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Browse: Home » Obama » Page 4
This is not a democracy: Behind the Deep State that Obama, Hillary or Trump couldn’t control

This is not a democracy: Behind the Deep State that Obama, Hillary or Trump couldn’t control

October 21, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Foreign policy never really changes regardless of who holds the White House. This is why exceptionalism always wins There are two ways to consider the White House’s announcement last week that, no, American troops will no longer withdraw from Afghanistan…

Obama’s Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey

Obama’s Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey

October 12, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

The Obama administration’s failure in Syria after four years of wasted lives, money, and effort deepens by the day now. The Russians have just benched us, whether Washington wants to admit it or not, and we may well sit out the…

Thomas Friedman, read your Chomsky: The New York Times gets Putin/Obama all wrong, again

Thomas Friedman, read your Chomsky: The New York Times gets Putin/Obama all wrong, again

October 6, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

“Do you realize now what you’ve done?” The best question about our Middle East disasters actually comes from Putin A lot of good people are asking a lot of good questions these days, and this is an excellent thing. On…

Obama’s Syria Strategy: ‘Scrambling’ and ‘Desperate’ as Putin Takes Charge

Obama’s Syria Strategy: ‘Scrambling’ and ‘Desperate’ as Putin Takes Charge

October 5, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

What a week for President Obama and his toe-in-the-water strategy to stabilize the riotous anarchy that is Syria. The administration can do all the papering over they wish, but there’s no obscuring the truth that just landed with a thud:…

With Xi and Putin, Obama Sets the U.S. on a Course of Confusion

With Xi and Putin, Obama Sets the U.S. on a Course of Confusion

September 28, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

President Obama’s September agenda will need a glass case all its own when his presidential library is built. Straight from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit, Obama is now scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin at the U.N. Monday. Count Pope…

We do what we damn well please: The demented American exceptionalism behind the neo-con foreign policy con

We do what we damn well please: The demented American exceptionalism behind the neo-con foreign policy con

September 17, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

The right wants to substitute religious belief and ideology for reality and smarts. The Iran deal won’t derail them A few blocks south of where I sit, the 70th General Assembly just opened in the U.N.’s glass slab on Manhattan’s East…

Iran and Climate Change – Two Global Issues on Obama’s Bucket List

Iran and Climate Change – Two Global Issues on Obama’s Bucket List

August 3, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

The Iran nuclear accord and the White House’s new plan to cut power-plant emissions, to be unveiled Monday, have but one thing in common. It’s a question, and it’s the biggest now facing this nation: Do Americans want the U.S….

Our monumental Turkey blunder: Who put the American exceptionalists back in charge?

Our monumental Turkey blunder: Who put the American exceptionalists back in charge?

July 28, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Take a hard, careful look at what the hawks in the Obama administration—and it is crawling with them—have just done by bringing Turkey into the fight against the Islamic State. Given the blur the campaign against ISIS has become, with…

Obama Paid a High Price to Get Turkey to Fight ISIS

Obama Paid a High Price to Get Turkey to Fight ISIS

July 27, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

The war against the Islamic State just widened to include Turkey as a combatant. The Obama administration has long tried to persuade the Islamic government of RecipTayip Erdoğan to get into the fray, but the vital question still needs to be…

Unraveling the axis of stupid: How Iran deal sends neocons, exceptionalists and Fox News xenophobes to dustbin of history

Unraveling the axis of stupid: How Iran deal sends neocons, exceptionalists and Fox News xenophobes to dustbin of history

July 22, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Let Know Nothings, Tea Party and Trump crowd rail against the deal. They rail against reality, modernity, history. This Iran deal, sealed a week ago, makes me think of those cruises people take up the Pacific coast into Arctic climes:…

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Writer, commentator, longtime newspaper and magazine correspondent abroad. Writes often on Europe and Asia. Published five books.

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