So, Syria has given up all of its chemical weapons capability because they decided to choose Jesus? Hell no, they faced an air assault from Barry The Bold so they coughed up the WMD's! Duuuuh! We got a major concession benefiting Israel a billion dollars at a cost of zero American lives. Wise up, Grasshoppa.
Red Putin was the prime mover of the chemical weapons deal. It assured that the US wouldn't do anything and assures Assad or his cronies stay in power and BTW assure the Russians keep their naval bases. It was a PR victory for Putin and black eye for the US. Everyone but president Obama understands this. From the time that happened the Syrian government forces have pushed the rebels back. It did nothing for Israel except deepen chaos on its borders with Lebanon and Syria. The only people benefiting are the crazies on the Shia & Sunni sides and Putin. President Obama didn't even make a threat...he pulled back from every "line in the sand" comment he ever made.
BARRY THE BOLD!!!! Being bold means you have to act. Bold means you lead. Obama has stumbled through the Syrian crisis like Mayor Ford in a late night eatery. Back away from the Kool Aid Red, it ain't your friend. Nobody thinks the Syrians worry about us attacking. Not even you. Obama blinked. Twice. Obama may have a big stick, but its flaccid.
I love you tigerchick, but this part is particularly funny. A farmer, the same farmers that get millions and billions in government subsidies to grow and ship food out of the country? those haves and have nots? Or farmers that get big tax breaks for having cattle on property? lol
Back at you MM.......was referring mainly to the good natured, basic hard working, god fearing roots typically associated with Farmers. Oh and your avatar suffers without pics of those cute kiddos!
gotcha, yes youa re right, I respect God fearing folks myself. Those boys....i tell you, they keep me on my feet
These farmers Around here know exactly how to play the govt. makes me sick to listen to one talking about how tough it is to make it especially knowing he's a member of a $125000 hunting club.
Being bold does not mean you have to act! That is just being predictable. Sometimes being bold is making a threat to force an enemy to concede. It's War Diplomacy 101! You guys keep talking about Kool-Aid when I'm making an analysis. You should try it, its less fattening. Trying to discredit me in that fashion ain't goin' to work because I'll just keep pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Try to address these points. 1. Why is a Syrian Civil War our problem? What threat is Syria to America? ANSWER: It's not and they are not. 2. Why would you want to waste American dollars and sacrifice American lives in yet another ineffective middle eastern war in which we have no vital interests? 3. We have no friends in this fight. Assad is an implacable enemy, the rebels are a mix of islamic revolutionaries and fanatical jihadists. The winner will anti-American. There is no gain for us in this. 4. American best interests here lie in the continued success of Israel. Now Hezbollah and the AQ jihadists are fighting each other and the Syrian government with its large military is totally engaged with the revolt. They are no threat to Israel anymore. Why would we want to stop this? All parties will weaken themselves and leave Israel facing a toothless Syria. Moreover by forcing Assad to destroy his chemical weapons, Israel no longer needs to fear WMD retaliation. 5. Couple of big ballsy wars in the Middle East have taught some of you nothing. They did not accomplish their goals and only half bankrupted us and cost us 30,000 casualties. That experiment was a failure in Lebanon in 1982, in Afghanistan in 2001, and in Iraq in 2003 The spectacular success of the Kuwait liberation only works if you hit hard with overwhelming force, have achievable goals, and get out quickly. 6. Big Stick diplomacy has been successful for over 100 years now, for many Presidents and Obama is one of them. It's working in Syria. It's going to work in Iran, too. There is going to be a changing of the guard in Iran in the next decade or so. The younger people are more interested in trade and the economic recovery that would happen if the sanctions were totally lifted. They don't the need for nuclear war with Israel or the US, one in which they would lose. They have an ancient country and are very proud and nationalistic and we can use that to induce them into redirecting the nuclear program from military to civil. The stick and the carrot is more effective than the stick alone or the carrot alone.
OK I’ll respond to your analysis and ‘my flaws’ as they apply to your 6 points. As a review, remember my post focused on (1) President Obama is not bold in Syria, and (2) Assad is not afraid of us. Your Points by the numbers; #1. Not relevant to my post – I never said it was our problem #2. Not relevant to my post – never said I wanted to go to war #3. Not relevant to my post – Focus Red, Focus #4. Not relevant to my post – boring #5. Not relevant to my post – however I’ll add a note. From the beginning I was against going into Iraq because I didn’t think they had sophisticated WMD. SH had killed or jailed all the smart people, how many scientists could they have left. From the beginning I was against going into Afghanistan because it has been a graveyard for invaders for thousands of years. There is no such thing as a good war. We should have used any means at our disposal to kill those who would kill us, but invasion was never going to end well. #6. At last relevance! – Yes Big Stick diplomacy works, but only if the use of the stick is a credible threat. Obama has no credibility that he will swing a big stick at anything worth hitting in Syria. By “anything worth hitting” I mean anything that Assad cares about losing. Or anything that might negatively impact Putin’s interests. Zero credibility, not a smidgen. He squandered his credibility by talking big and backing down. And Red, how your analysis can arrive at a conclusion that Iran’s afraid of Obama’s big stick is beyond me. Do you think they took cash up front in exchange for a ‘maybe’ in 6 months out of fear? We gave up part of the stick by giving up some sanctions. It may work out or it may not, but Iran is not afraid of us. Pulling the trigger on Osama BL was bold. However, I think any president in our time would have made the same decision. And your right, bold doesn’t always equal action. But bold is always proactive, not reactive. We have not been bold in Syria. We have been bystanders providing occasional commentary. Putin is driving the bus, and letting us sit in the car seat with the pretend steering wheel tooting our pretend horn.
Then how has Obama failed at anything? If its not our problem, why would we need to do anything about it? You said that Obama failed to be bold in Syria. The only thing bolder than threatening air strikes is actually going to war. All these points are relevant, you just don't like them. You insist that Obama is not being bold in Syria but you can't say what it is that we should be doing and why? In fact you evade it. Apparently any point that disputes your argument is irrelevant. Israel is our vital interest in the region and Obama has clearly supported Israel by his actions. Well, its relevant to mine. Evasion is not an argument. It was Assad who backed down! Did you forget that Assad is now destroying his WMD's, which was what we wanted all along. His credibility is obvious and it worked. He stepped up attacks against bin Ladin, ordered the surge in Afghanistan, he authorized strikes against Libya, he has hit enemies in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. He ordered the killing of Somali pirates twice. We call all of this "credibility". And it worked. Obama has never been shy about using military force. You are off base here. Iran knows that war with the US and Israel is a no-win situation. So they are trying to find a better way out of their predicament. It does not matter if they "fear" us, they damn sure respect our power. The carrot does not work without the stick. So now they are taking the carrot. You said it was irrelevant that Syria has nothing we need and it is irrelevant that we don't need to engage in a war in Syria, and that you are against such wars. But now you say that we are bystanders, suggesting that we should somehow become participants. You really think that only military action solves this problem. Putin controls nothing in Syria, he's just desperately trying to prop them up in the UN. Have you noticed that the Russians have not gone to war over Syria either?
