By Thomas Sowell
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Why are we even talking about taking military action in
Syria? What is that military action supposed to accomplish? And what is the
probability that it will in fact accomplish whatever that unknown goal might
be?
What is painfully clear from President Obama's actions,
inactions and delays is that he is more or less playing it by ear, as to what
specifically he is going to do, and when. He is telling us more about what he
is not going to do -- that he will not put "boots on the ground," for
example -- than about what he will do.
All this is happening a year after issuing an ultimatum
to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria against the use of chemical or
biological weapons. When the President of the United States issues an ultimatum
to another sovereign nation, he should know in advance what he is going to do
if that ultimatum is rejected.
But that is not the way Barack Obama operates. Like so
many people who are masters of lofty words, he does not pay nearly as much
attention to mundane realities. Campaigning is his strong suit. Governing is
not.
With the mainstream media ready to ooh and aah over his
rhetoric, and pass over in silence his policy disasters as President, Obama is
home free as far as domestic politics is concerned. But, on the world stage,
neither America's enemies nor America's allies are hypnotized by his words or
his image.
Nations that have to decide whether to ally themselves
with us or with our enemies understand that they are making life and death
decisions. It is not about rhetoric, image or symbolism. It is about whether
nations can count on the realism, wisdom and dependability of the American
government.
Make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is a very clever
man. But cleverness is not wisdom, or even common sense.
When he was in the Senate, Obama -- along with Senators
Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel and Hillary Clinton -- was critical of the Bush
administration for not being favorable to the Assad regime.
Hillary Clinton said that she and other lawmakers who
visited Assad considered him a "reformer." Back in 2007, when
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, both Senator Biden and Senator Hagel chided her for not
being more ready to negotiate with Assad.
Senator John Kerry in 2009 said, "Syria is an
essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region."
Some people said that having Joe Biden as Vice President
meant that President Obama had someone with many years of foreign policy
experience. What they ignored was that Biden had decades of experience being
wrong on foreign policy issues, time and time again.
Biden opposed President Ronald Reagan's military buildup
that countered the Soviet Union's buildup, and helped bring about both the end
of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union. General David Petraeus'
"surge" strategy that greatly reduced the terrorist attacks in Iraq
was opposed in 2007 by Senator Biden, who said, "We need to stop the surge
and start to get our troops out."
Senator Hillary Clinton not only opposed the surge from
the outset, she was among those who refused to believe that it had succeeded,
even after all the hard evidence had convinced most other people.
The grim reality is that key people in positions to shape
our foreign policy during the Obama administration -- the President, the Vice
President, two Secretaries of State, and the current Secretary of Defense --
all have a track record of grossly misconceiving the issues, our enemies and
our national interest.
This is the administration that is now asking for a blank
check from Congress to take unspecified military action to achieve unspecified
goals.
"Military action" is a polite phrase for
killing people. It would be nice to believe that this has some larger purpose
than saving Barack Obama from political embarrassment, after having issued an
ultimatum without having thought through what he would do if that ultimatum was
ignored.
He has the authority to take military action if he wants
to. The question is whether he can sucker the Republicans into giving him
political cover by pre-approving his unknown actions and unknown goals.
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