Posted on 02/17/2015 6:15:02 PM PST by Yardstick
As Andrew noted, last night State Department spokesperson Marie Harf declared that we “cannot kill our way out of this war.” Instead, she supports — of course — dealing with “root causes,” like — you know — insufficient young entrepreneurs in the Middle East.
Facing intense criticism, she took to Twitter to justify her comments. Here’s a sampling:
[here the article has several tweets from Harf quoting GWB]
Putting aside the irony of an Obama administration official using George Bush’s quotes to justify the Obama administration’s approach to the war against ISIS, let’s not forget that when George Bush was speaking about changing the conditions on the ground, he was doing so from a position of actually controlling the ground we were trying to change. While our nation-building efforts were excessively idealistic, those efforts took place against the backdrop of two major invasions where almost 200,000 American troops (combined totals in Iraq and Afghanistan) were engaging the enemy in close combat and working mightily to create an improved political and economic infrastructure. And by the end of the surge in 2008, we’d actually given the Iraqis a chance to build something. The Afghans have had years of opportunities.
The Obama administration, by contrast, is speaking the language of economic reform without a fraction of the commitment on the ground. ISIS is killing people on a genocidal pace (by some measures, the Syrian civil war’s casualty counts now top the casualties from the entire Iraq and Afghan wars combined), and the Obama administration has squandered years of hard-won gains. How, exactly, are air strikes and a few thousand partially trained “moderate” Syrian rebels going to create the right conditions for entrepreneurs in Raqqa?
The Obama administration’s strategy represents the worst of both worlds. Without a serious effort to take and hold ground, the administration’s strategy of limited air strikes is centered around exactly the thing that Ms. Harf decries — trying to kill our way to victory. So we kill moderate numbers, hopefully stalemate the front, plan for long-delayed, limited offensives waged by allies who have little or no ability to truly project force, all the while doing nothing meaningful to create the kind of economic conditions that Ms. Harf and her bosses believe will cause young jihadists to drop their AK’s and pick up their iPads. This is a formula not just for a long war, but for endless conflict — with no winners and no losers, just casualties. Endless casualties.
One gets the sense that so long as Americans can be sufficiently distracted — taught that things are just fine and “random” violence just happens — the administration would be content with the status quo for the foreseeable future. After all, it’s trying to codify that status quo with an AUMF that would severely restrict our next president’s freedom of action.
Here at home, we’re constantly treated to hectoring hashtags based on isolated, small-scale tragic events. A small number of highly ambiguous police shootings makes some people wonder whether #blacklivesmatter. A deranged progressive atheist shoots three Muslim students, and people question whether #muslimlivesmatter. In the meantime, jihadists kill their tens of thousands — their hundreds of thousands — and we’re told we need to exercise restraint, to understand that the world is so very complicated, and to refrain from excessive outrage at (or effective action against) torture, rape, slavery, and mass killings.
American policy is morally bankrupt, defended by ideologues who never let reality get in the way of the right narrative. We cannot be rid of them soon enough.
Behold our "leaders", our soi-disant ruling class, and consider how poorly they have served the country they intend to "transform". One such transformation was very openly and vocally named as reducing the United States' influence in the world. Which they have certainly managed, albeit not quite in the way they were fantasizing.
To answer the headline, the 0bama administration is not making any war on ISIS. It is doing as little as it can to maximize the optics with a minimum of political risk to itself. It has no intention and certainly no strategy for winning because that would mean it would be given responsibility for the outcome. Such plans as the administration had, have, one by one, proven ineffective, misinformed, counterproductive, and disastrous in outcome. Any working class American with this track record of failure would be looking for another line of work.
It may be a good thing for our allies (those of whom survive it) to learn that the United States under Democratic leadership is not to be trusted and that they are not only on their own but may be actively opposed by the meddling of its fools. That's tough love on steroids, and it is at the cost of the honor of our country, which the current administration feels worthy only of the derision it has openly expressed.
Desperate the radicals occupying State release secrets of the highest possible classification
Marshall Plan Won W.W.II For Allies
The promise of good jobs caused Nazis to lay down arms
Our Caliph wants to be a greater caliph.
Yeah, I’m still up in the air on the whole treason versus incompetence thing, which is sort of the defining mystery of this administration. I think John Kerry can be pretty safely written of as incompetent. But Obama to me is a whole ‘nother level of angry and ideological and deceptive.
That's what he wants to "transform" from, and what he wants to transform to is an unbelievably banal bit of socialist blather and fantasy-world projection. He knows he'll never reach that, but he can still fancy himself the avenger of the Oppressed, and the only target he has on which to inflict vengeance is the country who opened its arms to him as President. I think that explains some of his paralysis in office for anything but crude political maneuvering in the media. That's all he's got.
He badly needs to be corralled by Congress and the Supreme Court just as the Founders intended. Whether these can summon the courage to do so is another matter.
What’s worse than war? War you have no intention of winning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.