Philip Giraldi (born c. 1946) is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a columnist and television commentator who is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates for more even handed policies by the U.S. government in the Middle East.
Giraldi was employed by the CIA for eighteen years working in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain and is fluent in Turkish, Italian, German, and Spanish.
Obama’s Report Card
by Philip Giraldi, October 18, 2012
"The terrifying prospect of a Mitt Romney foreign policy has somehow obscured just how badly President Barack Obama has performed."
SNIP
"His early decision to begin calling the global war on terror by another name, overseas contingency operations, appeared to suggest that he understood that what had started out as a global crusade on phony principles was essentially both untenable and overblown for political reasons. A little toning down of the overly muscular description of what Washington had been doing was long overdue. Obama’s Cairo speech, which also came early in his administration, suggested that there might also be a recalibration of relationships with the Muslim world."
SNIP
"But then Obama discovered the hubris that comes as part and parcel of the presidency. Someone must have whispered in his ear and told him that America really could set standards for the remainder of the globe, or so it seemed. So let’s see how he did on his foreign policy report card. The easiest grade is for Iraq. Obama wanted to retain a force of thousands of U.S. soldiers in the country after December 2009, but Baghdad refused to agree to a status of forces agreement that would have given the troops immunity from Iraqi law, allowing them to stay on."
SNIP
"But then there is Afghanistan. Obama did a Bush by surging a force of 33,000 soldiers to defeat the Taliban in 2010. He had some short-term successes but failed to eliminate the enemy and is now trying to stitch together a political agreement that will save face and enable him to meet the end of 2014 self-imposed deadline for the removal of most American soldiers."
SNIP
"Obama gets an “F” for continuing the war and even increasing it when he could have cut his losses and gotten out. The end result will be the same either way, and all he did was add to the costs and death toll."
SNIP
"And then there is the war on terror, which includes Pakistan, the war’s epicenter. Pakistan was in terrible shape in 2008, and its situation is, if anything, worse now, with a corrupt government that is also ineffectual and not respected by the Pakistani people. The Pakistanis have also been reviled and punished repeatedly by the United States for various perceived infractions, and their border region and tribal areas have become free-fire zones for Hellfire missiles fired from drones. Obama has launched283 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, which is six times more than George W. Bush authorized in his eight years in office. This was a deliberate choice on the part of the administration to fight a war without making it look like a war is being fought."
SNIP
"The death of Osama bin Laden is a plus, though it’s offset by the extralegal way in which he was killed. Overall, Obama gets another “F.”
SNIP
"And then there is the rest of the war on terror. The U.S. is now more heavily involved with advisers in Yemen, has increased its drone strikes and spec ops directed against Somalia, and has advisers in Kenya, Mauritania, and Uganda. Drones have become the weapon of choice in all these conflicts, and their use has now extended to the U.S. border areas and police forces in the United States. One police force in Texas ismounting shotguns and grenade launchers on its drones. The war on terror, under its new name, has expanded even though the State Department’s annual report confirms that there are fewer terrorists running around loose. But the few remaining terrorists have found new places to operate due to the chaos resulting after US interventions: Libya, Mali, and increasingly in Iraq. That certainly deserves an “F.”
SNIP
"Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who might be a worse secretary than even Madeleine “it was worth it” Albright, have frequently criticized Russian internal politics. They have supported the efforts of U.S.-government-funded NGOs like the National Endowment for Democracy to teach Russians and other Eastern Europeans about how to behave like good Americans."
SNIP
"Russia has also responded to the criticism byrefusing to renew Nunn-Lugar, which is one of the few good foreign policy initiatives engaged in by the U.S. Nunn-Lugar funds the dismantling of nuclear arsenals in the former states of the Soviet Union. Give Obama a “D.”
SNIP
"And then there is the world’s most dangerous nation, Iran, at least according to the U.S. media and Congress."
SNIP
"Obama has had to bribe the Israelis into not attacking Iran, whereas George W. Bush had sufficient authority to order them not to do so, one of the few areas in which W. outshines his successor."
SNIP
"Obama gets a “C,” but if he wants to improve his grade he has to tell Israel to take a hike while admitting that Iran is really not much of a threat before sitting down and discussing Tehran’s nuclear program in an adult fashion."
SNIP
"And finally there are the wars of humanitarian intervention, . . ."
SNIP
"Obama has even created a new bit of govspeak to conceal the reality of what he does: “kinetic humanitarian action.” Libya, the unnecessary war, which fortunately turned out to be cheaper and with less bloodshed than Iraq, was the test run of the concept. The foreign military intervention deposed a dictator but left behind a broken country with a dispersed arsenal that is showing up in places like Mali. And then there is Syria. The United States has no national interest that compels it to encourage regime change in Syria, which will certainly bring about a situation like that in Libya with the added potential for becoming much, much worse. Insistence on interfering in Syria has created something approaching a civil war and has also soured relations with Russia, which opposes intervention. The turmoil could easily spill over into Lebanon and Turkey is starting to panic now that it has foolishly opened Pandora’s box and supported the insurgents. Humanitarian intervention deserves an “F” plus double secret probation."
SNIP
"Obama’s grades are somewhat disappointing: a B, a C, a D, and four F’s. He will likely have trouble getting into a good college, and I recommend that he instead learn a useful skill such as basket weaving or pottery design."
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/10/17/obamas-report-card/
This post is 100% about obama and his foreign policy record. I would be pleased if THAT topic ONLY be addressed.
As one of our prominant faux liberals had the temerity and shamelessness to brayed: "Libby is a distracting influence that undermines your efforts and I don't believe you have an obligation to give her viewpoints time and space."
So if censorship is considered appropriate in the faux liberal camp, it will like wise, be considered, here. When I return, I will first delete ALL comments that do not directly respond to the heart of the post, itself.
For the myopic amongst us, the word romney appears but once in the post, and only as a counterpoint to explain how obama usa wishes to obscure its record.
I am disinterested in what romney might do on any number of issues. "Might do" is conjecture, perhaps likely, but conjecture, all the same
For those who feel their conjecture is worthy of being heard, a walking on water contest will be held in the far-left corner of the room.
Only factual commentary on the issues Mr. Giraldi presents will be allowed to remain on record, even if that means there are NO comments on the post.
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I'm not keen to vote for Romney, but at least his election would put in a new and less entrenched set of criminals. We do need a vote for "none of the Above."
On the Mike front, he had a Pre-trial last Monday, The prosecutor seems to want to drop it as quietly as possible, but still, of course, wants a means to save face. Once you turn things over to lawyers, all hope of Justice is lost, but Mike's Lawyer understands he will not plead guilty to anything-- I'm holding off any actions to dump Ms Deeds until after Mike is off the hook. We shall see.
I continue to pray for Mike and will do so until I receive affirmative notice from You (and maybe thereafter, too).
Thanks, again, for stopping by, Herr
There are two sentences of mine that make clear my intent in this post:
"This post is 100% about obama and his foreign policy record. I would be pleased if THAT topic ONLY be addressed."
"Only factual commentary on the issues Mr. Giraldi presents will be allowed to remain on record, even if that means there are NO comments on the post."
The fact that you would disregard these requests is but one of many reasons I choose not to comment on your blog or respond to comments you make on other blogs.
your comment that it makes no sense, tom is an opinion NOT a fact. Quite fRANKly, I'm not interested in your OPINION. you've had your opportunity to express your opinion on your own blood-soaked blog (and numerous comments sprinkled throughout).
The two sentences, highlighted above, are simple ones it calls for FACTS, not opinions and/or judgments.
The only fact I see in your comment is that "A decision must be made in a very few days . . . ," and I hardly think my readers need be reminded of that fact.
I've read your words of late and couldn't give a rat's as* about them. Is there anything unclear to you in the two sentences concerning fact-based comments?
If you wish to respond to the question above, or demonize me for either the constraints I place on this post or the words I aim at you, please do so on your own blog (or elsewhere). you are not welcome here.
Factually, there's nothing wrong (Constitutionally or morally) with voting for whomever one pleases; regardless the state.
Thanks for stopping by, ONL
While you can list what Obama has done while in office, and, based on that, draw conjectures as to what he might do if he is re-elected, it is, unfortunately, impossible to have any real certainty about what he will actually do.
I suspect that few would have conjectured that he'd keep Gitmo open, or re-up the Patriot Act, or slip that nasty bit of crap into the NDAA.
Even more unfortunately is the sad fact that the voters have only conjecture upon which to base their vote. What a man has done in the past is no longer any indiction of what he'll do in the future. The one piece of evidence that, above all others, ought to be reasonably factual, the candidate's own declaration of his intentions, has shown itself to be the least reliable evidence of all.
This leaves voters with nothing solid upon which to make a decision. They are, quite literally, being asked to peer into a crystal ball and cast their vote based on what they think the candidates will do if elected. On conjecture. Conjecture based on very little, if any, hard evidence - facts.
This being so, there can only be conjecture about what Mr. Obama will do - in matters of foreign policy - and in a multiplicity of other areas as well.
I can offer as good an opinion on this as anyone else. But that's all I have. An opinion. An opinion based on conjecture. What "facts" there are, are about the past. They might be factual enough but, as we all know, the past is not the future and facts from the past cannot be magically applied to the future.
Interesting post Mark! Much fun! Rated, of course......
;-)
.
Furthermore, there is a saying that past performance is no guide to the future.
Having said that, I've watched him closely, and his actions hardly match his words. Granted he talks the talk (sometimes), but the walk he takes hardly matches his words.
When all is said and done, it seems clear to me that he is a compulsive and unrepentant liar. Couple that with the fact that he clearly is deep in the pocket of corporate interests, the "defense" department, and a whole slew of lobbyists and holdovers from the shrub administration, and the best I can say for him, is that heaven forbid he is re-elected, he will continue to be the liar-in-chief, wreaking havoc, torture, genocide and war on the Earth, itself, as he's done these past four years.
Some of the emptiest of heads, here, say that his constituency threw him under the bus, but I contend it is the complete opposite. I think minimally freed of re-election possibilities, the few bones he threw in attempts to mollify what once was his constituency, which many of the faux liberals/progressives/humanitarians swallowed up as if it was a brunch in the Rainbow Room, will find only more evil and greater malevolence in a second term.
Always happy to see You, Sky, whether our opinions are entirely congruent or not (which most of the time, they are). Thanks for visiting.
the beltway is satan country, but some devils are worse than others. i give obama credit for being no worse than he has to be, to preside over an american people with the character and culture more suited to temujin's hordes than a civilized nation.
as to romney, he has mentioned intending to double military expenditure. perhaps he's going to retrain the jarheads as crossing guards and make spec forces into neighborhood watch, but let's bet he's going to start a war with iran.
shrub engaged us in "only" two wars; obama has us engaged in at least ten overt and covert.
obama likes to claim civilian casualties from drone strikes to be in the single digits, while organizations, which I respect much more highly put the civilian death toll as high as 80%.
If shrub ever dared hold weekly death kill-list meetings, I believe that would have been enough to have him impeached, along with his admission of enhanced interrogation techniques.
Most of Your comment, I disagree with, but polite dissent is acceptable on my blog.
romney's intentions which You mention may (or may not) be nothing but red meat to burnish his credentials as the next warrior-in-chief, a modern day prerequisite for our plantation masters.
There is a lot more I could choose to delineate, but I would sum it up by saying that from my vantage point, obama is shrub on steroids.
Although, I disagree with the bulk of Your comment, I DO appreciate You for taking the time to visit, Al.
And for me there is so much sad stuff to wade thru re Obama's F grades re foreign policy. Or should I say the continuation of what has been called THE BOOK OF CHENEY. I really appreciated this article.
BTW, I would give Obama lower than a C for Iran. Romney already gets an F in going full throttle with Bibi's warmongering. But the offhand way sanctions are trotted out as something Obama and Biden and even Ryan and Romney are proud of and wish could be even harsher is so heartless and so skimmed over by corporate media but why are we surprised? Demonize a country and crush their people who are just trying to live out their precious lives.
Considering Iran is being punished for something Iran is not doing in the propaganda engineered war-mood for Iran egged on perpetually by war hawks of Israel and the US like the three amigos.
I came across this article on Information Clearing House by Ismail Salami. It is about what the sanctions are doing in particular to the sick in Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32815.htm
"The West is sharply aware of the devastating inhuman effects of the sanctions on the sick people. On September 4, the Washington Post published an article titled “In Iran, Sanctions Take Toll On The Sick,” which details how drug shortages are particularly affecting “cancer patients and those being treated for complex disorders such as hemophilia, multiple sclerosis and Thalassemia, as well as transplant and kidney dialysis patients.”
"Fatemeh Hashemi, Head of Iran’s Charity Institute for Special Diseases, has voiced grave concern for the six million patients suffering from special diseases and their families who are desperately wrestling with the problems originating therefrom. In fact, the US-led sanctions are exacting their deadly toll on the terminally ailing patients.
"“We feel the shortage mainly for cancer and MS drugs. Of course, Thalassemia and dialysis patients are also the targets of these hardships. All these problems stem from the sanctions the US has imposed on the banking sector and the difficulties in transferring foreign currency,” Hashemi said.
"The bitter question is: Is the West taking sadistic pleasure in incurring genocidal deaths or does the West naively believe that they are achieving their fiendish goals in the Muslim country?
"Bitterly exasperated by the fact that a large multitude of patients are on the brink of death on account of the US-led sanctions, Fatemeh Hashemi wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon two months ago. Part of the letter which was sent through the Iranian Foreign Ministry reads: “Although medicine is not included in the list of the sanctions, the aftermaths of the sanctions, the impossibility of transferring money through the banks as well as the appalling atmosphere created thus has cast its cumbersome shadow upon medicine and healthcare in Iran and has austerely affected the import of medicines in the country. As the head of an institute dealing with the lives of six million patients, I hereby implore you to exert all your endeavors to champion human rights in lifting the sanctions as they are political in nature and prove to the inexcusable detriment of the patients in Iran.”
"Many of the Thalassemia patients in Iran are threatened by death due to the paucity of Desferrioxamine or Desferal, a medicine which helps keep their blood iron at a safe level in the body. Thalassemia patients keep having blood transfusions which cause extra iron in the body. When blood transfusions are regular, iron gathers in the body and is amassed in some organs such as the liver, the heart, and the endocrine glands. Functioning as a foreign body, the iron eventually damages the organs. One of the main drugs which helps keep the blood iron at a safe level is desferrioxamine or ‘Desferal’.
"In a recent speech, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has blasted the illogical western sanctions as ‘barbaric’ and described them as a war against a nation.
“The West is angry and they have used Iran’s nuclear energy program as a pretext [to impose sanctions]. They claim that they will lift the sanctions if Iran backs down on its right to nuclear energy. They are lying. Out of spite and revenge, they decide to impose illogical sanctions against Iran.”
"As the leader says, the nuclear energy program is only an excuse for the West."
end of quote
So it is a sadistic catch-22. how can Iran stop doing what it is not doing and if it were doing and stopped the west would insist they were still doing it anyway. So the sanctions are horrible and sadistically gratuitous except for the main motivation of destroying a legitimate sovereign country that the US/Israel/NATO want to control and to get more control in regards to Russia and China. The addiction for power and control is so out of control.
Dear God! Meanwhile, it is a slow genocide in which the sick and vulnerable die first.
Did you see Ray McGovern call out of Obama's administration as having "Compassion Deficit Disorder". This is certainly a profound reflection of that.
We are a country without pity! But the patriarchs must have their "little" war games and SANCTIONS and covert destabilizations in which mass suffering results. This, Mark, is what horrifies me most about us as a citizenry, that we can stay detached from. This mass human suffering that our tax dollars are paying for and our voter endorsed leaders are capable of. And those drones. CIA wants to up its stable to 45 drones, add 10 more. People are afraid to leave their homes to be targeted by these monsters stalking them in so many countries now.
The Military Industrial Security Prison Complex is the monster that has devoured America spiritually and devastated so much of the world physically! And is far from done.
Take care, my friend!
best, libby
Why was I down? Well, it seems the last two commenters, both friends of mine, seemed lukewarm to my contentions. They being:
A. obama's foreign policy has been abysmal, and he IS the greatest warmonger of my lifespan; and,
B. Those who I would've expected to know better have opted for expediency over morals and principles; expediency being obama.
Your comments, thank goodness, are congruent with mine.
When I mentioned to Al that there were so many instances of obama's intentional, malevolence that I could cite, but whimpered out with a relatively benign, shrub on steroids, You have arrived to fill in some of those unsaid blanks, and I am grateful to You for that; EXTREMELY grateful.
"Demonize a country and crush their people who are just trying to live out their precious lives."
We've always had a "Hitler" in waiting. Noriega, Gaddafi (but then he was our friend, and then "Hitler" again, Saddam (similarly from friend to Hitler, Chavez, Milosevic, Ahmadinejad and on and on.
Keeping the populace fearful by providing a convenient punching bag with echoes of past horrors is the name of the game of the perpetual war state.
And yes, benign sounding sanctions; sanctions that condemn innocents, men, women, and children to slow deaths that americans pay for, but hardly causes a ripple on their sports and reality TV-filled screens.
""The bitter question is: Is the West taking sadistic pleasure in incurring genocidal deaths or does the West naively believe that they are achieving their fiendish goals in the Muslim country?"
For those even remotely paying attention, I regret to opt for the former. To anyone with half a brain in their heads, it is clear that we are achieving NO goals in the MidEast, so of the two, sadistic pleasure of being the biggest bully on the block, willfully ignorant of the decades of blowback to follow is what we got and are trapped to live with.
NEVER forget that for years now, americans have by varying majorities opposed our Afghan adventure. Does anyone in d.c. care? Obviously not!
Looking forward to exploring the links You've provided, Libby and much thankee.
Ray McGovern, like You NEVER lets me down.
"Compassion Deficit Disorder" - sublime; sad, but sublime.
Right at the precise time; not that I ever considered pulling this post, but, Libby Your timing could NOT have been better, and
I am VERY grateful.
Were the situation reversed and involved forgiveness of Moslem war criminals, he'd be a leader of the amen corner braying loudly that perpetrators be prosecuted.
In fact, I posed just such a related question to him on that horrid, horrid blog post, and he dissembled, weaseled and nearly broke his back in his attempts to NOT answer the question.
The result is that clearly, kosh feels that only jewish blood matters. As long as the blood spilled is that of the what he considers "chei kuck" (Lit. human dung), it's fine by him.
Schadenfreud personified.
I even offered the caveat in my comment to delete the comment and question if he was not prepared to give it a serious answer. Just as he chooses expedience over principles and morals, he chooses equivocation over objectively examining the real life moral ramifications of his words.
Thanks so much for visiting, Al, and allowing me to vilify another of those, who choose to use the phrase; "Not in my name," selectively as it suits their purposes.
A nation asleep - a nation of sheep.
I agree. Every time I hear about drone strikes, it gives me the shivers. I had high hopes for Obama for about 6 months. I don't even talk about it with any family or friends anymore. All they say is, "You don't have any choice, you have to vote for Obama."
When I used to teach high school I would give the kids the definitions of oppression and suppression. One of the definitions of oppression is "to weigh down with worry." Suppression is to put down a protest with force. It seems we have both now. You are a brave guy.
Your words on suppression and repression educate me beyond my prior knowledge. I had never contemplated the context of oppression as You emphasize it; to weigh down with worry. I appreciate Your kindness in sharing that, here.
Needless to say, despite fRANK's protestations to the contrary, we have both in effect in america.
Regarding drones, a person as knowledgable as You must know that dozens of american police forces in america possess them, already, with dozens more on waiting lists.
Furthermore, a plethora of new and "improved" next generation specialized drones are on the drawing boards of our nation's "defense" contractors. In reality, this lesser of two evils "system" morphed into lesser of two liars "system" is in shambles and most of the rest of the world knows it, while americans continue to remain willfully ignorant, and insult those who would choose to escape THAT "system" and opt to vote based on principles and morals.
Only if the war-mongers succeed in plunging us into chaos never before imaginable, is there a chance for us to prevail.
I am VERY grateful to You, both for Your kind words, and for the substance, which accompanies Your comment.
You have been here long enough to know that the technical functioning, or lack thereof, is sufficient to label os, open sewer. They've disabled the search function, and rendered the ability for someone to scroll through their favorite's list impossible. Heaven forbid, someone wish to contact someone who has not posted regularly.
Sometimes, I can, successfully, find someone by tediously going through my posts, and finding a post a person has made on my blog, but, just as often, I wind up finding an old post with the person's name attached, only to find the server can't handle the load of locating that person.
Heaven forbid, someone wishes to locate someone who hasn't posted on ones blog. This "benign" neglect and indifference would be sufficient to earn such a moniker, but even more distressing is the strict conformity to a code of indifference to FACTS that our "friends" on THIS side on the aisle show towards facts.
As an example, Libby, I, and several others, believe that Jill Stein best represents our moral commitment to democracy. No less than Thomas Paine said "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism," yet we are treated to scorn, derision, and even one person, of theoretical liberal persuasion suggested that Libby's comments be deleted.
One would think that these goons are characters in "Animal Farm" with the mantra: repugnican bad, democrap good. romney bad; obama good.
Or one would think they have never heard the prophetic words of George Carlin, may He r.i.p: " Good, honest, hard working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest, hard working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you! They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day.”
So when You make an effort to point out a disconnect in the welfare of women under obama, You run the risk of being similarly vilified, simply by defying the orthodoxy of these self appointed (m)asses.
At one point it was basically only apisa running around like the sociopath that he is wildly flinging accusations at anyone who dare think outside the narrow confines of the self-erected box from within which he pretends to think, but now, those who should know better join him in willful ignorance.
So, although, I started my response to Your comment by rhetorically questioning Your need to rely on facts to make Your contentions. In reality, it is precisely people of courage like You for whom I wield a heavy stick against those who wish us to remain silent and accept their collective conformity.
It is this kind of thinking that got america into the dire straits it currently faces, and it is this kind of thinking that brings us, the country, and the world to the precipice of complete and utter devastation, so I take off my hat and bow to You and precious few others and say thank You for allowing facts to be Your moral and spiritual, compass.