Now that the horse has escaped the barn and is running rampant through the middle east; killing infidels, pillaging cities, and cutting off heads; it would seem that President Obama has decided it is finally time to make some gesture toward closing the barn door. With ISIS acting with impunity and gaining strength daily, the President’s speech seems to be an indication that he has at long last been dragged to developing some kind of strategy for dealing with them. It mostly seems to be that we are going to drop a lot of bombs, but keep our boots off the ground. I guess the “trainers” we will be sending won’t be wearing boots, at least not combat boots. Sounds a little like Viet Nam. We will be a part of a “broad coalition” which seems to be largely invisible. The mission will be to “degrade and destroy ISIL”, which must be words that rated well in a focus group, as the President keeps repeating them ad nauseum. Therein lies the problem with the Presidents response to this conflict, and the problem with many of the military actions we have taken since the Viet Nam war; it is an action dictated more by political expediency than a reasoned and militarily sound solution.
It is the sign of a poor manager when he is regularly reduced to addressing crises. This is just one in a long line of disasters that have each grabbed the focus from the disaster that came before. The beheadings made us forget the children pouring across the Mexican border, which had made us forget about the problems at the VA, which made us forget about the trading of terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, which made us forget about the debacle with the roll out of ObamaCare, which made us forget about the IRS targeting, the NSA spying, and the EPA playing political favoritism, which made us forget about Benghazi…. and on and on… I don’t know why he swallowed the fly…
Policy regarding the Muslim nations has been generally disastrous, and it has been disastrous for a reason. The President’s recalcitrance in dealing with ISIS as a threat, even referring to them as “j.v.” is indicative of his fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamics of power in that part of the world. Possibly the one overarching goal that President Obama came into office with was changing the way we find solutions in the middle east. His strategy seemed to be toning down our alliance with Israel, and using his golden tongue to prove himself, and America herself, to be a friend to the Muslim nations. Reality has intervened and President Obama’s theories on how to win friends and influence people haven’t really panned out. Sometimes people just don’t want to be friends. The President clings stubbornly to his drones and his Koran as he insists that the the Islamic State is neither Islamic or a state, and pursues his global game of whac-a-mole purging terrorist leaders as they emerge, contending that these leaders are not representative of the nations or religion from which they arise. Radical Islam, however, is not the “Westboro Baptist Church” of the Muslim religion, but a major and widespread component of Islam in that part of the world. Our version of decapitation doesn’t work with this bunch because there’s always a new leader to fill in the gap, like Jeebs in “Men in Black”, they just get mad and grow another head.
Whatever Islam may be, radical Islam cannot be referred to as a religion of peace. In our free will oriented Judeo-Christian tradition we struggle to comprehend a religion that feels comfortable killing those who make the wrong choice. In our nation of individual freedom we find little common ground with a state that has progressed to ultimate tyranny. These are not people you talk to. These are not people you negotiate with. These are not people you just coexist with. Whatever religion one might espouse, if you are ok with sawing off someone’s head with a steak knife, you are evil, sick, or both. When thousands of such monsters join together, asking “Why can’t we all just get along” will just get you stabbed in the back just like Jack Nicholson in “Mars Attacks!”.
IMHO: Evil does not respond to trust, respect, love, or peace. Trust your cheating wife, and she’ll cheat on you all the more. Show respect to a bully, and he’ll always bully you. Try to live in peace and love with terrorists, and they’ll cut off your head. Evil responds only to force, or the threat of force; and that is a lesson you should learn before taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We now have a crisis because leadership was weak and did nothing to avert the crisis. We now have a crisis because Mr. Obama just couldn’t believe that his rhetoric couldn’t fix the world. There’s only been one “j.v.” team in this situation, and it’s been us. It is a little sad to see the President’s dream of bringing peace with the Muslim nations dissolving in the light of reality. Mr. President… it’s time to wake up.
