Posted on 09/13/2014 4:55:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I was overseas when Obama gave his momentous Isis address, but figured I could pretty much guess how things would go. Despite being the greatest orator of the last thousand years, he's a complete bust at selling anything but himself, as comprehensively demonstrated in his first couple of years: see his rhetorical efforts on behalf of ObamaCare, or Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley, or Chicago's Olympics bid. When it comes to war, he suffers from an additional burden: before he can persuade anybody else, he first has to persuade himself. And he can't do it. So he gave the usual listless performance of a surly actor who resents the part he's been given. It's not just the accumulation of equivocations and qualifications - the "Islamic State" is not Islamic, our war with them is not a war, there'll be no boots on the ground except the exotic footwear of a vast unspecified coalition - but something more basic: What he mainly communicates is that he doesn't mean it.
That's what the jihadist militias now in control of Tripoli understood about his "leading from behind". That's what Putin grasped about Obama's "red line" in Syria. And that's what any Isis member who took time out of his beheading schedule to watch the President on CNN International will have taken away from this week's speech.
As for the "coalition", they seem to intuit that, with a leader leading from this far behind, you want to stand even further back. From mellifluously named Jacaranda FM:
Turkey refuses to allow a US-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighbouring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.
So much for the only Nato member to border Isis.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
The more I think of it even Biden would do a better job than “The Clown.”
Indeed. Thank you for the correction.
It was not meant as a correction but as a variant of what you stated. “O Lucifer Star of the Morning...”
And MY point was that we aren't going to stop losing and start winning until we repudiate the notion that our military activities after 9/11 (rapid overthrow of the Taliban by SOF excepted) were some kind of success. The Bush choice to respond to the Saudi-Pakistani attack on 9/11 by attacking Iraq and Afghanistan was pathetic and it has led to many of the problems we face today, including the enemy in Raqqa and the enemy on Pennsylvania Avenue.
I almost feel bad for President Obama to see him subjected to such scorn and ridicule.....He has been in the foreign press for six years now. We just don’t hear about it. The French (of all governments) have repeatedly said “Don’t take this guy seriously and don’t trust him.” They have known who is running him.
it will only take a commander in chief with the intestinal fortitude to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth in short order....ISLAM off the face of the Earth.
bump
From the article:
What about American allies closer to the action?
There is a disinclination to believe his promises, said Mustafa Alani of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.
“We have reached a low point of trust in this administration,” he said. “We think in a time of crisis Mr. Obama will walk away from everyone if it means saving his own skin.”
Different countries are suspicious of the United States for different reasons, but all feel betrayed in some way by recent U.S. policies, said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Institute in Qatar.
OK. Got me there.
What I meant was a ground invasion. Or do you think we could do it with selective bombing?
I agree totally that he is a straw man and would be totally incompetent IF he were actually trying to be a good president. I say that the main problem is not incompetence because he was PUT IN PLACE to do anything BUT be a good president. If he had been a good president in his first term he would NOT have gotten a second term.
Do what?
Thank you anyway. ;-) I do prefer your version.
great rant Jim...
personally pisses me off every 9-11 to see the 'wonderful' projection of light into the NY sky...
13 friggen yrs later and all we have is a giant hole in the ground and some spotlights...
9-12-01 shouldve seen tac nukes over mecca and just a simple dare for the next contestant to step forward for their prize...
Amen to that! Nobody has the guts to say what really needs to be done:
Bring our troops & the Christians over there back to the US
Put troops on our own borders
Ban Islam as being incompatible with a free society
Deport all Muslims
Let them kill each other off over there
Nobody gets on a plane or enters a civilized country unless they will pet the pig, at least until Muslim countries show they are willing to join the 21st century. How about a Christian book store in Riyadh?
Bush Senior should never have taken us into the first Gulf War. The Saudis thanked us by giving us the 9/11 attack. There are no “good guys” over there.
Amen
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