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Comment by dzikimarian | Hacker News Reader

Well, both Putin and Bush started their terms roughly at the same time. I see only one of them ruling today. America is by no means perfect, but Russia is entirely different thing.

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This is crediting the citizens for something achieved by fundamentally different systems of governance and people in power. Yeah the Iraq war eventually was seen as a mistake, if you believe the polls it still took 2-3 years to convince people of that fact, it still took far many more years to pull out. At some point we have to recognize the fact that a citizen _not_ protesting something isn't a sign of support so much as its a recognition of the fact that even millions on the street doesn't necessarily achieve anything.

I think we need to accept that some problems are bigger than single generation. Each can push border just a little bit in each direction. But it's important to keep pushing, because otherwise you end up like Russia - in lawless country where citizens either feel powerless or so flooded with propaganda, he does even sees that anymore.

Obama came to power on a wave of optimism - he was going to close gitmo and stop the drone strikes.

Years after he left the scene gitmo is still open and drone strikes still happen.

GWB is gone but his policies endure. Turns out US leadership likes it that way.

Obama tried to close gitmo, but he wasn't the emperor, and there were many politians who opposed him. These politians were elected by US citizens.

Obama was Commander in Chief and had authority to instruct military and replace members of Joint Chiefs of Staff until it got done. Obama kept the military conflicts rolling.

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