Saturday, June 5, 2010
A whole bunch of folks came out on Thursday night to see Dick Morris speak on "Obama, Foreign Policy and the Future of US-Israel Relations," and sign copies of his new book, 2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan, at Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, MA. The evening was sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and Rabbi Hausman.
An enthusiastic packed house watched Morris speak (without notes) and take questions on everything from domestic politics to the Iranian threat. A passel of local Republican political hopefuls were also on hand, and you can see them stand up and introduce themselves in part 2 of the Q&A video. Here is the entire video -- 4 parts of the main speech, then 3 parts of Q&A. I apologize for the bad audio for the first minute. Things got better when Morris moved over to the mic. I also had to shift position a couple of times, but overall the video should be quite watchable.
Here is a custom player with all the parts in one playlist. The individual parts are pasted into the extended entry:
Q&A:
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Following the Dick Morris event the other night, I had the privilege of speaking for a couple of minutes with Congressional hopeful Sam Mease. Sam is running for the Republican nomination in the Massachusetts 5th Congressional District, now held by... Read More
I was at the Americans for Peace and Tolerance event on Thursday night, filming. It was one of the best attended events of this type I've been to, and the crowd was extremely enthusiastic. I'm not sure yet just how... Read More
"We got Iraq .. we have Iraq .. we own it" said Morris to the first lady's question.
I'm less sanguine than Morris about Iraq.
I gather he meant that the USA now has de facto control of Iraq, in the strategic sense, and that Iraq is geographically at the centre of the region.
However, this "ownership by the USA" hasn't stopped Iraq from creating a "democratic" Islamic state; which has forced most of the remaining Jews from the country, persecuted the Christians of Iraq and joined the OIC.
Cox & Forkum got it right as early as May 2003:
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/IraqiFreedom-X.gif
Under Bush, these things were allowed. As I recall, the Sharia compliant Constitution (no law may contradict the established provisions of Islam) was drafted by a committee appointed by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
The strategic significance also relies on the willingness of the US President, from time to time, to make use of Iraq when the time comes.
I think Obama intends to walk from Iraq completely as soon as he can.
I appreciate that there are US bases of some substance in Iraq, but "ownership" is only useful if you have the resolve to enforce it. I have no faith in the current President in this regard.
Otherwise, hard to disagree with his views.
PS
Martin,
Thank you for going to the trouble of videoing and posting this. I live in the land down under and it's a bit difficult for me to see and listen to this type of presentation (geographically speaking).
I actually got the feeling that he was being a bit cynical about the Iraq thing, but I guess it's hard to say.
I'm glad you like it. I haven't done as many of these, or my lengthy written reports, as I used to. Maybe I should start doing them again.
Thank you very much for this report! It is a pity I did not know - I would have come to listen to him.
Is there any way to learn of their upcoming events in advance? I managed to catch Geert Wilders, but unfortunately missed Mordechai Kedar and now this.
Maybe you read him right, but I thought he was putting her down.
It's a great sacrifice to overthrow Saddam only to leave with bubkes (as Morris put it in another context).
If the US combat forces leave the country completely by the end of 2011, as required by the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, the US gets less than bubkes - lost lives and many badly wounded young Americans in their prime, a vast amount of money lost and increased hatred in the Islamic world.
No real democracy in Iraq, an anti Semitic, woman hating theocratic basket case country made stronger to join the global jihad.
Too cynical for my liking.
Morris is a good thinker and I hope he can rally Jews in the US to have the US support Israel in the coming war with Iran.
I also learnt a lot from him about domestic US politics.
Martin, please continue to video and post them - particularly good people like Morris who have something worthwhile to say.
Your written commentary adds context and colour to the video.
youcancallmemeyer,
The link you provided to the Cox&Forkum cartoon gives a 403
Maybe you were referring to this one ?
Iraqi Freedom?
#3: You just have to keep your ear to the ground on various email lists (this one was sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, so if you subscribe to them you'd know), and/or check my Boston Events calendar from time to time. It's not exhaustive, and occasionally I put "enemy" events on there, but it should help.
Cynic,
That be the one.