President Obama Gives Pakistan And Yemen Permission To Attack United States?
by <
http://www.mediaite.com/author/andrew-kirell/> Andrew Kirell | 3:05 pm,
November 20th, 2012
Sunday morning in Thailand, President Barack Obama exchanged the usual
pleasantries and gave the usual declarations to the press one would expect
when a president begins a three-day tour of Southeast Asia. When asked about
the ongoing (and growing) Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the president gave a
full-throated defense of Israel's decision to launch military strikes on
Gaza in return for Palestinian rocket attacks.
But Reason's Mike Riggs
<
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/19/no-country-on-earth-would-tolerate-missi>
noticed something particularly hilarious/sad about the president's remarks:
Obama accidentally satirized himself and American foreign policy with a few
unwittingly ironic lines (emphasis mine):
Let's understand what the precipitating event here that's causing the
current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were
landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and
there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its
citizens from outside its borders.
.So we are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself from missiles
landing on people's homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians.
.Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into
its territory.
Got that? No country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down from
outside lands. As Riggs
<
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/19/no-country-on-earth-would-tolerate-missi>
wrote in his headline: ".says the man who regularly bombs Pakistan and
Yemen."
Of course, many people will cry "false equivalency!" or justify the double
standard by noting that our bombings of Pakistan and Yemen are for targeted
killing of militants effectively at war with the United States. If that's
how you see it, then fair enough. But one could easily say that Yemen would
not tolerate missiles raining down on its civilians.
<
http://www.mediaite.com/online/team-obamas-pathetic-justification-for-killi
ng-16-year-old-american-boy/> like one particular 16-year-old boy. from
outside lands.
But Obama's comment is mock-worthy solely for the fact that the crux of his
contribution to the "War on Terror" has been to. rain down missiles on
<
http://www.mediaite.com/online/team-obamas-pathetic-justification-for-killi
ng-16-year-old-american-boy/> civilians in Pakistan and Yemen from outside
lands. This has also largely been the crux of American neoconservative
foreign policy: outside bombings for me, but not for thee.
And if the leaders of those two countries actually stood up and threatened
us with war because of our killing of their civilians, could they point to
these remarks when we tell them to back off?
Watch the president's remarks below, via NBC News:
Video-
http://www.mediaite.com/online/president-obama-gives-pakistan-and-yemen-perm
ission-to-attack-united-states/
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Received on Tue Nov 20 2012 - 09:49:10 EST
