We have a real question we must answer as a nation. What do we stand for?. What are we willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals?
I don’t know of anything that bothered me more than the happenings of this last week when it comes to America’s future. Let’s start with the editorial in the Washington Post on December 17, 2015. It reads in pertinent part:
“RUSSIAN PLANES are still bombing Western-backed forces in Syria every day and targeting hospitals, bakeries and humanitarian corridors. Moscow is still insisting that blood-drenched dictator Bashar al-Assad remain in power indefinitely while trying to exclude opposition groups from proposed peace negotiations by claiming they are terrorists.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State John F. Kerry insisted Tuesday after meeting with Vladimir Putin that the Russian ruler and the Obama administration see Syria “in fundamentally the same way.” Unfortunately, that increasingly appears to be the case — and not because Mr. Putin has altered his position.
For four years, President Obama demanded the departure of Mr. Assad, who has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people . . . . Yet in its zeal to come to terms with Mr. Putin, the Obama administration has been slowly retreating from that position. On Tuesday in Moscow, Mr. Kerry took another big step backward: “The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change,” . . .
At the same time, the administration’s forswearing of “regime change” sends a message to Mr. Putin and his Iranian allies: The power structure in Damascus that has granted Russia a naval base and served as a conduit for Iranian weapons to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon can remain.
Mr. Kerry says he is trying to forge a political process that will lead to a cease-fire and eventually a political deal. . . . For now, however, even that looks like a long shot. Not only does the Assad regime have a record of blatantly disregarding U.N.-sponsored cease-fires, but also Russia manifestly does not see Syria as the West does, as its vicious and apparently deliberate strikes on civilian targets far from Islamic State territory show. Mr. Kerry said that he had raised those attacks with Mr. Putin, who graciously “took that under advisement.” If and when the Russian bombings cease, there will be more reason to share in Mr. Kerry’s sunny view that Russian and American views on Syria are converging”.
Why are we buckling to Putin? He invaded a neighboring country. He is bombing our allies in Syria. Our response is to accommodate him? Obviously, he is laughing at our weakness as he pours planes and troops into Syria.
It gets worse. Also on the 17th Obama told a group of news media people “that sending significant ground forces back to the Middle East could conceivably result in the deaths of 100 American soldiers every month.” Obama worries that in protecting our interests we might suffer casualties. How do you think that message is interpreted by Putin, or for that matter ISIS or the Ayatollahs in Iran.
No one wants unnecessary American deaths. Yet, America has always been willing to put its troops on the line to maintain peace as we still have in Korea. If you set policy based on fear of American casualties then you send a message to others that they can take what they want.
There is one condition that would make Obama send “significant ground forces.” That would be “in the case of a catastrophic terrorist attack that disrupted the normal functioning of the United States.” Are we supposed to wait for something like that where America is brought to its knees while Russia and Iran make Syria into a vassal state; ISIS enslaves, tortures and beheads more people; and a country watches its population emptying out?
We are supposed to be the preeminent military power in the world. We are acting like a third-rate country that will stand up to its enemies only under the most dire conditions. How is it this president does not understand that this is not who we are. We know the results of appeasement are much worst than anything that results from standing up and meeting a threat.
America won the Cold War. We were not fearful and waiting for the “normal functioning” of our country to be destroyed. We stood up to our foes. We were guided by the idea captured by these words: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Yes. it is a long time since America stood for that. President Bush when asked what Americans could do after we were attacked said: “live your lives, and hug your children. . . . to be calm and resolute, . . . [I ask] . . . for your patience, with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security; . . . continued participation and confidence in the American economy. . . . finally, please continue praying . . . ”
President Obama asks only that we tighten up our gun laws and get rid of some of our guns. We’ve become hardship-free America. No sacrifice called for. Or, maybe there is one. Perhaps if we all be sure to wear flowers in our hair the threats to our security will go away.
We need a hard-ass President now more than ever………..
Chuck Norris wouldn’t put up with this crap.
: )
Rather:
Bernie Sanders would. He said if he had to pick one word to describe him when he was president it would be “compassionate.” That’s about what we need now.
The last hard ass turned out to be a dumbass and got us stuck in Iraq. Enough with the Rambo BS it doesn’t work in real life.
I voted for Barry twice, but at this juncture of his presidency he comes off like a low energy, boring professor on the verge of retirement, with no urgency in his voice. I guess going to war based on false intel makes a leader nervous about going back into a war, he does appear now to come off as weak and somewhat clueless on the whole ISIS catastrophe, ever since he made that stupid “JV team” comparison ,he seems to be in denial about radical islam. Frustrating listening to him speak about ISIS and how it is a gun control issue.
Doubting:
True – I also voted for him twice – found the opposition unappealing – now would go for Romney in a heart beat – the professor is bored – would rather be playing basketball or hitting the night spots or the links – he’s become like Bernie Sanders would be – he’s just hoping to cruise for a year until he can get out of there – his rhetorice that was so moving now limps – we can only hope we don’t lose too much over the next year and that his replacement is neither a screwball or a Clinton.
Matt- I can’t for vote Clinton, she is sloppy and gets caught in ridiculous lies. I still can’t for the life of me understand how she skated on her “getting shot down story” that just didn’t happen. The real scam for me which to any person i bring it up to that supports her is the “Cattlegate” scam. Being a person who likes to invest and wager on certain odds, The odds of her pulling off what she did is in the millions. She was very young when she pulled this scam, have you ever heard of it? Cattlegate? Nancy Pelosi and her husband pulled a scam with credit card companies and stocks she owned with the credit card companies and she was pulling stunts with the legislation involving the said companies. Steve Kroft has an epic showdown with her on tv fumbling away, lying about the incident when it happened. I just am sick of it all, because when Congress is gridlock’d doesn’t matter who the President is. If HC becomes President, Cruz will be shutting down the Gov. in no time.
No Emmy this season Vlad,….
Bary might win for best supporting puppet.
Matt,
Excellent post.
I love the opening graphic…..which one is Charlie Sheen?
Great quote by our beloved Jack, the latter bookend to the Cold War, who was burned at the Bay by the very creation meant to prevent such a thing.
A couple of quotes by the former bookend who took the necessary stand that was later termed the “Cold War”, Harry S. Truman, whom I greatly admire, when facing communist encroachment on Greece and Turkey by Stalin shortly following the end of WWII.
“It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
Communism or radical jihadist Islamic terrorists?
“if Greece should fall under the control of [the communist rebels] the effect upon […] Turkey would be serious [and] disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East.”
Keeping Stalin in check or protecting the real endgame (Teheran was sacred neutral ground circa early 40’s for an important meeting…..)
Endgame is the oil.
Why not go 10x Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Syria, Pakistan, Middle East and wherever these bastards are…..(of course giving time for civilians and non-combatants to flee) …….and then conglomerate up with Israel, divvy and redistribute the oil as Uncle Sam sees fit……and the world will be a peaceful happy place again???
Then tell Vlad to sit back down.
On March 5, 1946, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri said “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” He also said of the Soviets that there was “nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness.”
With the transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation and the passage of almost seventy years, little has changed.
Ed:
Right on point. But no one will confuse Obama for Churchill; but many see little difference between the Russian leaders who only respect strength.
NC: Agree.
The Russians have deployed their S-400 anti-aircraft system in Syria. They control the air-space over all of Syria, the entirety of Lebanon, half of Turkey, and, most of Israel. That being the case, US, and, Allied invasion forces, would have to get Russian permission to go ashore in Syria. America should do this. America should do that. The fact of the matter is America can do nothing.
A US ground invasion of Syria would cost a lot of lives, both, American, and, Syrian. Even if it was deliriously successful, what is to be done after the surrender? Syria would be broken, as Iraq was. If debate performances are any indicator, none of the candidates of the different political parties seem to have any exceptionally good ideas about what the country’s Mid-Eastern/South Asian policy should be. In the end, the US, and, its’ allies, will have to except a situation of chronic political chaos and instability in Syria, and, Iraq. It’s an Orwellian prospect.
Khalid:
So what you are saying is Russia now controls what happens in Syria. That’s a telling comment and a sad state of affairs for the U.S.
I agree that no candidate has a Mid-Eastern policy but why is that surprising since our president does not have one. i suppose I should correct that to say Paul’s policiy is to leave it to its fate and Obama’s is to hope it doesn’t get much worse over his last year in office so he can escape without making a decision.
How does one accept the unacceptable?
Matt:
Every soldier the Russians lose in Syria, is a soldier who won’t be going to Ukraine. Putin is stretched thin. Perhaps, it’s time for Kyiv to make a move. The Russians have bases loaded. Maybe, they’ll hit into a double-play.
In the American civil war both sides killed hundreds of thousands. Don’t swallow the propaganda that the only one killing Syrians is the government. Lincoln killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. That’s what civil wars produce. 2. If one followed the press during the war in the Balkans one would get the impression that the only one doing the killing was the Serbs. The Croats and Muslims fighting there killed no one. Remember the Defense Department claimed on the first day the Russians bombed in Syria civilians were killed. We have been bombing for more than a year and no civilians are killed. If one wants to believe that nonsense they can. They should support Christie for president. He wants to shoot down Russian planes and start WW3. Do we want to chance that? If you value the lives of your children and grandchildren don’t push the envelope with Putin he may not back down and he does have thousands of nuclear weapons. Give peace a chance.