Compare Obama's pirate outcome to Bush's first crisis

[krispos42]

Remember this pic? Cripped Navy signals intelligence plane lands on Chinese island, plane and crew captured by Chinese military and held for a couple of weeks untill we publicly wrote them a letter of apology?

The Chinese dissect the plane at their leisure then mail it back to us packed up in a bunch of crates?


Oh yeah, and they billed us for the dissassembly and shipping of the plane and the food and board of the crew.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident


Obama 1, Bush 0.

[williesgirl]

1. You need to send this to Keith and Rachel! rec'd

[bluestateguy]

2. Bush actually avoided cowboy bravado in that case

He got the airmen home safe, and we would have done the same thing if a Chinese plane was forced to land in California.

[krispos42]

8. Yup, but it was still embarassing

I'm sure that knuckle-draggers on FR wanted Bush to invade the island, slaughter the guards, napalm the plane, and rescue the crew.




Of course, they are slightly different classes of crisis. Regardless, this is the first, last, and only time Bush made the right choice between bravado and diplomacy.

With Obama I predict a long series of correct choices between the two.

[Supersedeas]

10. all his Biz buddies at CNBC & on WallStreet would have had a cow about upsetting China

[ClarkUSA]

3. Wow. Imagine the wingnut howls if Barack had done that?

[firedupdem]

4. These are the types of posts I love to read! Thanks! n/t

[jpak]

5. And the chorus of Freepers that wanted to "Nuke China" was thunderous

as I recall...

[tosh]

6. Thanks - I had forgotten that one.

Bushed! :rofl:

[TheDebbieDee]

7. I say this is comparing apples and oranges....

Bush was dealing with a Chinese sovereign government with access to as much military might as they needed.

Obama was dealing with some thugs who, as far as I know, are nothing more than a band of outlaws.

I'm glad the Captain of the ship was rescued, but I expected us to pound on the pirates eventually.

[krispos42]

9. I think what is shows is that Obama knows when to talk and when to act

Except for this one case, Bush pretty much showed he'll do the opposite of what is the correct path.




In the end, Obama's first crisis ended on a posititve note and Bush's was much more "mushy".




Fate didn't give a matching set of "first international crisis" situtations to compare. We'll do our best.

[Dreamer Tatum]

11. With all due respect, the outcomes would have been the same either way

I mean, are you really saying that by NOT going to war with China, but by issuing a grudging apology, that Bush handled the matter in a completely inappropriate manner? If so, exactly how many American servicemen would you have been willing to sacrifice in order to salvage American pride? I think Obama and Bush would have handled the Chinese thing pretty much the same way, since hands were tied.

As for the pirate thing, my guess is that Bush would have demanded immediate and sloppy action, as opposed to approving quiet and decisive action, which is what Obama did.

[krispos42]

12. Probably... except that the corporate media would have had vastly different viewpoints

If Gore or Obama was president when those planes hit (and it probably would have happened regardless of the officeholder) then the lunatic fringe that was demanded Bush invade this island to free the crew would have been replaced by the entire Republican support structure screaming about what a wuss Gore/Obama was.


As it was... *crickets* when Bush was low-key, and *crickets* when Obama let the military do its thing with the pirates.