Just FYI, THIS was Obama's speech about his 'Secret Civilian Security Force' at the 16:30 mark.

[TrollBuster9090]

I feel cheapened to have to do this, but why the hell not?

Now that the stupid crackpot meme about 'Obama's SECRET CIVILIAN SECURITY FORCE' is making the rounds again, thanks to Louis Gohmert, (http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/gohmert-will-obamacares-secret-security) you may as well be armed with a link to the actual speech where Obama mentioned this, so that you can give people a fact to debunk the bullshit. (Or at least try, for anybody who's half way rational.)

When Obama mentioned a 'civilian security force' he was talking figuratively about building up our DIPLOMATIC personnel, and the PEACE CORPS, so that the United States has something to use BESIDES military force as a tool for influence in the world. So, when he talked about "we need to have a CIVILIAN national security 'force' that's just as powerful" he wasn't talking about a para-military Gestapo. He was talking specifically about the U.S. Diplomacy and foreign service, and the Peace Corps.

That's obvious to anybody with the brains God gave to a GOOSE. It's also obvious to the people who are spreading the out of context quote, in order to whip a bunch of heavily armed idiots up into a homicidal frenzy, for strictly political purposes. But at least you can show SOME of them the actual speech, and the quote when it is NOT taken out of context, and used to incite anger.

Watch at the 16 minute mark onwards (approximately 16:30).

&NR=1

[zeemike]

1. That should scare the shit out of us.

But no one seems to care about a private security force answerable to corporations.
I guess it is not Fascism if a democrat purposes it.

[TrollBuster9090]

2. It probably WOULD if that was actually what he said. But it wasn't.

I don't think hiring a few more eggheads to work in U.S. Embassies around the world, or doubling the number of pimple-faced kids to go and dig water wells for rural villages in Honduras constitutes a 'private security force answerable to corporation.' But THAT'S what he was talking about.

[zeemike]

3. Did you miss the point about having a civilian national security force?

And what does that mean other than privatizing the security force of the country?...

[TrollBuster9090]

8. No I didn't miss it. Nor did I miss what he said 20 seconds before and after that. Did you?

He was talking specifically about increasing the number of Diplomats, and increasing the size of the Peace Corps AS AN ALTERNATIVE to military or pseudo-military forces as a means of advancing American interests.

[frazzled]

4. It scares me that you didn't read the post or watch the video

But persisted in taking a phrase out of context and ascribing a scary meaning to it. As the OP explains, the "civilian security force" is metaphor to describe enhancing the security of the nation--not by using more military/intelligence/security power--but by using more diplomatic staff and Peace Corps-type interactions.

[zeemike]

5. Well perhaps I did misunderstand it.

But it can also be interpreted as turning over the legitimate functions of government, the protection of our country, to private enterprise...like we have done with NSA...(Snowden was a private contractor employee) and the use of Blackwatter in military operations and guarding duty.

The peace core is not a civilian security force...and does not need a metaphor to describe its mission.
The devil is always in the details.

[frazzled]

6. I think we've lost the term "soft power" from our discussions

It refers to the diplomatic, cultural, and social means of influencing international issues, as opposed to the purely military or economic. It's widely held, for example, that the cultural exchanges that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s (foreign students coming to study in the US) did as much to bring down Communist regimes in the various Eastern European countries as anything we did with placing missiles. After World War II, the US government used the dissemination of American Abstract Expressionist art to promote democratic policies in postwar Europe.

When I look up "soft power" at Wikipedia, these ideas are expressed in a quote by (of all people) Robert Gates, who by the time he made it, must certainly have realized that the invasion of Iraq had LOST more hearts and minds than it gained, and thus harmed our national security:

Soft power is a concept developed by Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce, use force or give money as a means of persuasion. Nye coined the term in a 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. The term is now widely used in international affairs by analysts and statesmen. For example, in 2007, CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao told the 17th Communist Party Congress that China needed to increase its soft power, and the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke of the need to enhance American soft power by "a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security – diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action and economic reconstruction and development."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power

The Peace Corps certainly can be viewed as a "civilian security force": it consists of regular civilians who volunteer to go to various countries to assist in a variety of economic development, environmental, and health projects. By working in remote communities in difficult countries, we gain friends and respect--and that means security, because we have fewer young people, say, being recruited into extremist or terrorist organizations. Giving people new schools, new jobs, clean water, or health clinics improves our security by making them less desperate.

At least this is what I think Obama meant by "civilian security force" in that speech.

[zeemike]

7. Well again you might be right, that may well have been what he meant.

But we lost the soft power during Reagan's presidency and it was changed to hard power and we have never went back...and in fact became increasingly a hard power state, where we remain today...and it is hard to make soft power work when we are droning people and torturing and terrorizing them....they will not love us as long as we continue down that path.

Now if we had closed Gitmo, stopped the droning of civilians and suspected terrorist and tried to make peace with the world I would be more hopeful about it...but we did not do it and there is no plan of willingness to do it from our leaders, so colorer me skeptical about any feel good words.

[TrollBuster9090]

9. THANK YOU!

And, if people HERE can misunderstand an out of context quote so badly, EVEN WHEN THE CONTEXT IS PROVIDED, it's really no wonder how easily the other 'side' can be manipulated.

[zeemike]

10. Well that is the nature of disillusionment.

When someone makes promises and you believe them, and then never lives up to them it is only natural for them to become cynical and distrustful of them.
And Obama did that...and I don't think I need to show evidence of that...we all know it and it has been pointed out many times here...and excuses will no longer cut it for me.

[TrollBuster9090]

14. I'm pretty disappointed with Obama, too. But it doesn't necessarily follow that, because he failed

to bring in a single-payer healthcare system, impose a 1% tax on all Wall Street stock trades, or organize a universal pre-school/daycare program that he MUST be a Fascist corporate puppet.

[zeemike]

16. Well no those things would not show it.

But failing to close Gitmo, or stop the wars and warmongering might...continueing the wholesale spying on American people even moreso...the things you mention require the congress to act, closing Gitmo and our war policies are directly under him.

[greenman3610]

11. review the video

you need to recalibrate your comprehension.

[zeemike]

12. And recalibrate my cynicism?

But that would take me forgetting all that has happened over the last 2 decades and pretending that Obama actually lived up to his promises he made to get elected...and forgetting that we are still in a permanent state of war, still torturing people at Gitmo, still have banks that are too big to fail, and an ever growing shrinking middle class and poor, and an ever growing billionaire class that are sucking up all the money they can at our expense...and on and on.

Pardon me if I find it hard to do....cynicism makes it hard to recalibrate...when words are fungible.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. I hear the first thing they're going to do is haul off all the white women....

The corn fed teeny boppers go first.

[TrollBuster9090]

15. Ironically, I think that IS the secret reason most boys join the Peace Corps.

If you haven't got huge muscles, flaunting your humanitarian idealism is the surest way to get laid.