Category Archives: War on Terror
Blame Shifting in Syria
What’s with the president’s sudden interest in Congressional approval for “a shot across the bow” in Syria? Until now he’s thumbed his nose at Congress from the Dream Act to Libya. His “lead from behind” intervention in Libya created the chaos that led to the disaster in Benghazi.
Andrew McCarthy says there are no moderates in Syria and that the anti-Assad forces are dominated by al Qaeda friendly mujahadeen. All those in favor of killing Assad say Allahu Akbar!
Blame Shifting
Peter Wehner, in Commentary, says Obama “is furious about the box he’s placed himself in”.
“What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing. Remember: the president doesn’t believe he needs congressional authorization to act. He’s ignored it before. He wants it now. For reasons of political survival. To put it another way: He wants the fingerprints of others on the failure in Syria.”
Update:
What red line? I didn’t set any red line. While answering a question in Sweden today, President Obama insisted that his credibility isn’t on the line, America’s is. He then proceeded to blame shift outward to “The International Community”. Surely the Solar System bears some responsibility here. Looks like Bush is finally off the hook.
Syria Red Line
Who says that President Obama’s words don’t matter. He warned the president of Syria not to gas his own people. A gas attack meant crossing a red line that would trigger a U.S. response. Apparently we’re down with killing 100,000 Syrians by other means.
Anyway, It looks like Assad has jumped the Red Line. Now we have to respond or lose credibility and, according to the polls, the American people have no stomach for another war.
Going it Alone in Syria
Not only that, the British Parliament voted not to help. It’s the first time they’ve denied the Prime Minister a request for military backing since 1782, when Parliament gave up on the American colonies! Maybe Obama should have kept the Churchill bust.
So far our leader says he’ll go ahead without the British, UN, or United States Congress. The French are still in. Freedom Fries any one?
Egypt
The military in Egypt staged a brutal coup throwing President Morsi in jail, attacking the Muslim Brotherhood, and killing over a thousand. The Muslim Brothers responded by attacking Christians and burning churches. Probably because they can’t find any more Jews to attack.
Here’s Kirsten Powers in the Daily Beast on The Muslim Brotherhood’s persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Best Bet for Egypt
Krauthammer explains why he thinks the best bet is to root for the coup and hope the military allows new elections.
Saddam Red Line
It looks like Obama’s red line in Syria has been crossed again. UN inspectors are testing victims for poison gas. Putin says if gas was used it was the rebels who did it.
The Assad government is supported by Iran and Hezbollah. Al Qaeda looms large among the rebels.
Hezbollah vs al Qaeda in Syria
So it’s Hezbollah vs. al Qaeda. In a Sunday NYT article titled In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins, Edward Luttwak claims the best we can do is hope nobody wins.
Update:
John Kerry now says a chemical attack is “undeniable”.
Al Qaeda on the Run
After retreating from Iraq, Afghanistan, and US embassies around the Muslim world, the president called in the marines – as background props for a Camp Pendleton speech – to announce that the “United States is never going to retreat from the world”. “We don’t get terrorized,” he said.
He also repeated his claim that “the core of Al Qaeda is on the way to defeat”.
Or as the late Osama bin Laden put it, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse they like the strong horse”.
