CNN's Fareed Zakaria: Obama Made 'Right Call' On Afghanistan
By Noel Sheppard | June 26, 2011 | 17:09
On Wednesday, CNN's "Obama Adviser" aka Fareed Zakaria praised the current White House resident's Afghanistan address as a "remarkable speech for an American president."
On the CNN program bearing his name Sunday, Zakaria continued lavishing praise on our Commander-in-Chief saying, "Obama has basically made the right call" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
FAREED ZAKARIA: This week, we got a real insight into the way Barack Obama's strategic mind works. From his campaign on, Obama has clearly felt that the United States has a lopsided foreign policy, with too large a military commitment to certain crisis points on the globe. He has wanted to rebalance American foreign policy to shift the focus away from the problems of the past -- Iraq, Afghanistan -- and focus on the challenges of the 21st Century, the rise of China and Asia more generally.
Well, this week, he made good on those ideas, announcing a significant drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, effectively reversing the surge that began 18 months ago. When he came into office, the United States had almost 200,000 troops engaged in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. By next year, it will have half that number, most of them in non-combat operations.
Some would wish this drawdown was slower, others faster, but Obama has basically made the right call.
The Messiah has now become Goldilocks.
This is why NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell asked Zakaria last month to recuse himself from covering foreign policy affecting the United States.
The very idea that Zakaria has had private meetings with the President to discuss such issues makes it impossible for him to be impartial in his reporting of them.
Sunday was just the most recent example.
Unfortunately, CNN doesn't seem to care about such impropriety.
I want to show you something - it's my shocked face:
Readers are advised to review Tim Graham's "CNN's Fareed Zakaria: It's 'Strange' to Expect Him Not to Advise Obama and Then Praise Him on TV."
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Comments
→ Look out Carney
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 5:12pm.
Fareed is nipping at your heels.
Obama basically made the right call because CNN basically told him what to say.
Not Carney's job. Zakaria wants to be a foreign policy czar
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 3:39pm.
Someone who has the President's ear but doesn't have to answer to the Secretary of State. He's an academian, and academians shun having to run organizations -- they just want to pontificate and influence outcomes.
For a Muslim plotting to retake India Of Ccourse Obama is right
Submitted by Avitar on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 5:25pm.
Anything that weakens the holy hatred of Muslims is wrong in Fareed Zakaria's book. Originally brom Bombay and the son of an "Islamic Scholar" he may not be intent on destroying America immediately but he comes from a family who were a part of the rulers of India until the British changed that. I can't prove his intent but that is the way to bet because it is his nature.
→ Avitar
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:05pm.
Maybe Biden and Hillary are expecting an attack on 7-11.
Cool, Im coming over to your
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:08pm.
Cool, Im coming over to your house to get my money for a new KB and screen. The 7/11 comment was priceless.
Dan, if you've ever watched an episode of . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 8:55am.
. . . ER or HOUSE on your desktop, you may qualify for replacement equipment under Obamacare.
after hearing him speak I
Submitted by jkwtrading on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 5:37pm.
after hearing him speak I doubt seriously any red blooded American listens to a word he says.
isn't there space ona slow boat back to Karachi for Zakaria
Submitted by Paarl on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 5:43pm.
I suggest a fund raiser for the fare !!!
Paarl of Rhodesia
PS..i enclosed R$25.OO....Rhodesian dollars of course..
nope he can hold Obama's hand
Submitted by jkwtrading on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 5:50pm.
nope he can hold Obama's hand and walk on water.
PRAVDA
Submitted by Curly on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:01pm.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC et. al. - need to consolidate and call themselves "The New PRAVDA" as they are nothing more than official organ of the Democrat National Committee and Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Just like Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup said - "You can't handle the truth"! They cannot tell or handle it!
I couldn't care less what
Submitted by totsotvaitn on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:05pm.
I couldn't care less what Fareed Zakarian says, thinks or feels. He is boring, uninteresting and arrogant so why would I waste my time.
I'm really at the stage...
Submitted by Burnside on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:22pm.
where I truly have no idea where Zakaria's head ends and Obama's ass begins.
What I want to see is a Post-Zakarian America
Submitted by Dave. on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:25pm.
I am about sick to death of imported Muslim commies like Zakaria and Uygur ceaselessly trashing my country, and unflinchingly supporting their fellow-traveling soul-mate in the White House that is working to destroy it.
-Dave
From his campaign on, Obama
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:43pm.
From his campaign on, Obama has clearly felt that the United States has a lopsided foreign policy, with too large a military commitment to certain crisis points on the globe. He has wanted to rebalance American foreign policy to shift the focus away from the problems of the past -- Iraq, Afghanistan -- and focus on the challenges of the 21st Century, the rise of China and Asia more generally.
Wrong, Mr. Zakaria. Obama campaigned on the premise that Iraq was distratcting us from the "necessary war" in Afghanistan. Even after he was elected, in 2009 he told a veterans' group:
'This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity.
"Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaida would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."
But as Michael Barone points out, he changed his mind a few weeks later.
Later, Mr. Obama changed his mind again and ordered the "surge." Then he set a deadline for withdrawal.
The man has been back and forth like a pendulum. So to claim that he always wanted to get away from Afghanistan is pure bunk. Zakaria's use of the word "clearly" is the first clue that what follows is a snow job.
But for liberals, every new opinion is the one they've "always" had.
The proof
Submitted by KC Mulville on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 7:05pm.
If Obama made the right call with the pull-out, why were the troops surged in the first place?
I read Bob Woodward's book Obama's Wars. It showed a president who was no match for the leadership required.
Evening, KC!! Great info from
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 7:48pm.
Evening, KC!! Great info from the Woodward book.
He was (and still is) in so far over his head it's pathetic. And he doesn't like it when people with real know-how disagree with what he wants to do. All he can do is stamp his foot and shout "You're not the boss of me!!"
I don't think we've ever had such a whiny, self-centered, petulant president.
Well, Bill Clinton came close.
If we are not in Afghanistan
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:15pm.
If we are not in Afghanistan to win, right now we are not, then we should go home. Change the ROE and pack the country with our military and tell Pakistan to get their act together or they will be next.
If Washington, and by that I mean the WH, DoD, . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 3:36pm.
. . . DoJ, and State Department, had a firm and unified idea of what we could reasonably accomplish in Afghanistan and a solid strategy for achieving it, I'd say 'Hang in there.' But they don't, and all we doing is losing some wonderful Americans to, at best, prop up Mayor Karzai (he controls very little outside the capital).
Something worthwhile may emerge from Iraq, but we screwed up Afghanistan from the get-go, and after ten years, we have little to show for it but dead and wounded warriors and $ billions down the drain.
Why drag this out? I'd pull 'em all out now.
I hope this guy goes on the
Submitted by jessieH on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 10:39am.
I hope this guy goes on the "flotilla".