Posted on 09/22/2014 11:53:03 AM PDT by jazusamo
Some pundits are saying that President Obama has been floundering in his response to the ISIS crisis because public opinion polls show most Americans don't want another war.
In all my 84 years, I cannot recall a time when most Americans wanted war. That is something we should be proud of. But wars are not always optional.
Even World War II — which some have called "the good war" — was not something that most Americans wanted. But the Japanese took that decision out of our hands when they bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. And Hitler removed any possible doubt when he declared war on us shortly afterward, making sure that we were in the war all over the world.
No one has promoted the dangerous notion that war is optional more than Barack Obama. He declared peace in Iraq when he pulled American troops out, and he declared victory over Al Qaeda because his administration had killed bin Laden (with an assist from the Navy SEALS). But all this make-believe has come back to haunt him, as make-believe often does.
Make no mistake about it, make-believe wins elections — and winning elections is Obama's thing. The big problem is that the things that win elections are not the things that win wars.
With an eye on the upcoming Congressional elections, Barack Obama has assured all and sundry that there will be no American "boots on the ground" in the fight against ISIS. But telling your enemy in advance what you will or will not do is not the way to win wars.
This is not rocket science, and Obama either already knows it or he has military advisers who will tell him, if he will listen...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Dr. Sowell is right. Nobody wants war.
After 6 years of Obamafying our military, we have little to no chance of winning.
Democrats don't have to listen.
They already know what the party line is.
we have little to no chance of winning
On the contrary, we still have an NCO Corp and many officers that know what it takes to fight. Given the chance to do so with the right ROE we can beat the pants off anyone.
Libs have always imagined that they were unique in their anti-war views, as if this was some sort of enlightened opinion.
The same for environmental protection, conservation of energy resources, loving your neighbor, kindness to homosexuals, etc.
Christians have had this figured out for 2000 years. Engineers and business planners since the time of the pyramids. Political conservatives since at least the signing of the U.S. Constitution.
The Police’s Sting had a song called “I Hope the Russians Love Their Children Too.” As if he had somehow discovered the notion that if you love your children you will dislike war.
Liberals are dangerous idiots. And pompous asses. Dangerous pompous asses.
Making a pledge of “no boots on the ground” is idiotic for two reasons:
1. The most glaring is that we already have boots on the ground. Those SpecOps troops there all consider themselves to be real warriors.
2. And the second, probably the most important, is that, while I’m ok with giving the kurds & arabs a bit of a chance to fight their own ground war with our advisors and our close air support, not to send in a hard hitting shock and awe on the ground is to tell your own nation that you have zero desire to WIN!
And that the theme that the opposition should be pushing. Obama doesn’t care about winning, even though he’s willing to shed the blood of our best and brightest in a cause he doesn’t give a fig about.
I had no idea Thomas Sowell is 84 years old.
Absolutely correct. Any president that publicly announces to the enemy what he will not do is incompetent or a traitor, in this case probably both.
Yes, he’s getting up there and still has a very sharp mind.
The mohammadens want war.
Maybe but they would much rather you submit to them willingly and kneel for the head chopper, peacefully.
:p
They have stayed in a state of war since 700AD.
It’s actually called: Obama isn’t willing to present a quality justification for military action. But even more ironic is the fact that he has a law degree, which he supposedly earned by writing legal justification.
He sure sounds better in writing and in talking than most 84 year old people I know.
Not to mention a couple million or more veterans scattered throughout the country who are willing and capable of going to war again, especially when ISIS makes it's presence in this country known.
First, nothing O says has any relationship to the truth. It isn’t true, it isn’t untrue, it is completely unmoored from truth. Any relation to truth is tangential and accidental.
We are at war because they are at war with us. Like it or not, admit it or not, respond effectively or not, they have announced war and are busily pursuing it.
As for “boots on the ground” (I am so tired of that shopworn phrase), he says there will be none, just as he says there will be no war though we are already at war.
But there are already “boots on the ground” and there will be more before we are done. He will just not define them as “boots” or he will not define them as being “on the ground”. No one will call him on it. Not the press, not the GOP, no one. Still, they will be there and if we are successful, he’ll take credit. If we are not successful, he’ll blame Bush or claim it never happened. And again, no one will call him on it.
That was news to me but I haven't been watching the Ken Burns series. FDR's "day of infamy" speech was delivered to Congress on December 8, the day after the attack. Does Burns really imply that FDR was at a loss what to do and went to Shangri-La? I figure he might try to use the series to help Obama, but that might be going a bit too far.
Well said, that’s 0bama’s MO not only on this crisis but others.
As c’mon Sowell in the first half of last century we were at war in Europe. In the second half we were at war in the Pacific with war in Korea and then Vietnam. In this century we have started with war in the ME and Africa. Straighten out your glasses and see that it is government operators who want war not the people.
Presidents who want to be a war-time President without a formal Congressional declaration but with some work-around and a Congress answering to lobbyists. The will of the the people is manipulated - they are making atom bombs - they cut off heads - they violated UN resolutions - they shot at our planes in the no fly zone.
Forgitaboudit Sowell, we’re going to war whether we want it or son.
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