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 ...
Forgitaboudit Sowell, we’re going to war whether we want it or not.
when ISIS makes it’s presence in this country known
Then it will be time to play cowboys and ISIS!
As usual, Sowell gets it right. Since the Vietnam War, we have let politicians run wars based on public opinion. Idiots like Jane Fonda, John Kerry, and other traitors at that time cost thousands of American lives by letting amateurs run the war. War is a crappy enterprise; one to end as quickly as possible. Politicians who write Rules of Engagement that don't allow our troops to defend themselves without approval of some political hack sitting in a golf cart half a world away are killing our brave men and women. Let the generals run the war and save American lives. Let the MSM get the real story, not something staged by the other side. ISIS is killing Americans and so are US politicians. Both need to be stopped.
All true.
Very well said...Let generals run war and promote top ranking generals who are committed to winning wars instead of running social experiments with our military.
ROE should always be to use every ounce of manpower and technology to defeat the enemy, that was done in WWII but less and less in wars since.
We could solve every problem in the middle east with a sub full of nukes in 20 minutes, if we had the will to do it.
But some are, and ultimately you cannot win unless popular opinion backs it, at least not a long war. Americans want our wars to be short. Get in, destroy the enemy and leave. No nation building. Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn Rule" (you broke it, you bought it) is BS. If someone forces us to go clean their clocks it's their fault, and not our responsibility to turn the place into something decent.
Who wants war? Islam.
For over 1500 years they’ve been bringing it.
We paid over 10 percent of the US GDP for several decades (look into the Barbary wars) to muslims, and we pay them every day we don’t just lay waste to every command and control center in the country (C&CC = “mosque”).
Islam. It’s not a religion, it’s a political system masquerading as a religion to take advantage of our sensibilities/sensitivity and First Amendment, and they won’t stop.
War isn’t the answer? You haven’t asked the right question.
Floundering by Obama is a productive tactic, from the viewpoint of ISIS.
Many want war, in hopes it may:
alleviate boredom
end debts
acquire wealth or power
right imagined wrongs.
1990: Saddam needed cash and retaliated for stolen oil, and false testimony about incubators getting unplugged got us into Kuwait.
1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident unclear, so Congress gave LBJ a blank check for Vietnam.
1941: Diplomatic information wasn't adequately shared with commanders in Hawaii, so we went into war in Japan and Germany.
1917: Zimmerman telegram was used as pretext for "war to end all wars" and Congress voted to enter into WWI.
1898: Explosion of USS Maine blamed on attack, result was war on Spain.
All claims led to official US policies obliging military and taxpayers to support a war, based on questionable pretenses: See a pattern here?
Are you suggesting we should have invaded Saudi Arabia due to the national origins of the non-state actors rather than the state welcomed and sheltered them?
I’m saying that facts and events have been manufactured and manipulated to motivate the American public to do their leader’s bidding, time and time again.
Is this also the case with ISIS? Are we being motivated now to support an invasion originally rejected about a year ago, to help enable a new “greater Syria” based Caliphate?
Consider the high-level ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and Valerie Jarrett, then add in the ambitions of ISIS-friendly Erdogan, the gun running out of Benghazi, and the idiocy of John McCain and SOS Kerry, and you’ll see that anything’s possible.
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
Isis wants to drag the West into another war.
Amen to that.
Our son was in the Gulf War and he and other Noncoms felt the same. I’ll never forget when he told me they should have gone to Baghdad and finished it, he was proved to be right.
Except you specifically mentioned nationalities and countries involved re: 9/11. I see this same "reasoning" used by liberal dolts who hate Bush for the GWOT. It's a ridiculous nonsequitur and a gross oversimplification of the situation. That calls into question all of your other assertions.
I don't know if we should get involved against ISIS, but I do know your hijackers --> Saudi Arabia --> Afghanistan complaint is a pointless red herring.
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