Posted on 09/08/2013 4:41:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
During World War II, the United States produced a series of propaganda films called “Why We Fight” explaining why we were fighting and what we were fighting for. They were propaganda, but it was the government keeping the public informed and supportive of the war effort at home and abroad. It was a time when communication was much slower and far more limited, but there was communication. Today, not so much.
As we march off to a possible war with Syria, or a bombing, or a kinetic military action, or whatever the official White House “re-worders” pull from the thesaurus to describe it, we are still left to wonder why.
President Obama’s love of the trappings of the job of president have been well documented, and his distaste for the actual work that goes with it also has gotten its share of ink. But that distaste never has been much of an issue before. In the case of Syria it is.
Previously in times of conflict, presidents either aggressively sought and got congressional and public approval for military action (H.W. & W. Bush), or they acted quickly, then explained after the fact (Reagan, Clinton). The former strategy is the norm for longer conflicts and the latter for shorter or one-time actions. Where Syria falls on this scale remains to be seen.
In Libya, President Obama didn’t seek congressional approval; he just acted. But instead of the “short-term” action category we were told to expect – “days, not weeks, remember – it lasted months and cost billions.
Originally, President Obama was set to act on his own on Syria too – a quick slap across the face of the regime for using chemical weapons – but then, inexplicably, the man who loves being president but isn’t a fan of the presidency got cold feet. And the reason remains a mystery.
When President Reagan attacked Libya to punish Muammar Gaddafi for the bombing of a German disco that killed an American soldier, the nation knew something was going to happen – we just didn’t know what or when. We were told the “what” when it had happened. That allowed for the element of surprise, which nearly killed Gaddafi. That was leadership.
We know the “why” of Syria, but President Obama’s fecklessness have left the what and when muddled. Had the president launched a quick, punitive attack within a day or two of learning of the chemical attack, a national address saying basically, “Hey, I warned them beforehand. They used them, so we hit them,” would have sufficed.
The autopsy of that action would have elicited some “How dare he!” cries, but not many. And they wouldn’t have mattered since it would’ve been over.
As it stands now, the president’s false starts, his statements of determination followed by nothing, the urgency with which he sold this before he suddenly hit the brakes last week gave the public an unforgivable mixed message.
Assad is a monster; no one disputes that. And had the president acted immediately it would have been seen as just that – hitting a deserving monster for unspeakable evil. But he didn’t. Instead, he said he was able to act alone, was willing to act alone and was going to act alone…then turned to Congress to ask them to come along with him as he acted alone.
Only Members of Congress not only began to wonder why we had to act, they asked the $64,000 question: How is it in the interest of the United States to act? A question the Obama administration was dangerously unprepared to answer.
He is the president. It’s his job to determine if this is in the national interest. He can explain later to preserve the element of surprise. His pathetic navel-gazing has provided Assad time to hide his most important assets. He not only telegraphed our punch, he gave the public time to ask the not-insignificant question: “Who does this help?”
The videos of rebels reading bloodthirsty poems and summarily executing Syrian soldiers don’t help. They tell us, that, contrary to the assurances of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., many of those who would take over for Assad hate us and Israel as much as he does. A quick strike would have hurt Assad without necessarily helping the rebels. Now, what should have been a surprise slap of an evil man for a despicable act will become the greatest gift a losing rebellion could receive – a blow against its enemies it never could have delivered.
That’s where the president lost the public and Congress.
And, of course, all of this is predicated on the assumption it was indeed Assad’s government that used these chemical weapons. He’s evil … maybe even crazy. But no one maintains power that long being stupid. He was winning the civil war. Why, with the wind at his back, would he use the only weapons he had that would draw that kind of ire? And why, if he did decide to poke the rest of the world in this way, would he choose to bomb civilians rather than military targets? Evil enough? Certainly. Stupid enough? Doubtful.
The rebels, divided into squabbling factions, infiltrated with Islamic radicals and losing, had an incentive to use them on civilians (and, curiously soon after the attack, film it). What better way to re-engage an indifferent world in the task of toppling Assad than to launch such an attack in such a way that he could be blamed?
We don’t know the truth; we just know what we’ve been told, which is that officials in the Obama administration know beyond doubt it was Assad and we should trust them. They still can’t figure out who ordered all those guns given to Mexican drug cartels in Fast and Furious. They can’t find the person responsible for ordering the IRS to target political opponents. They have no explanation beyond “what difference does it make?” for why no help was sent to Americans in Benghazi who endured an 8-hour attack. But they know this. They know who ordered an attack in a country halfway around the world in which our intelligence assets are, to say the least, limited.
Being as polite at possible – it doesn’t pass the smell test.
To act now would not be an international rebuke of the use of chemical weapons. Instead, it would be a face-saving act to cover for an incompetent president who, when he had a chance to lead, punted at the last minute and went golfing. Even Democrats, to their credit, can’t bring themselves to support that.
Whether any of this matters to the president, well … that’s why we wait.
We fight because al Qaeda bombed the World Trade Towers
and America hates al Qaeda, but they also bombed
the Pentagon, and the Pentagon folded and will now
protect, and serve them to kill Americans, Christians
and Jews.
It is clear as crystal:
The Pentagon has chosen al Qaeda (murderers, cannibals,
crucifiers, slavers, bombers of the American Homeland)
over the US Constitution.
What else can one expect from one who is maybe the most feckless POTUS of our lifetime?
Even worse are those who TWICE voted for the Commie jerk.
The sad thing is that Obama will likely retaliate against the USA for standing in his way.
The lie is that an attack on Syria will probably spark more than what they are selling.
The descriptions of what they intend. The action that will be taken that they tell us is low bar.
Obama wants to have someone else to share the blame, if or when, that happens.
They will probably attack anyway because the elitists want it. This has very little to do with chemical weapons and more to do with money.
“The former strategy is the norm for longer conflicts and the latter for shorter or one-time actions”
there we go again with this lippery ‘norm” crap
Also this idiot writer says Assad is a “monster” well yesterday this “monster” protected a Christian town from the Mohammedans who came in and started methodically executing Christian civilians. Who is the monster?
Shrillery and John “reporting for duty” Kerry both ate dinner with this “monster”
Washington is full of disgusting liars
slipppery “norm” crap
Look closely at the picture, I assume which is meant to portray somehow that America has blood on its hands because we did or didn’t do something. Look at it very closely - what do you see? A woman, likely a Muslim, with condemning eyes and two blood stained gloved hands.
The blood covers EVERY square millimeter of the gloves - ONLY on the bottom. You can see between each of the fingers and thumbs - there is little blood, if any.
How do you get this kind of coverage? You dip the bottom of your hands in a pan of blood - who’s blood? A goat that has had the misfortune of being near the scene where political plotters are trying to concoct an image?
Frankly, the lady could be soaked in it from head to toe; I wouldn’t care. Let them fight each other. Not one of our soldiers’ lives are worth it. Not one plane, ship, CM, bomb or bullet is worth it.
In the current time period and under this President maybe we should rewrite it to:
Why we make clenched fist threats, move our tense jaw to show resolve (Obama) and throw effeminate, wild, wasted, pretend punches...
Obama should say, “Why the buck never stops here” or “why take the blame when I can pass it along to the Congress and Senate”?
Democrats want to go to war in an effort to keep Obama from looking like the totally incompetent amateurish ass that he really is.
So much for the ethics of the anti-war left.
0bama needs to settle this by meeting Assad on the play ground. Assad will break 0bama’s nose and take his lunch money.
In the Obama era the correct expression would be:
"Why we fight on the side of the muslim terrorists who want to kill us."
They beat them to death and dumped their bodies out the window. The Arab mob (as we know them well) continued to beat and desecrate to dead reservists who's only crime was a wrong turn.
Go look at the Internet pictures from this event, it is sickening. An hour or so later and Israeli helicopter blasted the police station with missiles and the murderers were apprehended by the Israeli Shin Bet.
So, while America and the West slept, they were already dunking their hands in the blood of their (Israeli) victims, nothing new here folks, nothing to see, move along...
I wish the blood of every muslim radical (we all know that is a vast majority) would flow freely into the sewers from whence they came.
Oh come now........ the Syrian government in exile is operating from turkey where there are Turkish, Qatarian, Saudi and American CIA advisers.
AQ is a minor player and is hyped out of by the antiwar propaganda. AQ has no seat at the table for the prosecution of the war.
One thing about Code Pink though, they are persistent. The question however is how are they feeling about the many churches being burned down and the many Christians be killed by the Muslims
We used to fight to win - that’s why we used to win...
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