• Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    For a president of a war mongering country like the US he is ok. But he is still a president of the US so murdering brown people is a sport for him.

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Obama did pretty okay, I think he saved more brown people than he harmed with his diplomacy and middle eastern border strengthening policies. He was also reported to be very very unfriendly with Netanyahu.

      I can’t speak for Clinton, but the people on either end of his administration certainly were shit.

        • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I could sit here and type a paragraph about how much worse the trump and bush admins were about middle eastern military conflicts, mentioning the USA hasn’t officially declared war since WWII, but that would detract from my previous argument that he was decent even without comparisons. The major policy change of his admin was respecting older mutually drawn borders that led to a lot of peace talks and diplomacy with his administration which frankly didn’t exist before. Obama was single-handedly responsible for multiple nuclear disarmament deals and treaties, notably Iran. When he tracked down and killed Osama Bin Laden with a strike team to minimize excess casualties, he received praise from Muslim religious leaders.

          Gaddafi took power in 1969 via violent coup and US Ambassadors were recalled in 1972. He started revolutions and funded rebels in like 8 countries, including the perpetually unstable country of Chad. Sanctions briefly relaxed after 9/11 in return for nuclear disarmament. Blaming Obama for the Libyan Protests and Rebellion, as a result of the Arab Spring, is like blaming the single extra straw for breaking the camel’s back.

          Did Obama live up to the expectations set by his 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt? No. Did he sometimes side with monarchs and dictators? Yes. Did he do a good job? I think so, I can’t imagine doing anything differently.

          EDIT: Replaced some pronouns with names for clarity.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Bush was indeed far worse than Obama. Yet Obama continued everything Bush started. Obama did not save the middle east, he ruined it even more by starting three extra wars. It’s two sides of the same coin on foreign policy.

            The only time Trump went Obama tier full idiot on foreign policy was when he drone striked the Iranian general Suleimani, he claims israel had a role in that. Luckily this didn’t lead to major escalations in the region.

            Aside from that Trump just continued drone striking Syria, a war that Obama started.

            Many middle eastern leaders aren’t the friendliest dudes. Gadaffi certainly wasn’t. But the questions that every American forgets to ask is “if we kill this guy, will the next guy be better or worse”? If you look at the state that Iraq, Libya etc are in now, it was certainly many times better before America destroyed it.

            Of course that is an irrelevant moral question. The only real reason America kills leaders in the middle east is when they stop abiding the rules of the American Oil Cartel.

            Oil companies fear nationalisation in Libya

            2011/03/20: Western oil companies operating in Libya have privately warned that their operations in the country may be nationalised if Colonel Muammer Gaddafi’s regime prevails.

            From wikipedia:

            The killing of Muammar Gaddafi took place on 20 October 2011

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Obama was pretty bad on the war front.

        • Obama killed US citizens without a trial in foreign countries.
        • Continued and escalated drone strikes.
        • Violated the war powers act with respect to Libya.
        • Egypt coup + Bengazi was a massive failure.
        • Created power vacuum for isis to rise.
        • conducted military operations in foreign countries without their knowledge or consent.
        • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Last I checked, before 2012 Egypt used to be under control of the very hostile and brutal Muslim Brotherhood and massive protests rocked the country since before Obama was even in power. To give you an idea of how bad the Muslim Brotherhood is, they literally founded Hamas across the border. Idk why everybody in this thread attributes literally everything that happened during the Arab Spring to the Obama Administration. News flash, those countries existed before Obama was president.

          • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            You are pretty much entirely incorrect. Before 2011, Egypt was under the control of Hosni Mubarak, a brutal dictator with mostly friendly ties to the U.S. The Egyptian people eventually revolted, and they were not happy with the U.S. afterwards; they pelted then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s motorcade with tomatoes and eggs when she came to visit after the uprising.

            The Muslim Brotherhood won the majority of the Egyptian parliament afterwards, and elected Mohammed Morsi as President, but their rule lasted barely a year before the were also met with massive protests. The military forced Morsi out and basically established a military dictatorship in 2013. There were always rumblings that the U.S. was working behind the scenes with the Egyptian military to destabilize Muslim Brotherhoods civilian government, but there’s no evidence of that. The Egyptian Military government then blamed the Brotherhood for a terrorist attack, a claim the Brotherhood denied, and banned the Brotherhood.

            The Muslim Brotherhood were repressive and definitely supported terrorism, but they did not rule Egypt before 2011. There were a small blip between U.S. backed dictators.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        9 months ago

        Obama bombed millions using drones.

        He is also OK for being a president of the US.