November 16, 2015

Let the Mudslinging Begin

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Hugh Hewitt quotes President Obama today:

What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of “American leadership” or “America winning.”

Goodness, that sure sounds pusillanimous. I wonder how Obama can stand to look at himself in the mirror each—oh, hold on. What’s that? There’s more to the quote?

What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of “American leadership” or “America winning,” or whatever other slogans they come up with, that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people, and to protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France.

And if you want even more, here’s what Obama really said:

My only interest is to end suffering and to keep the American people safe. And if there’s a good idea out there, then we’re going to do it….But what we do not do, what I do not do, is to take actions either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow, in the abstract, make America look tough, or make me look tough.

….We’ll do what’s required to keep the American people safe. And I think it’s entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues….But what I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning, or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people, and to protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France. I’m too busy for that.

I guess this is going to be “You didn’t build that” all over again. I can hardly wait. Elsewhere, Donald Trump is crowing that (a) Obama just told Putin how important the Russian airstrikes against ISIS have been and  (b) now we’re attacking the oil, just like he said a long time ago. “I TOLD YOU SO!” he tweeted. Except that (a) Obama actually told Putin he would like Russia to start striking ISIS, and (b) we’ve been attacking ISIS oil convoys all along. According to the Pentagon, we’ve carried out three or four airstrikes per week against ISIS oil infrastructure. And anyway, didn’t Trump actually recommend that we encircle the ISIS oil fields?

Sigh. I guess none of this matters. We’re now entering a period in which conservatives are going to start playing “Can You Top This?” on ISIS. A week ago they talked big but were afraid to actually commit themselves to any serious action. Now, we’re in a war of civilizations and soon they’ll be outbidding each other on how many divisions they’re willing to ship overseas and how best to describe the complete and total inaction that the appeaser Obama has been engaged in.

I think I’m going to go take a nap.

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