Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Obama’s humility: ‘We really are an indispensable nation’

RT | November 5, 2016

Humility in foreign policy “is useful trait,” outgoing President Barack Obama said, adding that America is “an indispensable nation” that has “a lot to be proud of” in the world – thanks to having the most powerful military force.

The assertion came during Obama’s sit in with HBO’s Real Time show host Bill Maher on Friday. The interview was focused on the president’s political legacy and domestic problems, but the commander-in-chief also shared his thoughts on why the US needs a military that costs over $600 billions a year, according to Maher’s count.

“The US having the most powerful military on Earth… helps up check the impulses of some other bad folks,” Obama said, giving North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his country’s nuclear weapons program as an example.

The Pentagon stages annual military exercises with its ally, South Korea, to prepare for a possible conflict with North Korea. South Korea is the world’s tenth biggest defense spender, investing about $34 billion in its military annually, compared to North Korea’s estimated $10 billion. Pyongyang insists it needs nuclear weapons to deter possible military aggression from the US.

Obama said the US has a natural inclination to intervene globally, though sometimes things go “haywire.”

“Bad things happen around the world and our natural instinct is – we should do something. There are times where our intervention makes a difference, but there are a lot of times where the unintended consequences can result in more problems when we intervene. And sorting out where those issues play out is, I think, one of the biggest challenges that any president has,” he said.

While the president didn’t elaborate on which of his decisions to employ America’s military might had caused unintended consequences, the destruction of Libya in 2011 may come to mind first. NATO’s bombing campaign helped rebels topple the country’s government, and, five years on, Libya is a fractured nation over which competing militant groups, terrorists, and criminals run rampant. In his earlier interviews, Obama said that he regretted not having a plan of action for after the intervention.

Yet Obama said he still believes the US and its military should continue to play a major role in the world.

“As flawed as our foreign policy can be, and whatever blind spots we have, we really are the indispensable nation,” he bragged.

American troops are heavily involved in providing humanitarian relief after natural disasters occur or when diseases break out, Obama explained, mentioning the Ebola virus outbreak of 2014. The Pentagon has infrastructure in place for rapid response and can often act before anyone else.

America’s important role goes beyond its military presence, however.

“There is not an international meeting I go to in which, if we were not sitting at the table, nothing gets done. For the most part, other countries don’t have either the capacity or the inclination,” he said.

“When you have a bunch of authoritarian governments out there and a creeping authoritarian impulse around the world, we also are the ones who are pushing back – imperfectly, but most effectively – against locking up journalists and killing human rights activists and making sure that poor people get food and dealing with health crises,” he said.

While Obama didn’t elaborate on how successful America was in pushing back against Turkey’s impulse to arrest journalists or Saudi Arabia’s executions of human rights activists, for example, he insisted that the world needed America’s influence.

“Our values and our ideals actually matter. We do a lot of good around the world. There are some things that we do that are either ineffective or imperfect, but there is a lot to be proud of,” the president said.

The interview came a week ahead of the US presidential election. Before wrapping up, Obama reiterated his call to vote for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Read more:

Obama: ‘We have to twist arms when countries don’t do what we need them to’

November 5, 2016 - Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular | ,

3 Comments »

  1. The death dealers at the Pentagon get a helluva lot more than 600 billion. There’s money for the nuclear weapons program, which is with the Dept of Energy.

    The money for the VA hospitals and pensions is not in the Pentagon budget, adding tens and tens of billions to the Department of War budget.

    And the money needed to pay the interest on the past money borrowed to fund the Pentagon isn’t included.

    Add the above into the P budget and it’s closer to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS.

    Like

    Greg Bacon's avatar Comment by Greg Bacon | November 5, 2016 | Reply

  2. Well well, how arrogant a man can be who has managed little to nothing to enhance the social well-being of the People of his country while he was the Head of the Nation!

    America being indispensable……. no country has shown to be more dispensable then the USA!
    Lets look at the world as it is right now!
    What would have happened when the USA would NOT have intervened (in what way ever!) in the Middle East?
    Saddam Hussein would not have been murdered, there would not have been hundreds American soldiers been killed, and there would not have been ISIS, there would have not been Al Quaida even! There would not have been Quantanamo Bay, and there would not still be an occupied Palestine!

    When looking at America itself, we see a country that is so divided among racial lines that te world can only watch in shock!
    Corrupt police forces, corrupt judicial forces, a corrupt Congress, all sections of America that are important for a country are corrupt and non-functional!
    The People do not trust the police, the People do not trust the courts and the judges, and the People do not trust Congress……. and still the President of that non-functional and corrupt country maintains the claim that the country is indispensable, needed to maintain a good order in the world!

    Socially the USA is a wreckage, a failure and at its end of existence, and that same country claims to be the only one to maintain a good world order!
    We’ve heard and seen countries claim the same in the past, the best example is Germany prior to WW2, when a guy named hitler claimed to be the only solution to a better world, who claimed that the then Germany was indispensable for the world to exist, and we all know what the result of that claim was, we’ve seen it hen the then Great Brittan made the same claim, and we’ve seen what happened to the great empire they had build……

    We’ve seen it when the Romans claimed it, the world could and would not exist without the Romans, well, the world puked at the Romans and the Romans failed, the world in 2016 is puking at America and America is crumbling down, a presidential candidate who is accused of raping a 13 year old girl, a candidate is so stupid as to have official correspondence on a non-secured electronic system, a judicial system that shows to be unable to lawfully handle criminals but sends people to prison who turn out to be innocent of the crimes they have been accused with, due to corrupt prosecutors….. Lawmakers who are payed to vote for certain legislation by states who profit from that legislation, support of countries that are completely opposite to the claimed values and norms of the United States of America, countries were women are treated as animals are given the full support by America, countries were minorities are killed because of opposing the officials are supported and defended by America, countries were people are murdered because of their way of loving other people are supported and defended, and last but not least, American officials are defended who have abused children while abroad…….

    And that country is indispensable?

    Two words: MY ASS!

    Like

    masteradrian's avatar Comment by masteradrian | November 6, 2016 | Reply

  3. Sixteen Reasons to vote for Donald Trump:

    1. He is best poised to be the one that the anti-war movement can revitalize itself against

    2. He appeals to Joe Sixpack; exactly the same target we have with our “America First, Not Israel” campaign. We are likely to gain adherents to our campaign if Trump becomes president

    3. He’s the best to adopt an “America First” attitude. If any candidate is likely to be so American as to see that Israel and America hold divergent, un-American values, he’s the one.

    4. Jews distrust Trump. While we don’t hold that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, this distrust speaks a lot about possible Trump willingness to break from the pack on allegiance to Israel. Given the choice between Bubba and Schlomo in a schism, we feel Trump will side with Bubba.

    5. He is a totally expected candidate. Did liberals really think that racism would disappear with eight years of a black president? Did they not see the anger within white America (some of us did)? Isn’t it logical that a man representing the white race would emerge after two million more black Americans voted in the 2008 elections than they did in 2004? Was that because they selected Barack Obama b/c of his qualifications or that he was black? How many white Americans voted for Obama for the same reason? If anyone used Obama’s race as a dominant reason for casting their vote for him, it was for exactly the same racist reasons as white Americans now promote Trump.

    6. Vote for a winner. Feel good about it.

    7. America has gotten increasingly more belligerent and jingoistic no matter whether a Democratic or Republican president. Electing Trump puts the real face of America in the White House. Maybe it’s time to stop fooling the world with wolves in sheep’s clothing and to say “Here! This is who we are!”

    8. We don’t fool ourselves: Americans are more likely to vote AGAINST the candidate they DON’T want as to cast a vote for someone they DO want. We are sick and tired of the “Change we can believe in” and “Yes, we can!” Hollywood baseless slogans. The only way to end this is to do what most Americans do, and that is vote for their OPPONENT, in this case, Donald Trump.

    9. Trump’s ego is best suited for a showdown with Benjamin Netanyahu. Any snub by Bibi is more likely to be met with more backlash fire and brimstone than any of the other candidates.

    10. Re:#9 I cannot find an image of Trump at the Wailing Wall, the traditional show of American obeisance to Jewish Power.

    11. Not dependent on Jewish money

    12. Loves America

    13. We say “America First, Not Israel”; Donald says “America First”. He’s almost there and a hell of lot closer than the rest.

    14. For those unhappy with the current government, the only chance to change it is to elect someone from outside the Beltway.

    15. The ONLY WAY to keep Hillary out of the White House is to vote for Donald Trump.

    16. According to Jeff Blankfort, there’s a good chance she will nominate Alan Dershowitz to the Supreme Court. “Israel” has no better friend.

    Like

    Henry Herskovitz's avatar Comment by Henry Herskovitz | November 6, 2016 | Reply


Leave a reply to Greg Bacon Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

« Previous | Next »