10:25 EDT: President Obama makes a statement on Iraq
Also at White House Live
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US Military Air-Drop of Food and Water over Sinjar in Iraq
(What A Difference From Dropping Bombs)
BBC
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Aircraft from USS George HW Bush, president who abandoned the Kurds in 1991, now helping to save the Kurds.
— Rajiv Chandrasekaran (@rajivwashpost) August 8, 2025
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The President’s NYT Interview
NYT: Obama on the World
President Obama Talks to Thomas L. Friedman About Iraq, Putin and Israel
President Obama’s hair is definitely grayer these days, and no doubt trying to manage foreign policy in a world of increasing disorder accounts for at least half of those gray hairs. (The Tea Party can claim the other half.) But having had a chance to spend an hour touring the horizon with him in the White House Map Room late Friday afternoon, it’s clear that the president has a take on the world, born of many lessons over the last six years, and he has feisty answers for all his foreign policy critics.
Obama made clear that he is only going to involve America more deeply in places like the Middle East to the extent that the different communities there agree to an inclusive politics of no victor/no vanquished. The United States is not going to be the air force of Iraqi Shiites or any other faction. Despite Western sanctions, he cautioned, President Vladimir Putin of Russia “could invade” Ukraine at any time, and, if he does, “trying to find our way back to a cooperative functioning relationship with Russia during the remainder of my term will be much more difficult.” Intervening in Libya to prevent a massacre was the right thing to do, Obama argued, but doing it without sufficient follow-up on the ground to manage Libya’s transition to more democratic politics is probably his biggest foreign policy regret.
More here
On Israel
On Libya
On Iraq
On China
Thanks a gazillion to LP for the links and to Nerdy for putting them together in a draft
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Guess who’s criticizing PBO’s Iraq strategy… but skipped meeting about it at WH last week? http://t.co/ytP3cC0ro9 pic.twitter.com/MnnUsoaLU3
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 8, 2025
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This made me smile - Knoller has been getting epic push-back on Twitter in recent days for his shilling, and his obsession with the President’s vacation. So much so, he now has an army of Teabaggers following him (just check any of the comments under his tweets). So, maybe the pressure actually left him feeling obliged to tweet at least one bit of honesty:
Black president 125 vacation days > white president 381 vacation days. #math#fact #PostRacialAmerica pic.twitter.com/JjLM99D22l
— BWD (@theonlyadult) August 9, 2025
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In Case You Missed It
See @PeteSouza‘s beautiful photos from the US-Africa Leaders Summit here: http://t.co/sDEfsmnfbq pic.twitter.com/YRfJPwnFAS
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 8, 2025
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A President Who Doesn’t Hide The Cost Of War
Pete Souza: “The President, in the process of saluting, participates in a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of U.S. and Afghan personnel who died in Afghanistan a few days earlier. Many family members and friends of the special forces who died in this incident requested a copy of the photograph and later wrote me how much it meant to them.” Aug. 9, 2011
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Rascal
On This Day - Pete Souza: “We were walking through a locker room at the University of Texas when White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson stopped to weigh himself on a scale. Unbeknownst to him, the President was stepping on the back of the scale, as Marvin continued to slide the scale lever. Everyone but Marvin was in on the joke.” Aug. 9, 2010
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MoooOOOooorning everyone! Another rushed R&S, will try to catch up through the day.
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