Obama Papers Over His Record on Drones | The Mehdi Hasan Show

[@ALL_CAPS__]

Bravo, Mr Hassan. This is journalism. Objectivity.

[@pilsung26]

To be fair it’s editorializing; even if I agree with him for the most part

[@ALL_CAPS__]

@@pilsung26 How so? It seems like he was just stating the facts.

[@faizeladam1404]

This is one topic, Obama finds it hard to find words to justify his actions.

[@ALL_CAPS__]

@JSTR how so?

[@ALL_CAPS__]

@JSTR you said it was bullshit, so I said, how so?

[@sovitsubedi3423]

Mehdi should try to interview Obama. Will be the biggest thing ever.

[@tolutani-olu9680]

Obama would not go

[@ddrebrne3336]

Yeah, he would. He's not spineless like those on the right.

[@tolutani-olu9680]

@@ddrebrne3336 It would be heavily controlled. He does not want his reputation gone.

[@AlwonDomz]

@@tolutani-olu9680: Obama is NOT Trump... If he can sit with O’Reilly or Putin he can sit with anyone.

[@naimhussain606]

That would be great

[@jatinderbirsingh7641]

Drone strikes are a like a child sitting in front of computer screen killing real people......

[@naeem_bari]

Literal Ender's Game

[@peacebeuntoyou8934]

Obama, Bush, Blair and Trump all have blood on their hands.

[@eunicedesouza8279]

Any president involved in warfare has blood on their hands. Flump however, has managed to cause , by negligence, the deaths of his own people on a daily basis. No drones needed, just Covid & misinformation.

[@peacebeuntoyou8934]

@@willaminabrown You're mum's a rodent.

[@wolfrem7667]

And what is the order?

[@wolfrem7667]

@@willaminabrown Me!

[@wolfrem7667]

@@willaminabrown The history books!

[@byabangad4609]

This is why I subscribe to Mehdi Hassan’s journalism. Call out anyone to accountability!

[@TheBuriedLedeR]

When's the last time #Mehdi called out #Biden? It's been months. During the Dem Primaries #MadDawg did a hit piece on the former Veep. Why back then and not now? Simple. #BernieSanders was still a viable candidate and #Mehdi was trying to do what he could to assist the socialist's efforts.

[@byabangad4609]

@@TheBuriedLedeR Hold your breathe! Biden’s presidency hasn’t begun yet. You want people to call out everybody in every second of every hour of every day of every month of every year all the time? That’s not possible. Let’s wait and watch!

[@tounsifiras7210]

@JSTR wait, what ...

[@hamedurrahman3408]

@@TheBuriedLedeR I suggest you watch his head to head in Al Jazeera where he interviewed Biden's campaign manager I guess. She was dumbstruck! 😂 facebook.com/watch/?v=3046213508798135

[@charlesleger6787]

And even tho hes probably à democrati democrat hes still roastinghim

[@AzamatBagatov413]

Mehdi hassan is one of the few journalists who's actually doing journalism

[@biborton420]

That's The real difference between mehdi & other us journalist. He will speak truth to power no matter who it is. You will never see this from Jake taper or anderson cooper. Kudos 👍 to mehdi.

[@TheBuriedLedeR]

Untrue. After #Biden won the Democrat nomination, #Mehdi took his foot off the gas pedal.

[@getajoblazy1621]

Thus guy Mahdi HATES anything American, lol he's pandering to the guilt ridden bleeding heart new weak generation.

[@margarethawinarto3931]

Of course he justified his actions, after all it was not his own family members who got killed.

[@emblemedfate4270]

He had a 90% civilian death rate and his vp help start 7 wars but non that matters because people will be spoting that lesser evil nonsense in when its democrat nominee dick Cheney vs Don jr

[@emblemedfate4270]

@@darrel7589 obama had a 90% civilian death rate,bush killed nearly a million,obama dropped more bombs than bush and funded slave markets in libya Stop living in ur american privilege bubble we kill more people than Osama would ever dream of go look up "iraq uranium birth defects" osama didn't do that America did

[@emblemedfate4270]

@@darrel7589 thank u for proving u are privilege & that blue maga is just as crazy and partisan as regular maga military records reveal 90% civilian death rate theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-assassination-complex/ This isnt HARD to Google, i have friends from syria ive seen it myself stop pretending to be an idiot ik ur not dumb

[@emblemedfate4270]

@@darrel7589 if ur gonna say crap like that u might as well say maga and trump never lies its just as stupid and just as true as wat u said

[@emblemedfate4270]

@@darrel7589 i use to love obama until i saw the slave markets in libya get off his croch obama was a war criminal monster

[@toyeb5749]

This is journalism👏!! Great job Mehdi!

[@wfl6887]

Wouldn’t hear this on Joy Reid.

[@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13]

Nope!

[@retromike1]

Hasan is the man always thorough

[@amssaid9583]

Him and math taibi ... N Amy Goodman .....

[@drabdillahisaid17]

I will love watching mehdi hassan interviewing the Obams the bushes

[@yttean98]

Obama quote: "One civilian death is tragic..." he should add as long they are not Americans other races are fine, also he should add " this is American Hegemony" their deaths are JUST Collateral Damage. That is the American way of thinking.

[@WaveRider1989]

That's how it always been bro. Times of Geghas Khan where whole cities were massacred

[@yttean98]

@@WaveRider1989 wow what a new revelation, this is the modern world we are more civilized right. Drone bombing is an attack on the weak disguised as self-defense.

[@iman6189]

Man this guy Mehdi is great .... The most objective journalist I'd ever get a chance to listen to

[@MindManifestator]

Understand he is Muslim

[@iman6189]

@@MindManifestator what has that got to do with anything ?

[@lorinapetranova2607]

@@iman6189 20000k thumbs up to your comment. Who gives a rat's patootie what religion Mehdi is just so long as he's not chinese!!!!!! Bwahaha!!!!

[@CricketDon-dn2vn]

Mehdi you nailed it!

[@lyndasutherland6165]

I like Obama for many reasons; however, I don't like drone-strike Obama. I recall posting a news article and image on FB, which reported that children in the Middle East had become scared of sunny, cloudless days. I was raised in the Southernmost city in the Southern Hemisphere, such days for me were heaven on Earth! I'm pleased that Mehdi is reminding us of the trauma caused, across generations, from drone usage.

[@ambriaashley3383]

Drone-strike Obama IS Obama, though. Same guy. I am disappointed with him for many things, the expanded drone program included, along with no meaningful criminal justice reform, the mass deportations, & his tendency to appoint deficit hawks that would rather save the economy than the people that hold it up

[@lyndasutherland6165]

@@ambriaashley3383 Yours's is a far more in-depth and identified list of short-comings. I do admit that I wholeheartedly supported the election of a Black Man/non-White to the post. While not an American, I did learn yesterday that Biden had appointed a BlackRock Exec to a position of importance...disappointing.

[@TheBuriedLedeR]

@@ambriaashley3383 ...."Drone-strike Obama IS Obama'. Exacte. I also love how the ignorant Norwegians awarded that fool a "Nobel Peace Prize" for accomplishing nothing. Nada. They did have high hopes, though, for their #ManchurianPresident.

[@XxGolden_warrior]

Well said

[@peasant7214]

please explain your many reasons for liking obama.

[@AlwonDomz]

5:00 Obama was talking about the Somali pirates who captured Captain Phillips in that quote... not drone strike victims...

[@drterrycreagh756]

Amazing how this man can rationalise anything!

[@muminmiah5587]

Obama must be so happy that this show won't reach too far, at least for now :)

[@galgalore]

I liked Obama as president but I Love that you can objectively go after him when he did wrong .. thank you .. I pray that you and people like you usher in this form of journalism

[@roniyim1223]

Obana, 1st black president trying to prove himself worthy but became a president with inhuman acts!!

[@nasirmahmood9459]

While people want signatures of celebs i want this mans sign The man is a peace of heaven decended to earth

[@harrowedhuman]

Same here 🌻 ... M from kashmir

[@bomaite1]

Don't forget that there is also the issue of respecting the sovereignty of other countries. Many of these strikes took place in countries that the US had not declared war on or currently had open hostilities with. It is not easy to say, then, that this is an act of war. We reach into the most remote places and play judge, jury and executioner, simply because we can. It goes against out own sense of what justice is and how it should be dispensed, and it also calls into question out own nation's legitimacy, concerning our borders and the protection of our inhabitants. I support a lot of what Obama did while in office, but this is something that I can not go along with.

[@gulammehdisumar1599]

This particular program should be included in School History /Political class. I really admire the analysis of the potential collateral damages. Thanks Mehdi Hassan and Team Peacock. 👍

[@gubgub8715]

Speaking truth to power and asking more from them. Thank you, Medhi Hasan!

[@blackbird5634]

Once government grants itself certain powers of authority: No-knock police warrants, spying on citizens, using drone strikes on citizens, using unmarked vans to 'rendition' citizens. It NEVER relinquishes those entitlements.

[@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13]

Not without the people taking them back.

[@closeencountersoftheweirdkind]

This man was a disaster and a big part of the reason people didn't want Clinton; more of the same. A well-spoken smooth guy who utterly disappointed me. Glad to see Colbert asking some tough questions for a change.

[@closeencountersoftheweirdkind]

@JSTR Arctic oil exploration, 10 times more drone strokes ordered then under the Bush administration. You refer to his economic performance, it seems you have big business and banks in mind, what about the foreclosure crisis between 2006 and 2014? President Obama kept the same people on from the Bush administration when he took over in 2009 within the treasury. The banks were rewarded with trillions in bailouts as 10 M homeowners lost their homes. Could you clarify how many of the responsible people in the financial sector were held to account? As far as I have seen none. "You know not of what you speak" carries biblical weight perhaps but it's just a matter of perspective and your opinion. Hers a perspective: he did great for bankers, big business and agricultural and pharmaceutical monopoly. He left the working class in the shit. You disagree, fine

[@vistrode9604]

How many people were killed with the big bomb that Trump dropped !?!?

[@ihs51]

All American President have blood in their hands.

[@jusuferg9945]

Thank you!

[@chrismaguire8165]

As Pakistan PM Imran Khan said in his recent interview on TRT world ...Use drone attack to kill to fight terrorism is the most insane way of doing it because no matter what anyone says whenever a bomb explodes in a village there is a collateral damage and as we saw in Kabul the drone does not always get the right people

[@artnunymiss2530]

My God I wish we had more British journalists in this country

[@pattirockgarden4423]

Thank you, Mehdi!

[@mattie2u395]

That Obama quote was about the Somalian pirates

[@hadyalawy5909]

Set everyone accountable love this program.

[@mountaindweller777]

Nice work. I love your show.

[@truthseeker0329]

Why does icc or icj only indict non western leaders only, what justice

[@tonigonzalez1926]

Ah, Obama. My children were in their early 20s and super excited to vote for him the first time. Second election? They voted for him but the excitement and “hope” was not there

[@ZEEECHET]

I suddenly have respect for Medhi again

[@sayed6479]

Mehdi *

[@MDSanju10]

love you Mehdi

[@musicdesignfactory]

They'll write their autobiography and "memoires" at the end of their career just to try to cleanse their mind and spirits and to be able to sleep peacefully again

[@abdelmrabet100]

Blood on his hands

[@ahmadiqbal664]

Allah Bless you and your way of thinking brother. You speaks the heart of a tribal man in Pakistan.

[@TheKeithvidz]

I came across an article of his FIRST drone strike - its Pakistan. The slaughtered family's male relative spoke out.

[@pgcreator717]

MR HASSAN IS REALLY SCARY IN GOOD WAYSS, IF I WAS A SISTER THAN I WOULD HAVE ASK HIS FATHER FOR HIS HAND IF HE WAS NOT MARRY

[@youshakhan5738]

Look out US, Mehdi Hassan has arrived !

[@gungadin1389]

War is hell mate.....

[@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13]

Droning random people without even knowing who they are isn't war. It's murder.

[@mlight6845]

War is hell. Do you think this piece takes us closer to war or peace?

[@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13]

What war? 19 years after 9/11 and we're still in perpetual war while trying to instigate another war with Iran.

[@mlight6845]

Any war is hell. Now wars are fought by proxy enabling them to go on too long. If we attempt to end wars, does this video help or hinder?

[@olamide360]

God bless you

[@ibraheemghani7321]

I'm a massive Obama fan, but I was critical of Obama's foreign policy, particularly with regards to his drone strikes. Mehdi, you did a brilliant job covering this and being honest.

[@laxmiadhikari956]

Damn bravo 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@andrealeyewell]

My 2nd biggest issue with Obama was his policy on drone strikes... History, will be very kind to former POTUS Obama, but it will note his killings on foreign soil and other less severe missteps

[@twobs6027]

The studies pointed at in the video illustrate the severity of Obamas actions - yet, the slightly exaggerated characterisation of Obama's feelings about the Drone strikes by odd semantics I think is an unnecessary addition to this segment. Hear me out. The numbers speak for themselves - but this weird focus about the usage of the word 'had' by Obama in his book, was a mischaracterisation of Obamas feelings because the clip shown was 15 seconds long at most. Perhaps the norm now is for the media to capitalise on clicks by cheap and/or lazy journalistic portraits like on display here, but I'm surprised in the comments to see media worship on display. Before Trump was the enemy of the left, all forms of sensationalist media was the devil to collectively rally against. Jon Stewarts' The Daily Show is the prime example of this, a strong critique of the mainstream media and was wildly popular with the kids, as 87% of young people got their news from the show. Nowadays, cult of personality seems to be all the rage. We don't question those politicians, celebrities and in this case, journalist we feel passionate towards and it's problematic. Medhi is a great journalist and I mean that sincerely, but his network is bound to embrace a tone that sensationalises the news, thus emotionally swaying the audience, and I think its in part bc journalism evolved into this beast thanks to the success of all of the mainstream networks hyper-partisan 24/7 business model. And we're all dumber because of it - so stay skeptical, read the original source of a topic (in this case, watch the full interview of The Late Show) before concluding on if Medhi's take is hot, or stale, or as I think it is, slightly sensationalised.

[@magsbayou]

I agree. I saw other interviews where Obama addressed this issue. He was not cold and callous. He did explain the process, the goals they were trying to achieve and the desire to mitigate casualties including civilians. I don't think this was a positive during his time in office but people should watch the interviews for themselves and then draw their conclusions. Regardless, I don't think there is anything he can say that will satisfy everyone.

[@nevinkgeorge]

Somebody send this video to Obama, please.

[@ihs51]

Hopefully Obama's daughters get to watch this video.

[@samiullahkhan2391]

Pathetic, Cruel, selfish, Psychotic acts

[@thomascarroll39]

He didn't say air strikes, he said dropping bombs, and that would have lots of collateral damage. I'm Ex Air Force, and war really is Hell.

[@akharuzzamanovi]

The Pharaohs too used to practice their aim of arrows on some helpless people!

[@openmind2161]

In his book he also wrote when people was protesting war criminal Bush in 2008 before his innaguration he was angry at protester (So Obama already had the elitist club mentality where avg peasant citizen shouldn't have any opinions )

[@macrumpton]

Obama really gave Reagan some competition for his title of the Teflon President. I think future historians will regard Obama as the president with the biggest missed opportunity. He had a chance to move us away from corporatocracy and reform banking to prevent future crashes, and he did the opposite.

[@kabirrubaiyat]

Sobering.

[@mhkpt]

The last thing a Corporate Democrat like Obama (or Biden, or Pelosi, or Bill Clinton, or Hillary Clinton...) is capable of doing is being honest about their record.

[@alisongracetucker900]

I'm impressed that an nbc produced show allows a person to rip obama like that. This kind of thing would never be allowed on msnbc, the "if only we could get back to normal" channel

[@AzamatBagatov413]

This is an awesome video

[@madeleineswords704]

Colbert won't give Obama any difficult questions

[@madeleineswords704]

"You will never see it commin"...exactly

[@yahwehswarrior]

Mehdi hasan is the best journalist out there

[@lorinapetranova2607]

Too short. And I would have loved hearing Mehdi remodel Obama's thinking on drones. Heh heh.

[@tjmaxx4739]

They stop drones, this is not target practice, so they were taking it as a joke ! Shocking !

[@manbah01]

So rear to find this kind of journalism today. That’s how you know we are screwed.

[@Loadedopinions]

Oh crap, there goes my hero

[@manjurhasanchisti2264]

Mehadi carry on.

[@Nuurto3785]

We Somali people never had a voice, we always wanted to Express how we feel about American drone strikes. We have been represented by western propagandists Media who always support US no matte what they do. OBAMA is like Bolton, their speech is diffrent but the Actions are the same.

[@kingpest13]

Drones, whistle blowers, Wall Street give away.

[@wa51m]

He's a real journalist.

[@the407bro3]

TYT and Secular Talk are also great news for progressive

[@Clusterboy]

I wouldn’t know how to interview a mass murderer.

[@peasant7214]

I like how much obama was rushing to pass the new rules that they only passed when he left office ROFL

[@NaeemKhan-wo9nn]

How did Imam Anwar spread hatred, all he did guilty of was speak the truth. Listen to all his lectures he's a Legend.

[@chrismcgrath522]

Good and very fair piece - but gives too much of a pass to trump. By that logic, Obama should get more of a pass (that he doesn’t deserve either) for inheriting two wars - one of which he opposed as a private citizen. Bottom line - it’s all terrible and the MIC influences the president more than the president influences the MIC.

[@creeib]

Free Julian Assange

[@revbogoldie2368]

I can believe it.

[@aphillyate1]

BO papers his entire miserable two-term legacy cuz it benefited himself and his family and friends, leaving the public with 45.

[@madeleineswords704]

Stop the wars!

[@NT-ev2wl]

I love Mehdi, and he is a great journalist, and all he says is true here. Not one President is perfect and nor does Obama. But I'd like to believe that he took his action seriously considering all the information available to him, and took the best option he could possibly choose at that time. At least he put his heart in it. Not like he was too busy thinking how to benefit from the situation, or how to get away with law suits while the country is suffering, as our out-going oval office occupant has been doing for the past 4 devastating years.

[@khalilkhan2945]

We couldn't sleep with a trust that whether we will get up next morning??? will we be alive?? The drone used to strike in the middle of the night and it has a record of totally killing civilians in Pakistan's tribal areas on Afghanistan border. We still can't forget those insane drone strikes.

[@truelies629]

Obama's dad should of put on a rain coat.

[@ytnejibr]

Unfortunately, “This is the way.”

[@KaranCariappaP]

This is bravery

[@fredtjack23]

Look into his eyes he's not just trying to kill people for no reason. You can say what you want.

[@hijas9111]

Even though he is black he never did to end racism in America. He is only good for speaking beautiful words🤓🤓🤓

[@TheBuriedLedeR]

Obama is not black. His mother was white. He was raised, in part, by a pair of white grandparents. #BarrySoetero's African father abandoned his son and the family.

[@ddrebrne3336]

Mohamed Hijas: Actually, it was white people who didn't wanna end racism. That's how this country got Trump...

[@christianevanherck6023]

And your own contribution to end racism in America is: ...? Many people need to do their own part otherwise whatever the gov does will not change the racist attitudes and opinions.

[@hijas9111]

@@christianevanherck6023 We muslims are not racists. We pray shoulder to shoulder with anyone. That is my contribution. You should have the basic education from school first.

[@hijas9111]

@Christiane Vanherck if he can bring drones to sophisticate wars which are much harder why couldn't he do anything to end racism. Abraham lincoln did, kennedy did, but obama bombed thousands of civilians all around the world.

[@jamesrobinson6460]

And an act of war

[@elvismawhinney2494]

This guy would be the next Gandhi if he was president

[@P4DDYW4CK]

Drone strikes are acts of war. If you don’t think so, all you have to do is imagine another country doing that to our citizens on our soil. We wouldn’t let it happen. Our foreign policy is very authoritarian. We have used out might to act unilaterally. The hubris of everyday Americans and their politicians in thinking this won’t end well for us, that’s terrifying.

[@zainabfatima2808]

Thank you! Someone finally said it

[@magsbayou]

I am a huge Obama fan however this appears to be one of the things that did not go well in his presidency and I am sorry for the loss of innocent people. I do believe: 1) he based his decisions on consultation with advisors. 2) he does own up to his decisions even if we don't like his answer 3) I don't think there is anything he can say regarding these decisions that will satisfy everyone. He was the president, he made a decision and it didn't go well. He realized the decisions should be better, he put in measures just unfortunately too late. So even if he said he made a mistake, he will still be criticized. I disagree with placing the blame of Trump's decisions on Obama. As he stated, Trump purged a lot of policies Obama made and then proceeded to abuse the office of the presidency. As long as he had enablers, nothing anyone could have done to prevent Trump from doing the things he did.

[@magsbayou]

@alexander unger well at least he owns his decisions instead of blaming it on other people like the current president.

[@Max_-]

Some day, the Pakistanis will turn the tables...

[@garrettgibson6709]

Great president did a good job.

[@andrewj3796]

True

[@madeleineswords704]

But.. THE FUTURE IS NOT WRITTEN.....

[@DownMichael]

384 to 807 sounds to me to be a number less than any ground war. And I would suspect that a ground war would increase the growth of terrorists as well. Far from perfect but less than his predecessors.

[@mariopensotti1015]

meh

[@chrismaguire8165]

Will Obama be remmeber as NERO of US ?