War President

President Obama addressed the nation in prime time last week, on ISIS (he usually calls them ISIL – same thing.)  He now says he’ll lead a coalition of nations to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, after previously indicating that “managing them” would be sufficient.  (At least he’s starting to SAY the right things.)

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The barbaric beheading of two Americans, on video, enraged the American people; public opinion polling indicated Americans now favored action, and the President (leading from behind) had come around too, to a much more hawkish point of view.

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But there are problems.

First of all, Barack Obama can’t even bring himself to acknowledge who the enemy is.  He emphasized in his speech that “ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’”  Whoa there!  “ISIL” stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  “ISIS” stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  And these terrorists are now simply calling themselves “IS” for the Islamic State.  They don’t call themselves the Methodist State or the Baptist State or the Episcopalian State.  And even though it can be stipulated that most Muslims are not terrorists, these particular Muslims most certainly are terrorists, and they’re not going to be any less violent, or less barbaric, or less loathsome, if we restrain ourselves from calling these particular Islamists, Islamists.

Next, it’s quite disturbing when a President who purports to be taking us to war, emphasizes what we’re NOT going to do, rather than what we ARE going to do, to WIN.  Makes you long for the days when President John F. Kennedy proclaimed in his inaugural address that “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”  President Obama, try inspiring us again.

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Further, do you remember how smug Barack Obama and his allies were when they criticized George W. Bush’s alleged “unilateral”, cowboy, go-it-alone tactics in Iraq?  Well, Bush went to the U.N. first, then got a vote from Congress authorizing his taking military action, and successfully organized a coalition of 39 nations, 20 of whom actually put troops on the ground along with the United States.  Obama’s coalition so far is only 9 nations, and none have yet committed to their troops being on the ground.  So who’s the cowboy?

And who is going to fight this war for us, since President Obama insists that there won’t be American boots on the ground?  Obama says it will be the so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition.  At least that’s what he says now.  It wasn’t long ago that he belittled the moderate opposition’s ability to do much of anything, deriding them as nothing but a bunch of “former doctors, farmers, pharmacists, and so forth.”  Now they’re going to magically win the war for us.  We’ll see.

President Obama also said he “welcomes” the support of Congress, but intends to act whether he gets it or not.  So much for allowing the duly elected representatives of the American people to have a voice in whether we go to war or not.

Of course President Obama’s chief architect in foreign affairs, Secretary of State John Kerry, insists that we shouldn’t refer to this particular military action as “war.”  We should call it “a counterterrorism operation.”  Whatever.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry testifies at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while on Capitol Hill in Washington

Here’s the way I see it.  If we are actually determined to destroy ISIS, or ISIL, the President should come to Congress and ask that we declare war on them.  After all, according to Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States, “the Congress shall have power to declare war…”  If we’re going to get involved in another military conflict, we should comply with the U.S. Constitution, have the elected representatives of the American people weigh in, and then win the war, whatever the costs.

Anyway, that’s the way I see it.

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