Huh? I don't know how you can entertain both extreme ideas in your head. No wonder you find it strange that I am having such a difficult time replying to your posts.
If you are attacked, you have the right to retaliate.
Now, I agree that we've done many things, as a country, to provoke attacks like the ones on 9/11, I'm not removing all guilt from the feet of America.
Perdition, this is an area where we are at exact polar opposites. You view the military as a source of potential solutions, I see the military as ONLY a source of PROBLEMS/CRIMINALITY. Asking the military for advice will only get you military "solutions.
Not exactly. When we are in a military engagement, which we would have been as soon as the first boots touched ground in Afghanistan, then listening to people who have experience in military engagements is, in my opinion, probably a good idea.
So why did he recommend his cabinet be stacked with war-mongerer appointees to influential positions with foreign policy
I'm not thrilled with all of the people he surrounded himself with as advisors. The economic advisors were likewise poor choices in my opinion.
As another similar example, why did so many news writers, military advisers, talk show "analysts" who wrongly promoted the Iraq war retain their jobs in the media?
Well, with the possible exception of the military advisors (assuming you're talking about those who advise the government officials), Obama has no control over who keeps their jobs. Those decisions are made by the companies that employ those individuals. Also, if media people were going to be fired for making incorrect analyses, you'd quickly find that there would be no one willing to analyze anything, leaving us with even more vapid news commentary than we currently enjoy. There are a lot of analysts I disagree with, and I avoid Fox News like the plague, but having people with opposing viewpoints, and listening to their reasoning is a good thing.
Besides, free speech isn't just a slogan.
IF the corporate media wanted the truth.
You and I both know that there is no liberal media, and that what corporate media wants is ratings.
Yes, I understand that the government and the corporate media would have liked you to believe that
Common sense wants me to believe that. Fuel for the ships and aircraft to get out costs money. Bullets, clothes, food, energy, all cost money, and all are necessary to enact an ordered withdrawal that doesn't put our troops, nor the native population at risk. A power vaccuum is bad for those we leave behind.
If I was forced at gunpoint to be president of the US on 2009, I would be FOR: surrounding myself with people who have easily seen through the lies of the Iraqi WMD, who understand that "military solutions" are an oxymoron, who understand that only REAL diplomacy can ever achieve lasting peace. Believe it or not, there were many who didn't believe the immoral simpleton, Bush Jr.: "the terrorists attacked us because they hate our freedom". I wouldn't hire those mentally retarded mindsets, as Obama has done. I'd surround myself with the opposite "mindsets." That is what I am "for".
That's a good start. And if those people you surround yourself with agree that it's not so simple as saying, "Ok, everyone come home now." and that continuing the wars for a bit longer with an eye on an ordered withdrawal is the best way out of the current debacle?