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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

#61

Post by dmd »

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…

> Sure, someone will always become president but that person might not have the required skills.

What a tragedy that would be! Fortunately, we have a system to prevent it from happening.

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

#62

Post by krzyk »

paublyrne wrote: post #27
samkone wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accurate how? At the time Medvedev was President of Russia, and Putin was Prime Minister. Since he was President before that, it's ok for him to be referred as President, like any former President of country.

The convention of referring to an ex president as President is peculiar to United States presidents, AFAIK.

No, we have the same in Poland, former presidents are still referenced as president (e.g. president Walesa or as mr president).

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

#64

Post by masklinn »

erelde wrote: post #53
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 othe…

I'm guessing it's different when it's a capital city as they are used to handling heads of state and other officials e.g. POTUS in DC and POTUS in LA are different situations.

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

#65

Post by pdabbadabba »

erelde wrote: post #53
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 othe…

Yeah. Clearly some cities (like Paris) are more accustomed to receiving these sorts of visitors and, probably, have more permanent infrastructure in place to handle the visits with minimal interruption. I live in Washington, D.C. and, obviously, my city is not shut down whenever the president is in town. At most, we have to deal with a closed road and some loud sirens for a few minutes when the president is literally driving past.

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

#66

Post by freehunter »

akjainaj wrote: post #29
jankotek wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont be impressed. Nazi officials also traveled with minimal protection in occupied countries. When Reinhard Heydrich was killed, a few villages were leveled in retaliation. US president should be protected. But it should be protected as other military targets. You would never put a nuclear silo into large metropolitan area.

That's a nice Godwin there. Couldn't it be that Mahmoud is simply loved by his people? And it's not like the hypothetical killer of a US president would simply walk away from court.

Just mentioning a Nazi does not invoke Godwin's law. You have to compare the person to a Nazi. The implication here was Nazis were hated in occupied territory but didn't travel in bulletproof bubbles, not that anyone who doesn't travel in bulletproof bubbles is a Nazi.

There was no invocation of Godwin's law here.

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

#67

Post by drinkjuice »

akjainaj wrote: post #41
jankotek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea how this works.

The failed coup d'etat in Turkey opened my eyes.

Failed? It worked splendidly to entrench Erdogan and give him even more of a free hand, did it not?

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

#68

Post by drinkjuice »

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.

> The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high.

No. Not just since the Vietnam War, but certainly since then, the US is beyond her eyes in blood. It's so thick you can even call it water and not blush. Amazing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/life-as-a-dron...

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

#69

Post by almostApatriot1 »

cyberferret wrote: post #17
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 agree with the fact that the President should probably not visit foreign cities unless absolutely necessary. In our case, President Obama (and I am a full supporter of his) visited our little town here in Australia (pop: ~100,000) back in 2011 to meet with our Prime Minister to ratify a deal to station about 10,000 US Marines in our town. He was on the ground here for about 6 hours. For the whole day (and most of t…

Sounds like an overreaction by your government tbh. Not Obama's fault. He comes to NYC fairly often, and there's usually more traffic in certain parts but 95% of people in the city wouldn't realize it.
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