Red Line

In the presidential debate last night Hellary Clinton denied that she was Secretary of State when Obummer drew the "red line" with Syria. Well, as it turns out, Hellary ... surprise! surprise! ... lied ... as ske has frequently been known to do ... see: Politifact Revelation for the details.

I sometimes wonder if this woman ever tells the truth.

Rules of Engagement

President Obama once played the me-too game in Afghanistan. After he took office, he said that Afghanistan was the "good war." Then after months and months of feckless indecision, our fearful leader sent a "surge" of troops there but effectively disarmed them with very constrictive rules of engagement. As a consequence, these additional 30,000 troops ... see: New York Times Story ... became targets of Islamic (read Taliban) green-on-blue assassins who killed hundreds of unsuspecting American and allied troops  ... including one general. All in all, during this puny presidential pugilistic posing, the United States lost over 1,100 troops with another 15,000 or so wounded ... see: Antiwar Blog ... many more than under President Bush's war there  ... with essentially no progress to show for all this sacrifice..

And of course we all remember when Obama drew a red line with Syria over its use of chemical weapons ... which he promptly forgot when challenged. Now, President Obama is again flexing his military flab ... sending an aircraft carrier and flotilla of naval ships to intercept the Iranian navy  escorting a suspected shipment of arms to the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen ... see: Fox News Story. But wait! Now it seems that our fearful leader has once again got cold feet and is now saying that this show of American naval power is there just to insure "freedom of navigation." Am I to suppose that his new constrictive rules of engagement for the U.S. Navy there might be to help the Iranians offload their weapons cargoes.

What's the term Rush Limbaugh often uses? Our fearful leader seems to have a "linguine spine?"

Barf!

Lying Eyes

It seems President Obama has far too much confidence in his own rhetorical skills.  He has just now tried to squiggle out from under his “red line” comment about how the United States would respond if Syria used chemical weapons on its own people … see: The Weekly Standard Story.

“Are you gonna believe me … or your lying eyes.”  If the world had drawn the red line and not him … which I think they had ... and as Obama just so ineptly professed, how come the world is not responding to Assad’s gas attack on his own people?  I think one of the cardinal rules of public speaking is not to insult your audience.  If Obama had wanted to goad the rest of the world into action over Syria’s provocative actions, he probably should not have spent the last four years talking down to them ... and now not trying to use them as an excuse for painting himself into a corner.

The Escalator

The United States, after an exhaustive study, has reluctantly concluded that Syria leaders have used chemical weapons against their own people … crossing Obama’s “red line.”  Thus the U.S. will now send small arms and ammunition to the rebels there … “satisfying” Presidents Obama’s pronouncement that such actions on Syria’s part would incur “enormous consequences.”  Not to be outdone in this pissing contest, Russia’s Premier Putin has warned Obama not to take such an action.  Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is also providing the Syrian rebels with MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles (however unfortunate the name) … see: France24 Story.

Again upping the ante, Iran is sending 4,000 Revolutionary Guard soldiers to aid Assad in his counter-revolutionary struggle … see: Daily Mail Story …  and Hezbollah has also entered the fray on the side of Assad … see: Huffington Post Story.

This Syrian struggle has clearly now become another proxy war between the East and the West … like so many of the other bloody conflicts over the last seventy years. And it is also another brutal cage match between the various Muslim sects. Moreover, it is rapidly escalating … to a point where things might easily get out of hand.  Clearly, the American public has not the stomach for more involvement in such mayhem and Israel is secretly relishing the possible neutralization of one of its primary enemies … at least for the nonce.

This weekend I drove past a group of about a dozen postered protesters against war … standing in a local church yard.  I somehow doubt that Assad or Putin or Senator John McCain were listening.  Maybe President Obama heard their visual whispers.  Then again, maybe not ... there is this thing called "saving face.".