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President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

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Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#51

Post by imron »

dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #38
imron wrote: post #9

Here's another nifty visualisation - this time with drone strikes: http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high. I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here. Nifty visualization though.

> but the majority of those killed were combatants

I hope so because otherwise that makes the US a monster.

> Civilians and kids have died for sure

It makes you wonder though, about cause and effect.

I mean, imagine if a foreign power had the capability to deploy drone strikes on US soil against people it saw as 'military combatants', and managed to kill them while they were attending weddings and the like, with some civilians and children regretfully caught in the crossfire.

I don't imagine it would take long for large numbers of military age males to be willing to become combatants against such an enemy.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#53

Post by erelde »

jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

Obama went to Paris (I live in downtown Paris) several times I think, and there have been multiple reunions of numerous heads of state here, I don't remember any particular perturbations, other than 5 or 7 subway station blocked. The most notable was after the november 2015 attacks, there was some trouble because Obama kept changing* schedule.

Not to downplay this, but maybe in some cities it is more doable than others.

*guessing they weren't "changing" the schedule and they were in fact keeping it very tight and putting out another schedule altogether

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#54

Post by alva »

dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #38
imron wrote: post #9

Here's another nifty visualisation - this time with drone strikes: http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high. I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here. Nifty visualization though.

> military age males

> Civilians

Not mutually exclusive.

> but the majority of those killed were combatants

You mean all men aged between 16-49 regardless of who they are or what they do?

Remember that the definition for a militant/combatant was changed due to the terribly high number of civilians killed by the US. What a disgusting thing to do. Ranks as one of the lowest points of the Nobel peace prize winning President

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/under-o... https://www.salon.com/2012/05/29/militants_media_propaganda/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in...

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#57

Post by akjainaj »

terenceng2010 wrote: post #55
akjainaj wrote: post #42

This map really crawls on Firefox.

This map uses arcgis jsapi 3.19, compare to leaflet js, it is quite heavy and demanding for low-end pc or mobile. jsapi 4.x is more lightweight though.

I have a high end PC, but Firefox is... what it is ;P

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#58

Post by burkaman »

thinkloop wrote: post #24
jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

I wonder how D.C. is able to handle it, the president needs to leave the whitehouse at some point.

Portions of DC are constantly closing for summits when other leaders come to the city. Day to day, I think the area around the White House is always sufficiently secure that the president leaving doesn't cause much of a disruption.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#59

Post by clintonb »

chki wrote: post #33
random_upvoter wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this. Compare…

"We just replace him with the next guy in a suit and tie" I think this misses a key point of democracy. The president is not important as a person but because he is legitimized by the american public. Replacing him requires an enormous effort which is really what it is all about. On top of that one could argue that the president has to be kept safe so that there is somebody willing to get elected and take the risk. S…

> Replacing him requires an enormous effort which is really what it is all about.

It's not _that_ difficult. We have at least 17 people in line to replace him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_lin.... All it takes is verifying the president is unable to serve, and administering the oath of office.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#60

Post by Waterluvian »

Not the best of maps to tell that story. The loxodromes between Washington and the countries he visited aren't all that useful, yet draw most of the attention.

I'd probably make a list of countries, ordered by visit. Beside that, a simple political map with the markers. I'd resist the urge to label the markers with the city he visited, but I might have a mouse-over for more info and a link if available.

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