Posted on 09/15/2013 9:43:24 AM PDT by mojito
...So this was always the plan, plotted three moves ahead by the clever American president, who was only pretending to be indecisive, quixotic and out of his depth. By sort-of threatening military intervention and then appearing to back down at the last minute, the US was not dithering or tripping over its own feet on the world stage. Oh no. It was creating the necessary conditions for Bashar al-Assad and his Russian mentors to come to the table and begin the process of submitting themselves to international standards on chemical weapons. Of course, if we pursue the chess analogy, then the first clever move was really Assad’s. By using chemical weapons, he created the necessary conditions by which the US would be forced to engage in these negotiations, which will almost certainly protect his regime from removal by the West, and will guarantee his Russian friends a place on the highest global platform.
Assad the war criminal, presiding over his little tinpot dictatorship, can now present his demands (for no more threats of military intervention, and no help to Syria’s rebels) to the world’s only remaining superpower in return for handing over weapons that are illegal anyway. The man who holds an illicit armoury can use that cache of arms as a bargaining chip to protect his own future. And Putin, the ex-KGB autocrat presiding over a country with a dying population, a failing economy and a defunct military – who was once cast by Obama as beyond the pale because of his unacceptable human-rights record – can bluster and preen as he delivers peace in our time. Yes indeed, it’s all going according to plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
We have nukes, chem and conventional.
A real leader would not be playing games of any kind. He or she would have, given evidence of abuses of power that constituted a threat to US security, have instantly struck with a precise and appropriate punishment, and explained to the American people later. Had this happened, the people and most of the free world would have been lined up in support. And if they action had not posed an actionable threat, there would have been no response whatsoever.
This is how leadership works. What we have is children, inexperienced amateurs trying to emulate true leaders.
Please cite.
I don’t think there were any in this case. My point was that if a true leader were *given* such evidence, he would act and inform, not ask permission to retaliate and then dally about indecisively for days/weeks.
I agree. It seems all the “evidence of abuses of power that constitute(d) a threat to US security” have been committed by Odungo.
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