America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016

[Pam]

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...6-obama-legacy

Most Americans would probably be astounded to realize that the president who has been painted by Washington pundits as a reluctant warrior has actually been a hawk. The Iran nuclear deal, a herculean achievement, and the opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba unfortunately stand alone as President Obama’s successful uses of diplomacy over hostility.While candidate Obama came to office pledging to end George W Bush’s wars, he leaves office having been at war longer than any president in US history. He is also the only president to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.
President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Yep, other contradictions abound.

I guess that Nobel peace prize was a bit premature in presentation.

I am not full out anti-military but it seems the military industrial complex persists withstanding who is president.

[clubboss]

Obama was the greatest president in modern times; he wore several hats with distinction, Commander-in-Chief is just of them. Obama took the drone program, which numbered less than 1000 when he took office, to somewhere around 5000 to 7000 drones. He made the difficult decisions that needed to made as America’s Commander in Chief. Drone strikes are authorized by the president.
The president is referred to as “The First Customer” in the U.S. intelligence community; they respond to every request of the president. Obama had approximately a dozen intelligence orders [[Findings) that were signed by him. Some of these orders granted broad authority to conduct lethal counter-terrorism operations in several dozen countries. Other orders are limited; they may assist in clandestine operations in a country for several reasons. Cash payments to rebels, or those that are politically opposed, are but a couple of examples. These covert-action orders remain in place unless the new president orders otherwise. He may add or subtract if he wishes. While the president is obligated to inform the senate and house intelligence committees of these covert acts, if an operation is ultra-sensitive, only the “Gang of Eight” is informed. The most important “Findings” are the operations in place to prevent a country from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Lastly, NSA has its Tailored Access Operations Team [[TAO); branching off is the “Computer Network Attack” [[CNA) group. These individuals hack into foreign government computer systems, often taking down – destroying – the systems as they exit.
As Obama expressed himself “At any given moment of the day, there are explosive, tragic, heinous, hazardous things taking place” Obama acknowledged that as the president it is his responsibility to deal with these problems.
I salute President Obama

[Richard]

So why are we messing about with sanctions and such when all we have to do is create a covert action.

Pretty much every covert action has come back and bit us in the rear.

We have no business meddling in other countries affairs because we can,after spending billions on security we are in the same place as we were 10 years ago.

Fund the rebellion in Cuba,covert action.
Flood the US with cocaine to fund the sandistas,covert action.
Fund the Al-Qaeda to fight the Russians in Afghanistan then fund the Taliban to fight Al-qaeda because we were done with them,covertly of course.

How do we not know we did not hack our own election and then blame it on Russia,covertly.

Granted he did nothing that others before him did but at the end of the day he was the commander in chief and ultimately responsible for what happened in Benghazi,they could have used those drones and could have sent support but they did not and left Americans to die.For no reason other then to be there for covert actions.

There should be zero covert actions anytime.

No salute from me.

[Meddle]

The main bomber force, called Plate Rack, took off shortly after the Pathfinders. This group of 254 Lancasters carried 500 tons of high explosives and 375 tons of incendiaries [["fire bombs"). There were 200,000 incendiaries in all, with the high-explosive bombs ranging in weight from 500 pounds to 4,000 pounds—the so-called two-ton cookies,[47] also known as "blockbusters," because they could destroy an entire large building or street. The high explosives were intended to rupture water mains and blow off roofs, doors, and windows to create an air flow to feed the fires caused by the incendiaries that followed.

One raid on Dresden, February 13, 1945 with several more to follow.

26,000 over a year is peanuts.

The most destructive bomb of '16 though, one that could put the entire free world at risk fell on November 8th.

[ABetterDetroit]

There should be zero covert actions anytime.

bin laden would have really appreciated that policy.

Why were thinking on this one Richard, whats your full name and address down there? Just to demonstrate to us how strong you support the everybody knowing everything and how well it will make the world more peaceful and safe for the rest of us because..."There should be zero covert actions anytime."

[canuck]

One raid on Dresden, February 13, 1945 with several more to follow.

26,000 over a year is peanuts.

The most destructive bomb of '16 though, one that could put the entire free world at risk fell on November 8th.

Absolutely right about that, meddle. And the carpet bombing of German cities was an act of retribution near the close.of the war. Dresden also happened to be a soft bull's eye in that there were few military and arms manufacture targets in the region.

[JBMcB]

Obama was the greatest president in modern times

I guess that opinion depends on if you live in the middle east or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterm...byan_Civil_War

Do you wonder if, back when Obama was a community organizer, helping to set up job training programs and lobbying for funding community development programs, back when he was giving speeches against the Iraq war and adding transparency legislation to track government spending - do you wonder if he ever dreamed of being president, and having a CIA-created kill list where he would authorize flying robots to blow up people in countries we haven't declared war on?

[Richard]

Between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped around 2.5 million tons of bombs on Laos.

The equivalent of a planeload of bombs every eight minutes for nine years, or a ton of bombs for every personin the country—more than what American planes unloaded on Germany and Japan combined during World War II. Laos remains, per capita, the most heavily bombed country on earth.

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/laos-vietnam-war-us-bombing-uxo

[Richard]

bin laden would have really appreciated that policy.

Why were thinking on this one Richard, whats your full name and address down there? Just to demonstrate to us how strong you support the everybody knowing everything and how well it will make the world more peaceful and safe for the rest of us because..."There should be zero covert actions anytime."

I was there during a covert action in 1980 where 8 service men lost their lives for nothing.

Most covert actions are a political knee jerk reactions based on the theory that intelligence is what the word implies and unnecessarily costs the lives of good people.

The theory of covert actions is what keeps this country safe would be a bit misguided.

Bin laden could have been taken out long before any covert action was necessary.

Covert actions in Columbia and other South American countries in the drug war has done nothing to decrease the supply of cocaine or stop the flow of drugs.

Covert actions in the middle east on the onset got us to where we are today,we created a situation that did not exist,the 1970s saw a rise in terrorism but was brought under control and subsided until we brought it on to our shores.

We have teams of rapid response that are very good at what they do,but it seems as though the CIA goes in with their little covert operations and then have to call in the professionals when they cannot handle it anymore and that costs lives unnecessarily.

For S&G do a little search on hostage rescue attempt, there was nobody boots on the ground that did not know what they were doing to the full extent,so why did they fail?

Maybe some get confused on what exactly a covert action really is,which is you go and do what you are going to do then get back out without anybody knowing who was there and why they were there,they remain classified,so Bin Laden was not a covert action.

It was not until recently that military actions that require little public knowledge were made public in advance.

[clubboss]

Do you wonder if, back when Obama was a community organizer, helping to set up job training programs and lobbying for funding community development programs, back when he was giving speeches against the Iraq war and adding transparency legislation to track government spending - do you wonder if he ever dreamed of being president, and having a CIA-created kill list where he would authorize flying robots to blow up people in countries we haven't declared war on?

Shortly after winning the election in 2008, President-elect Obama was given several briefings. At that time the extraordinary intelligence and military capabilities [[including nuclear) that he would have control over, were laid out to him in a series of meetings – America’s deepest secrets are also revealed to the president during this period. One such meeting occurred at a secure facility in Chicago; Obama quipped as he exited the building: “It’s good that there are bars on the windows here because if there wasn’t, I might be jumping out”.
“Special Access Programs” – America’s top secret operations – intelligence and drone strikes are laid out and explained to the president. At this time, Obama [[any president elect) has the option of asking the names of the dozens of foreign officials that are on the CIA’s payroll. While a president has the right to ask, presidents rarely asks for those names – unless an asset is in an extraordinary secret, sensitive position, and is a vital asset to the agency.
I believe the final briefing concerns America’s nuclear war plans – the football – and the “Presidential Decision Handbook.” Known as the black book, this top secret/code-word book carries the nuclear options available; from targeting individual leaders, to structures of significant economic or military importance, it is the president’s handbook, it even includes casualty estimates – which would be in millions.

Obama lost his innocence before he even entered the White House.

[oladub]

Those 26,000 bombs probably wouldn't be 'peanuts' to the people they were falling on and they were more accurate than WWII bombs. One has to wonder who those bombs were dropped on since the CIA and Pentagon were supplying weapons to different rebel groups in Syria who used those weapons against each other under Obama.