I liked what Obama did today. He ended the cowboy wars.
For too long the Presidents have acted, as is their right to react swiftly when needed, but has been misused in some events. No longer can the congress set on their wallets and take little or no ownership of foreign policy. For the most part left free to point fingers at waste when we won and place blame when it went sour. Stand up you chickens and vote, let the public see what you will do, and take the abuse of history if it turns out we were on the wrong side.
The GOP has said for decades the dems are weak on defense, (see GreenEagle post today) appease tyrants, now they can vote to show us how tough they are, but can they, they have to oppose every Obama policy and he stated he wants to attack a baby killing tyrant, will the tea party let them?
I don't want to do this. I also think the monsters of the world should be bashed somehow. At the moment I could go either way on this. Do we say ah shit, those kids don't matter, there are cities full of women and kids, the world doesn't miss them, they are no value, not human, OK Assad, choke the life out of another neighborhood we don't give a damn, there just poor brown people. But........it's complicated. For me let the congress vote on it is perfect, is it our right to punish a tyrant? We are humans, isn't it how civilazation works, when someone becomes so dangerous to the people/tribe/nation/mankind he is killed, this is how mankind works from primitive to modern. Yet, why does it have to be us? Like I said I can go either way at the moment. So give it to the Constitution, what ever way they will decide let the congress have it, it's not a cowboy war, vote you sons-a-bitches, vote.
Personally, I'm tired of America being the world police. At the same time you never know how big this can get, I've heard people were upset that FDR didn't get involved in helping Poland fight off Germany in the start of WWII until Japan attacked us. But a civil war isn't our business, this isn't Germany invading Poland or Iraq invading Kuwait. Maybe I could be convinced otherwise, but right now I'm for letting them deal with their own problems.
ReplyDeleteRM and Darrel,
DeleteNow, I am known for being a bit of a "hawk" but this isn't something that we want to stick our noses into.
Syria poses no threat to us.
Israel, is different but since Tel Aviv has 300 or more theatre tactical nukes - they can handle Syria.
Now, I am glad that Obama tossed the call on this to Congress - that is how this shit should be handled.
Ron
Sarge, do we want ANY nukes being deployed?
DeleteWhat do you mean by 'deployed' then? I meant in the sense of using them. You know, detonating.
DeleteI might actually pay attention to what the compromised corporate bloated ruddy faced whores in Congress have to say about this.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be a toss up for sure. Just saying no like usual because it's a man who is a different color b b b b but the guns and the smell of gunpowder I know is very powerful as well.
What a dilemma.
RM, Sarge, OF; Interesting, I see you are mostly against a strike, but I can tell you have some reservations as I do about letting evil do it's thing, and it's tied up with does it threaten us or is it a mankind issue. The Boston bombers didn't scare me, that was 1,400 miles from me, what do I care, I didn't know any that were hurt, why spend the money and effort to understand what happened, who did it, or to punish them? Absured example I know, but are we on a similar path of reasoning by dismissing Syria? On the otherhand if we did not have the long reach military or the technology we could not be abused for saying well we can't do a thing about it. Maybe thats the lesson, we should have a very much smaller military to keep us out of these positions.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to Syria, it's a lose-lose situation. No matter what we do or do not do, innocent people are going to die. However, the conflict is internal to Syria, Assad seems to be winning (believe it or not), and if we do absolutely nothing the situation's going to stabilize. At this point, if we do intervene, the most likely outcome is the various rebel factions (up to 1,000 of them) will think they're going to get more outside help and will just keep fighting -- which will just prolong the mess. Personally, I find myself wondering just how many of those rebel groups the Israelis are quietly helping because as long as the Syrians are fighting each other they're ignoring Israel.
ReplyDeleteNan, all good points, and I think you might have a good handle on how it could turn out.
DeleteWoodrow Wilson's model for the League of Nations was right. The U.N. is ineffectual, hamstrung by having China and Russia on the Security Council, plus the fact that even the U.S. ignores them when they/we see fit. We find ourselves (we, the human race) in insoluble situations like this because there is no vehicle by which we can make a binding decision and then act on it. And that is unlikely to ever change.
ReplyDeleteThe UN is the model for current GOP method of running the Senate, one guy can veto anything. Unlikely they can ever change the system now.
DeleteI was meaning change the system in the UN.
DeleteIf ya want a fire out, ya don't begin by feeding it but rather allow some space/time and than when least expected ya start the back fire. It's all about the timing and things are moving in the right direction on this one. Don't think anyone has a taste for shootin' from the hip again! I say "Powers are overcome by smarts, let Time be the decider"!
ReplyDeletelpop; Timing will be important for us, not sure it is good for the children facing rockets and gas. It may sound like I don't agree with you but I do. I just want everyone to be mindful of what is happening.
ReplyDelete