General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is anyone else angry that the media is ignoring the real progress made against ISIS [View all]karynnj
(59,475 posts)Instead the anger was focused on those doing it.
As to this site having a majority opinion that Obama is "too brilliant for words", stay around and read more. It is definitely not that monolithic. In addition, it is clear that even as the Republicans are uniformly against Obama, the official Democrats have, in the second term, felt freer to speak and legislate against the Obama policies. Here, it is not blind following of Obama that means that more of us side with Obama against - say Menendez leading an effort to increase sanctions on Iran while we are negotiating with them - it is dominantly anti war DU position has always had.
What Obama is doing in Iran and Ukraine is pretty close to what many Democrats wanted in the 8 Bush years. It is a policy that really does form real coalitions and uses diplomacy or economic means to try to avoid war. With ISIS, the goal is to get a comprehensive, coordinated response from the region, backed by international powers. The reason the countries in the region have to be the main part of a solution is that this is first and foremost their problem - even if western powers share major blame for how we got to this point because of the Bush wars or colonial mistakes (and offenses).
When Obama has considered military options, especially a tactical strike on Syria in response to using chemical weapons, the response here was thunderous and very negative. Many have still not forgiven Obama (or even more so Kerry) for even considering it and are loathe to give any credit to them that it led to the removal of chemical weapons, which by now, could have been in ISIS hands. There are many here who would prefer that the US withdraw from most or all issues in this area - including for various posters some combinations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Israel. These are sincere, long held positions that these posters have advocated since they joined DU - and they deserve credit for not accepting under Obama what they hated under Bush.
I think few would disagree with your view of the state of the world. It is clear that the world is in turmoil and lashing out against those who are in power because they failed to make things safe is entirely understandable. It does ignore that the roots of every one of these problems was there long before Obama. It also ignores that there may not have been any set of actions by the US that would have led to better results.