Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy

[Psycho4Bud]

Winnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser.

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: â??Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.â?�

He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.

Mr Obamaâ??s candidacy was given an early boost by his opposition to the Iraq war and he has repeatedly said the US needs to rethink its approach to the Middle East.

Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the childrenâ??s classic, which says: â??Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.â?�
Barack Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy - Telegraph

LMAO....and this is what some to be their Commander in Chief? This will make for quite the war room....bumpity bump.

Have a good one!:s4:

Psycho4Bud Reviewed by Psycho4Bud on 06-19-2008. Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy Winnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser. Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be Rating: 5

[rebgirl420]

As for him being commander and chief I will say,

that our army won't be tough, but it will be adorable.

[Immolation]

Mr Danzig relys on Winnie the Pooh for Inspiration ? Keep On Smokin it Mr. D.:stoned:

[Dream of the iris]

Thats a very interesting analogy he used right there which points out the fact that this is a new type of warfare we're dealing with. Now I'm not saying Obama has the answers necessarily but his aide is right when he says that new approaches have to be met. Just as we had to establish new techniques in the second 30 years war so must we with this new war.

[daihashi]

Um.. maybe I didn't read enough Winnie the Pooh or something but I don't see the relation. This entire article was just a little weird and random.

I did agree with one thing in the article:

"In a subtle break from Mr Bushâ??s belief that the war on terror can be won, Mr Danzig, who is a Pentagon adviser on bioterrorism, warned that while the West can defeat individual terrorist groups and plots, it can never entirely remove the threat posed by nuclear proliferation or the prospect of bioterrorism."

I see the war on terror much the same way I see the war on drugs that was introduced by Reagan. It is not something that we can truely realistically win. Instead of dumping all of our efforts to FORCE a change.. we need to do something else to help that region MAKE a change.

I don't know what that would be; I just acknowledge it is not a war that can ever be won. I don't think that doesn't mean we shouldn't do things to attempt to prevent it but it seems a bit silly to truely believe that we can defeat terrorism.

But winnie the pooh?? Really?? come on now, lol :stoned:

[dragonrider]

Leaving aside the foreign policy question for a second, I have to ask something I've always wondered about: what is a "Pooh?"

Winnie apears to me to be some kind of stuffed bear. Is "Pooh" a term for a stuffed bear? If Christopher Robin told me he had a "Winnie the Pooh," I would have assumed he had given a nickname to his diaper load.

[birdgirl73]

Winnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser.

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: â??Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.â?�

He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.

Mr Obamaâ??s candidacy was given an early boost by his opposition to the Iraq war and he has repeatedly said the US needs to rethink its approach to the Middle East.

Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the childrenâ??s classic, which says: â??Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.â?�
Barack Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy - Telegraph

LMAO....and this is what some to be their Commander in Chief? This will make for quite the war room....bumpity bump.

Have a good one!:s4:

If you want to leave this thread visible, then, P4B, I'll make an accurate point that a previous poster did, Dave Byrd.

I think your bias is showing here, original poster. This speech wasn't given by a future commander in chief. It was given by a man who may be a security advisor. Or may not be. He made a metaphor, which is a comparison to the Pooh story. Good metaphor because, as good ones are, it's simple and easy to see the bump-factor in this war.

Now for your question:
"and this is what some to be their Commander in Chief?"

I'm assuming you meant "Is that what some want to be their commander in chief?" thinking that that was Obama who made that metaphor? Help us understand it, please. Because the speaker's name was Richard Danzig.

[Psycho4Bud]

LMAO! And I'm sure that Al-Quada, Iran, Humas, Hezbullah to mention a few would LOVE to hear that our national security advisor looks to the wisdom of Winnie the Pooh. No Obama didn't state it himself but what would be said about Bush if Stephen Hadley did?

By the way, thanks for the grammer check. Always nice to know that some people have your back.:thumbsup:

Have a good one!:s4:

[dragonrider]

It is an easy metaphor to ridicule because it is drawn from a children's story and includes the word "Pooh." But I think there is an apt metaphor there: maybe we could fight this so-called War on Terror without bumping our heads, if we could just stop bumping our heads long enough to think about it.

Another reason for picking a Pooh story is that maybe Danzig wanted to pick a story he thought Bush and his team would be familiar with. Something they could relate to.

[dragonrider]

No Obama didn't state it himself but what would be said about Bush if Stephen Hadley did?

Danzig wasn't speaking as an Obama advisor, he was speaking as a current pentagon advisor. He works for Bush right now, right?

This is actually a very strangely written article when you read the whole thing, because it seems to place the most importance on the Pooh statement and how that might influence Obama's policies in the possible event that Danziger has a future role in Obama's adminstration. But then it goes on to mention Danziger's current role as a pentagon advisor and the fact that he was speaking at a foriegn policy conference, and it really doesn't make any connection to Obama. If this Pooh metaphor was really any kind of outrageously stupid thing to say (and I don't really think it is), then isn't the story really that this current pentagon advisor said something stupid, not that Obama might have a silly policy in the possible future if he brings on this current pentagon advisor who said something stupid?