It's easy to get everybody to think you're a swell guy. Just do whatever the hell they want you to do. Gee, isn't that how you get popular in high school?

Well, not in my experience, but your high school days were no doubt quite different. Sounds like you might've been a bit of a sycophant...and grew up to be a defender of authoritarian Presidents. Makes one think, doesn't it?

Your strategy for getting by in high school clearly implies the existence of leaders whom you followed. It's unlikely that more than a small fraction were actually bullies who coerced you. Most of them were probably genuine leaders, in the sense that they possessed the ability to convince other people to go along.

How did they do that? And isn't the ideal course in American foreign policy to (re)gain that leadership role so that we can convince other nations to go along with our wishes? Isn't persuasion (leadership) a whole lot more cost-effective than war (bullying)?

We have more choices than war or surrender. We don't have to respond to situations today with the victim-or-bully logic we (some of us) learned in high school.

As for your attempt to subtly support the Republican "Obama is Hamas's choice" smear...the video wasn't about Hamas, only about Palestinians following the American election. At about 30 seconds in, a kid in a cybercafe explains his fascination with Obama:

It all started at the time of the US primaries. After studying Obama's electoral campaign manifesto, I thought that this is a man that's capable of change inside America. As for a potential change in the Middle East, he can also do that. I think he can bring peace to the area. At least, this is what we hope.

You find the prospect of an American President with enough respect in the Middle East to have a chance at finally bringing peace scary, do you? Afraid that Obama might demonstrate that there really is a better way than the false binary choice of war versus surrender (bully versus victim)?

For all the snide denigration of the power of "image", the video you thought would tar Obama actually demonstrates the potential power of image. Palestinians at this point are inclined to cooperate with Obama as they would never cooperate with Bush.

I can see why you'd find that threatening.