Posted on 08/29/2013 2:23:20 PM PDT by mojito
President Obama surely didn't want to offer his commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on a day dominated by rumors of war. An armed conflict with the Syrian government, even of limited duration, was never part of Obama's dream.
In a way, the very fact that our first African-American commander in chief had other things on his mind as he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial could itself be taken as a triumph.
[....]
But if Obama wanted to shift our foreign policy away from the Middle East, the Middle East had other ideas....
Now, the president's own unambiguous red line against the regime's use of chemical weapons and his statements declaring that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad should be ousted leave him little choice but to take military action. This is the conclusion Obama has drawn, however uneasy he has been about intervening in the Syrian civil war. He no longer has the option of standing aside.
The result is an agonizing set of questions and potential contradictions.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Dionne is a kind of American Goebbels - if Goebbels was a talentless, cringing liberal hack with no sense of irony, self-respect, or insight.
The best part is knowing that this is exactly the way that the Great Golfer thinks of himself, and the way that the fawning sycophants and gushing courtiers of the 0bammy WH speak to him about his own stateman-like gravitas, wisdom, and moral courage.
Obama puts line in the sand, three times....steps up to the plate:
Parliament tosses a curve ball....strike one.
UN tosses a curve ball....strike two.
Mightly Obama at the bat takes a careful stance.
US public opinion tosses a fast one right down the middle.
He swings, he misses...strike three
Obama appeals to the referee, in my game there are 4 strikes.
US Congress winds up and tosses a knuckleball. Obama swings, the lights go out and no one knows what happened as the media cameras go dead.
Later his PR rep Carney, short for carnival, says they are resetting their outcomes awaiting a report from general manager Jarrett.
It really is funny. If this were Bush’s choice Dionne would have written a scathing article about how stupid it was to draw a line in the sand that now leaves no choice but to follow through on the threat, or lose what little credibility he has left. But he can’t bring himself to criticize his messiah.
“the regime’s use of chemical weapons” Flat out lie. Al-Queda is the one group that would use them.
He was elected, after all, on the basis of a firm pledge to withdraw our troops from Iraq, which he has done. He is winding down the presence of our armed forces in Afghanistan. In the battle against terrorism, he has concentrated on targeted attacks against dangerous individuals and their cells.
Nice spin. In fact, his withdrawal from Iraq was six months behind Bush's schedule, his casualties in Afghanistan in four years (1637) have far surpassed Bush's in 8 (640), and his "concentration" consists of expanded drone campaigns that kill targets and civilians alike.
But there has been peace since, if you don't count the bloody mess in Libya and the ongoing violence in Egypt, a former ally who 0bama's policies have systematically destabilized. and of course that little "bump in the road" that was four Americans dead, including an ambassador, in Benghazi. And now 0bama wants to throw a few bombs on selected targets in Syria, against the wishes of only two communities, only those two happen to be his own electorate and the international community at large. It's a swell idea if you happen to be E.J. Dionne and the other Beltway commandos. Otherwise, not so much.
Like Baraq killed Bin Laden? With his own two hands?
He has little choice? Great. Then let him take action. By himself. Leave our troops out of it.
Dionne is a kind of American Goebbels - if Goebbels was a talentless, cringing liberal hack with no sense of irony, self-respect, or insight.
Say what you want about Goebbels - he was a master propagandist and an effective orator. He was talented, albeit for the devil’s cause.
Dionne comes off as a shrill hack.
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