Who's Really Making the Decisions?

[democraticinsurgent]

I'm as disappointed as anyone here about the Afghanistan escalation, the Wall Street bailouts, etc.

I'm not quite so ready to blame Obama, though. It seems very likely that big decisions like these are not his to make. Wall Street and the Pentagon/CIA/Defense establishment seem to be in charge. The Repukes are generally anxious to follow their orders when they're in power, while the Dems are de-fanged in one way or another, and allowed only to operate on the margins and given leeway on less consequential issues.

Hasn't it been this way since JFK was taken out?

Who else thinks this is possible/likely?

[ShortnFiery]

1. My best guess: Power elites within both Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex. eom

[Mist]

5. Yep. Obama really doesn't have a great deal to say about it. Just another minion. nt

[goldcanyonaz]

2. Obama said when campaigning that he was going to send more tropps to Afghanistan.

Why all the shock?

I feel like I'm in some parallel universe.

Our President is making the decisions.

[emulatorloo]

8. Yes I remember that too. More troops, get al qaeda, then get out.

DU is a parallel universe.

It is as much as a bubble as freerepublic in some ways.

[elehhhhna]

9. Well, McCain said he knew where Osama was. Maybe O thought McC would

tell him after the election?

[goldcanyonaz]

16. When O called McC to find out McC said "neener, neener" and hung up.

[elehhhhna]

18. lol bet he did, too.

[vaberella]

3. I believe it maybe the Illuminati is making the decisions.n/t

[Bullet1987]

4. The President hasn't had REAL

authority since JFK yes. He stood up to them and was taken out...that's what I believe anyway. There are ways a LEADER could go about changing that though. Someone could "blow the whistle" from the inside, there's something keeping people in line though.

[arcadian]

6. Policy institutes aka thinks tanks

who are in the pockets and funded by the MIC and Wall Street.

[impik]

7. E.T. is making the decisions. I always suspected him

[vaberella]

17. That bastard. Never trust a talking turd. n/t

[democraticinsurgent]

10. Consistent with his campaign

I agree with the posters who note this. Obama has always been an Afghan War hawk.

The real question is--is that because of what he believes, or is he boxed in on this one?

[OHdem10]

11. Through the years, I have heard this theory--NO LONGER do I

consider it a theory. From the beginning with Obama's appointments of
all the former Clintonites, I becamse more convinced that Presidents
are figureheads. This is why the Media become obsessed with finding
someone the people like. In other words if the people like him the
"hidden powers" can do their thing and the stupid people will not
know the difference.

Often I have heard people say it really does not matter who is elected.
After watching the last ten months, they may have a point.

[WI_DEM]

12. good grief, JFK was a cold warrior who began escalating in Vietnam

enough of the revisionist history. It was his "best and brightest" who he appointed to office and Johnson kept that advised LBJ to further escalate in Vietnam.

[democraticinsurgent]

13. Careful, there are two sides to your "facts"

Was there a Vietnam withdrawal plan in 1963? The answer is yes. What is at issue is not whether such plans had been created and initiated, but whether they were “serious,” i.e., whether the withdrawal would have continued in the face of a worsening situation in South Vietnam.

On October 11, 1963, Kennedy signed NSAM 263, initiating a withdrawal of 1,000 troops out of roughly 16,000 Americans stationed in Vietnam. Other documents, including planning documents from the spring of 1963, show that this was the first step in a planned complete withdrawal.

The controversy surrounds the fact that military reporting of the war effort in 1963 was decidedly rosy, and Kennedy made statements indicating that the positive outlook made withdrawal possible. Following the November deaths of South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem and President Kennedy, reporting of the military situation in Vietnam took a turn for the worse. Does this then mean that Kennedy would have done as his successor LBJ did, and escalate the war in response?

John Newman’s landmark 1991 book JFK & Vietnam argues that Kennedy knew that the military reporting was skewed, and intended to withdraw anyway. Other analyses by Peter Dale Scott and James Galbraith (son of Kennedy advisor John Kenneth Galbraith), and recent books including one by no less than Robert McNamara himself, support this view. On the other side are many Vietnam historians and also social critic Noam Chomsky, whose Rethinking Camelot is largely a rebuttal of this view.

http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/1963_Vietnam_Withdrawal_Plans

[karynnj]

14. Obama is the one with the power to make this decision

If you do not like the decision, it should reflect on Obama, but it is a good idea to look at what the downsides of any alternatives are. It is also true that he did not run as a pacifist. He did not vote for Kerry/Feingold and when he adopted a plan it was K/F with a long timeline - though he was less hawkist than HRC. But, as Kerry said on all issues, the difference between any of the Democrats was small and the difference between them and the Republicans was night and day. McCain was on CNN complaining that Obama would even mention an exit plan.

[DailyGrind51]

15. Rahm Emanuel!

[branders seine]

19. if that's the case, why doesn't a great Nobel peace maker like Obama

tell us so?

[democraticinsurgent]

20. Dick, is that you?

[branders seine]

26. No, Pussy-kins, I'm not Dick.

[Davis_X_Machina]

21. Goldman Sachs. And the Illuminati. And the Jesuits. And the Freemasons...

...And the Bilderburgers. And the Trilateral Commission. And the Council on Foreign Relations.

Did I forget anyone?

[avaistheone1]

22. Obama

[undeterred]

23. Acorn and the Socialists.

We all need a good laugh, don't we?

[FrenchieCat]

24. Hitler and Stalin!

Why ask the Teabaggers!



It certainly wasn't the Black guy who was "allowed" to win.
He's just the fucking messenger Boy!

[BeFree]

25. CIA, et all, run the show

The spooks will always be there.

I give Obama some leeway knowing that his decisions are never going to be his own except for minor items. He's been told what decision he will make when it comes to war and defense.

Clinton cut the DoD budget and look what happened to him.. impeached!!

No, this war decision is not Obama's, but that doesn't mean I can't object. And if enough people did object, Obama might be forced into making future decisions based on the will of the people. Right now, today, too many people are on the side of the spooks.

Obama has no choice, but if he did, I'd bet it would be a reduction and not an escalation.

[AngryAmish]

27. I say Mr. Wonderful is making the decisions

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/Superstars/bio/4903356


prove me wrong

[CBR]

28. Obama is perfectly capable of making his own decisions.

Agree with them or not.