This was not said as a joke, and they very much believe it.
Obama 'strengthened America' in first year: White House
Jan 12, 2010
Agence France Presse
The White House Tuesday argued President Barack Obama's "steady diplomacy" had made America stronger and renewed its moral authority despite "unprecedented challenges" in his first year in office.
But the assessment, posted on the White House website, did not dwell on the lack of success garnered by one of Obama's top priority foreign policy drives, peace moves in the Middle East, and reflected a tougher tone on Iran.
"A year later, America is stronger because of the president's leadership," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, in a White House blog post.
"The global economy has been pulled back from the brink of catastrophe. We are responsibly winding down the war in Iraq, and increasing our focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan."
The winding down part in Iraq - is following the timetable established under Bush. Refocusing on Afghanistan - ONLY in the last three weeks did he push the increase, otherwise, it follows the same policy as under Bush. As for Pakistan - true, it is Obama who said he would send troops into Pakistan - Bush never said he would invade an ally.
Rhodes argued Obama that had quickly got to work refocusing the fight against Al-Qarea, restoring US alliances, committing the United States to confronting climate change and nuclear proliferation.
Refocused the fight against Al Qaida? Please. Obama has undermined it by changing the tools available to our intelligence services to track funds and individuals. Bush was and never took his eye off the fact we were at war with terror whether by al qaida or any group supported by a state or not state promoted. US alliances - Obama has shredded most of our alliances, NOT restored any. He has, I admit, done a great deal on global warming - albeit nothing on paper, just in words. Nuclear proliferation? Russia has developed next generation nuclear weapons, Iran has weapons, Venezuela wants nuclear weapons, Brazil wants nuclear weapons - Obama? He has done nothing to stop or slow nuclear proliferation. Nothing.
He said Obama's 30,000 strong troop surge in Afghanistan proved the strategy and resources were now in place "that this urgent challenge demands" and noted Obama was on track to get combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August.
"By prohibiting torture and working to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, we are denying Al-Qaeda a recruiting tool," said Rhodes, who has played an instrumental role in many of Obama's biggest foreign policy speeches.
Al Qaida has deemed Obama worse than Bush, al qaida is trying to attack us and nearly successfully despite the fact the system worked - even though Obama has prohibited torture. I see that is working well.
He said domestic terror plots had been disrupted and terrorists had been caught, but added in a reference to the thwarted bid to blow up a US airliner "as we learned over Christmas, more work has to be done."
When he came to office in January 2009, Obama offered a hand of dialogue to Iran but has been rebuffed and now the administration is working with international partners on a toughened sanctions regime over a nuclear showdown.
"After a year of American engagement, the international community is more united than ever before in calling on Iran to live up to its obligations, while Iran is more isolated," he said.
United against Iran? Germany has bristled, Merkle has said she does not trust Obama, Russia ignores the US pleas, China isn't even bothering ignoring them - China is engaging Iran as if it were a full member of the international community. Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil are all engaging Iran. So who, Mr. Rhodes, is united against Iran?? Please do tell. Otherwise, wasted words are just that - words, wasted.
It remains unclear however if permanent five UN Security Council members Russia and China will sign up to tough sanctions being developed for Tehran.
Rhodes drew an analogy between the Iranian and North Korean nuclear crises.
"President Obama continues to present a clear choice: if nations abide by their obligations, the door is open to a better relationship with the international community; if they don't, they will be isolated."
Iran has been embraced by Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Germany, France ... so who is aligned against them? Do you see Iran behaving any better today than two years ago? Nooooo.
The Obama administration is currently trying to revive its efforts to open peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but so far has seen little success, a factor on which Rhodes did not chose to comment.
But he said that Obama's decision to "reset" ties with Russia had enabled the two former Cold War foes to work towards a new nuclear arms reduction treaty.
He also said that Obama's "steady diplomacy" with nations like China and India had helped to convince nations to embrace their responsibilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the Copenhagen summit last month.
The treaty however did not forge an agreement for binding deal with legal force.
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