[Oldeconomybuyer]

Cluster (blank).

[Tzimisce]

***THESE PEOPLE ARE RUNNING YOUR COUNTRY***

Have a nice day. :)

[johniegrad]

Old, what is going on here? You have this report and someone just posted an article in which Kerry contradicts Obama about whether air strikes alone can defeat ISIS? They can’t even get their talking points right.

[workerbee]

Well, I'm just glad we're not at war with Islam, the PEACEFUL religion!

[tobyhill]

Obama really believes that as long as he doesn't use the terminology then he's not a liar.

[CivilWarBrewing]

“The future does not belong to those who insult the Prophet Mohammed”.. To declare war would be to insult Mohammed?

[1rudeboy]

kinetic military action

LOL--reminds me of one of the Russians here, who referred to "disruptive infiltration."

[Gator113]

Our enemies are laughing at us.

There is good reason for our enemies to fight on.... the fools running our country make us look easy to defeat.

[reefdiver]

As he takes the country to war, it’s nice to know that they are focused, all on the same page. Have their objectives in front of them, a clear definition of winning and an exit strategy. He’s the definition of a leader.

[American in Israel]

Is administration is just like him, they are all voting present.

[JoeFromSidney]

Has there been a declaration of war by Congress? If not, we are not at war. Someone else may be at war with us, but for us it's an undeclared war. If Congress were to declare war, against whom would it be? The Islamic State is not a recognized nation. So far it's an army and a geographical expression. Where is the seat of government? Who is the executive? How are laws made (even Saddam Hussein said, the law is two lines above my signature).

The big issue is not whether we're at war, but whether we have a defined goal and a proposed path for reaching it. Air strikes are tactics, not strategy. Even forming alliances is a tactical move, not a strategic one. Until Obummer defines the war goals and how he intends to reach them, he has no strategy. He's just winging it.

There's another issue with regard to declaring war. When I was at the War College back in 1971, we had a speaker from the Administration. One of the students asked, why didn't we declare war against North Vietnam? The speaker replied that there are a lot of laws on the books (rationing, allocation of resources to industry, etc.) that go into effect upon a declaration of war. The Administration realized they'd mess up the economy, and it wasn't worth reconstituting the World War II economy just to fight North Vietnam. I lived through WW II, and I remember how the government messed up the economy by trying to run it from Washington. Rationing of this, that and the other. Allocating resources to defense industries. Regulations out the wazoo. It was a mess, and I don't want to see it repeated. Especially not for the Islamic State.