Reply #5: "Obama does not seem to understand the "messages" that words and actions can convey."

[Occam Bandage]

This is an argument I have not yet heard against Obama. Obama does not understand that words can carry messages, and that those messages can be powerful? That would, if I am not mistaken, be the entire fucking point of his campaign.

Your business about meeting with unfriendly heads of state is bunk. Isolating despots does not weaken them; rather, it has without fail strengthened their hold over power as they become the sole source of political movement in their country, and as the world community has given them little to lose. From China to Libya to the Soviet Union, diplomatic engagement has led to loosening of dictatorships. From Iran to North Korea to Cuba to Iraq, sustained diplomatic neglect has led to consolidation and entrenchment of dictatorships.


"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." - JFK