real question is could we have what has been called a ‘coalition of the willing’ that included as many nations as would observe the sanctions as possible,” he told ABC’s Sam Donaldson.

Read the full story:  www.washingtonpost.com

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Friday, September 12, 2014

Well, well...

September 12, 2014 Andrea Mitchell , Cheri Jacobs 0 Comments
After Mocking Bush in 2003, Andrea Mitchell Changes Her 'Coalition of The Willing' Tune for Obama

Andres Mitchell, MSNBC Host
By Cheri Jacobs, Sept. 11, 2014, Newsbusters.org

Remember back in 2003 MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell slammed then-President George W. Bush for his use of the phrase "coalition of the willing" to describe support and/or assistance from 48 nations for war with Iraq? At that time, 72% of Americans supported the Iraq airstrikes and invasion.

But on March 27, 2003 Mitchell sneered that “the U.S. has been bragging about the size of its war coalition. But when you read the fine print, the allies include the north Pacific Island group of Palau, known more for its scuba diving than its navy.”

Mitchell claimed the coalition was not real, and that our allies' contributions were negligible alongside the power of the United States whose President, in her opinion, was essentially adopting a go-it-alone strategy. She said of the coalition: “But how much of that is for show? When it comes to the actual fighting it is a US and British war,” while “Denmark is sending a submarine.”

She turned to Ivo Daalder of Brookings, who underlined the point: “To try to continue to maintain that there is this large, broad international coalition when the facts just will prove otherwise, is spin rather than reality.”

But Mitchell seems to have changed her tune now that the Commander-in-Chief wanting a coalition of the willing and planning expanded airstrikes against ISIS is a Democrat. On her MSNBC show Tuesday, Mitchell praised Nicholas Burns for being an expert on building coalitions of the willing -- without explaining he helped build the Iraq War coalition as Bush’s ambassador to NATO, the coalition she used to ridicule.

Read the full story:  www.newsbusters.org

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Saturday, September 6, 2014

W. had over 30, just sayin'

September 06, 2014 George W. Bush , Iraq 0 Comments
Obama Enlists 9 Allies To Help In The Battle Against ISIS

President Barack Obama / AP
Source:  www.businessinsider.com
By Helen Cooper, Sept. 5, 2014, Nytimes.com

NEWPORT, Wales — President Obama escalated the American response to the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago.

In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its friends could defeat ISIS, a once-obscure group of Sunni militants that has now upended the Middle East and overshadowed Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama said the effort would rely on American airstrikes against its leaders and positions, strengthen the moderate Syrian rebel groups to reclaim ground lost to ISIS, and enlist friendly governments in the region to join the fight.

While the president’s aides maintained that he has not yet decided to authorize airstrikes in Syria — which he has already done on a limited basis in Iraq— Mr. Obama likened his developing strategy on ISIS to the American effort against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal regions, which has relied heavily on airstrikes.

Mr. Obama has been under enormous pressure to articulate a way to counter ISIS, which has proclaimed itself an Islamic caliphate that knows no borders and has demonstrated ruthless behavior, including the videotaped beheadings of two Americans. After creating a political tempest by saying last week that his administration lacked a strategy, Mr. Obama sought on Friday to portray himself as spearheading the effort.

But in so doing, the president risks further entangling the American military in exactly the type of costly foreign conflict he has long sought to escape. And his administration has been unable to explain how he can vanquish ISIS without indirectly aiding President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, regarded by the administration as an odious leader who must resign.

Nonetheless, Mr. Obama’s comments, made at the conclusion of a NATO summit meeting here, were in effect a significant expansion of his earlier assessments of the ISIS threat — simply by offering a direct comparison to the strategy against Qaeda militants.

“You initially push them back, you systematically degrade their capabilities, you narrow their scope of action, you slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control, you take out their leadership,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference here. “And over time, they are not able to conduct the same kinds of terrorist attacks as they once could.”

Read the full story:  www.mobile.nytimes.com

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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

"Organize the Arab world"? "We"?

September 03, 2014 Breitbart.com , Charlie Spierling 0 Comments
President Obama: We Must Organize The Arab World

Credit:  AP
Source:  The Telegraph
By Charlie Spierling, Sept. 3, 2014, Breitbart.com

During a press conference in Estonia on Wednesday morning, President Obama was asked about the purpose of the NATO alliance, ahead of a conference with allies in Wales.

Obama described NATO as “unique in the annals of history” because of its success but admitted that the group had to move quickly to address evolving global threats.

“We have to recognize that threats evolve, and threats have evolved as a consequence of what we’ve seen in Ukraine, but threats are also evolving in the Middle East that have a direct effect on Europe,” he said.

He added that the “international community” needed to have an “international will” to confront the threat of Islamic State terrorists.

“We know that if we are joined by the international community, we will continue to shrink ISIL to where it is a manageable problem,” he said, admitting that terrorism was a continuation of a problem since before 9/11.

Obama warned that terrorism would continue to “metastasize” in a violent way and pointed out the importance of uniting the Arab World against it.

“What we’ve got to do is make sure that we are organizing the Arab world, the Middle East, the Muslim world along with the international community to isolate this cancer,” he said.

Obama added that the “particular brand” of extremism was “first and foremost destructive to the Muslim world,” by killing innocent citizens and damaging their economies.

“They are falling behind because of this very small and narrow, but very dangerous segment of the population and we’ve got to combat it in a sustained effective way, and I’m confident that we’re going to do that,” he said.

Read the full story:  www.breitbart.com

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Friday, April 25, 2014

US Troops Arrive In Poland For Exercises Across Eastern Europe Amid Ukraine Crisis

April 25, 2014 America's Eastern European , Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel 0 Comments
First company-sized contingent of about 150 U.S. paratroopers 
from the U.S. Army's 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team
based in Italy march as they arrive to participate in training exercises 
with the Polish army in Swidwin, northern west Poland 
April 23, 2014 (Reuters / Kacper Pempel)
Foxnews.com, Apr. 23, 2014

WASHINGTON – U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland on Wednesday as part of a wave of U.S. troops heading to shore up America's Eastern European allies in the face of Russian meddling in Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said an initial contingent of about 600 troops will head to four countries across Eastern Europe for military exercises over the next month.

First, about 150 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy, are arriving in Poland.

Additional Army companies will head to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and are expected to arrive by Monday for similar land-based exercises in those countries.

The show of strength comes as the United States, European allies and Ukraine try to ease tensions with Russia and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. All sides struck a diplomatic agreement last week, but it remains unclear whether pro-Russian demonstrators, who took over a series of government buildings in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea, will back down.

Under the current plan, U.S. troops would rotate in and out of the four Eastern European countries for additional exercises on a recurring basis.

"We're looking at trying to keep this rotational presence persistent throughout the rest of this year," Kirby told reporters, adding that over time the exercises could expand to other countries.

The exercises are part of an effort announced last week by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel aimed at reassuring NATO allies of America's commitment to the region's defense.

Kirby said the U.S. will likely plan other exercises and will continue to work through NATO on joint measures that could be scheduled in the future.

Read the full story:  www.foxnews.com

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

WaPo: U.S. Ground Troops Going To Poland, Defense Minister Says --sobering events, indeed

April 19, 2014 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel , Fred Hiatt 5 Comments

By Fred Hiatt, Apr. 18, 2014, The Washington Post

Poland and the United States will announce next week the deployment of U.S. ground forces to Poland as part of an expansion of NATO presence in Central and Eastern Europe in response to events in Ukraine. That was the word from Poland’s defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, who visited The Post Friday after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Siemoniak said the decision has been made on a political level and that military planners are working out details. There will also be intensified cooperation in air defense, special forces, cyberdefense and other areas. Poland will play a leading regional role, “under U.S. patronage,” he said.

But the defense minister also said that any immediate NATO response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, while important, matter less than a long-term shift in the defense postures of Europe and America. The United States, having announced a “pivot” to Asia, needs to “re-pivot” to Europe, he said, and European countries that have cut back on defense spending need to reverse the trends.

“The idea until recently was that there were no more threats in Europe and no need for a U.S. presence in Europe any more,” Siemoniak said, speaking through an interpreter. “Events show that what is needed is a re-pivot, and that Europe was safe and secure because America was in Europe.”

Read the full story: www.washingtonpost.com

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