Obama slaps down Steve Kroft on his Right Wing talking points
It was evident that Steve Kroft was executing a very poor attempt at channeling Fox News as he used Right Wing talking points to challenge the President’s leadership. President Obama would have none of it.
President Obama began by illustrating how silly it is to assume the Syrian problem could be solved in a short time. He pointed out that America has been in Afghanistan for over a decade and Afghanstan is still unstable.
The President insisted that the solution in Syria will not involve hundreds of thousands of American ground troops. It will require a change from within, a transitioning of the government.
Steve Kroft showed the ineptitude of the traditional mainstream media when he equated Vladimir Putin’s militarism in Syria as a display of strength. Kroft told the President that Putin seemed to be challenging the President’s leadership with his actions in Syria.
One must wonder if Kroft was privy to background information before the interview. Does he not understand that Syria has been an ally of Russia for some time? In fact there has been a Russian base in Syria since 1971 just like there has been American bases in Panama at one time. Just like the US conducted operations to protect its interest in Panama so is Russia in Syria.
Kroft took on the neocon’s definition of strength by equating Putin’s bombing of Syrians as a sign of strength. President Obama slapped that notion down. “Steve I’ve got to tell you,”If you think that running your economy into the ground, and having to send troops in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we have a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, … My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire wold community to make sure that Iran does no get a nuclear weapon.”
The President closed the segment with a prescient statement. “If in fact the only measure is to send another hundred thousand, another two hundred thousand troops into Syria, or back into Iraq, or perhaps into Libya, or perhaps into Yemen, and our goal somehow is that we are now going to be not just the police, but the governors of this region — That would be bad strategy Steve. And I think that if we make that mistake again, then shame on us.”