"That is my rant for this Sunday. No politics. No weather. Just this never ending drip, drip, drip of having to get US involved in stuff we should not have to. Since it is Sunday, can I get an AMEN on that?"
Anybody getting tired of this yet? Having to stage our troops and assets off the coast of some war torn hell hole, just so we can do something about a despot or dictator who is abusing his neighbors or worse yet, his own people? Some are saying, "Thank God! We have the United States to come in here and sacrifice THEIR blood and treasure to right this wrong!" Other are crying "Hegemony!", and demanding we leave at the next possible exit. Still others, the taxpayers and/or the the ones who have children serving in harm's way, are asking, "WTH? Again???"
Now, I like Rand Paul. I don't agree with him on everything, but he and I are locked at the hip on this issue. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a joke which is not funny. All this law did was to reiterate the provision in our Constitution that it is the Congress which shall declare war. If the Congress sees fit, as it did in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it authorizes the President to go to war. To declare war. To me, when you lob 105 cruise missiles into another country, that is kind of like war.
I am former military. I am not a dove. I hate tyrants. That being said, I also am growing very tired of us, that is the US, being played for the patsy. To find out that Putin is doing parlour games with this "gas killer" Assad, does not surprise me. However, to find out that Putin is even considering a nuclear exchange with us for teaching Syria a lesson, is mind blowing. RUSSIA SHOULD BE HELPING US, NOT FIGHTING US!
And how do we budget for this? 105 cruise missiles are not cheap. Nor are the assets needed to launch them. What I put on social media earlier, is we should deduct the cost of this operation from our UN dues. And why not? This is their mess, not ours. If Russia is just going to sit on the Security Council and use it's veto power to block common sense resolutions, get rid of them. Uninvite them from being a member. All they are right now is just a turd in the punch bowl.
Thank God not one drop of American blood was spilled during the attack. I am still miffed that we lost 150 combat troops during Desert Storm, and almost 4,000 in freeing Iraq. Why is it ALWAYS us? No - I am really getting fed up.
Our President is on the right track however - every country needs to pony up what their dues are for NATO or the UN, no matter how paltry. Plus, it is time for China, India, and yes Russia, to start supplying troops to fulfill the UN charter. If countries are unwilling or unable to do that, time to throw the UN in the dust bin of history - right next to the most worthless League of Nations.
That is my rant for this Sunday. No politics. No weather. Just this never ending drip, drip, drip of having to get US involved in stuff we should not have to. Since it is Sunday, can I get an AMEN on that?
Amen. And yet.... If not us, who? Just because other nations will not do what they should be doing and because a nation or two IS doing stuff they definitely should not does not relieve us of our own moral duty. If there were a way to discharge it at less cost to ourselves that would be Highly desirable, of course.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a tale – truth or myth I do not care – about the "peaceful transfer of power" in Haiti years ago. It seems that Secretary of State Colin Powell got a meeting with General Whoever. As they were sitting face-to-face in the Presidential Palace, Powell pointed out the open window and said, "you see that ship out there? We have a missile on that ship that can fly over here in about five seconds, come straight through that window and land right between your eyes. Let's make a deal."
I keep imagining a small cruise missile, about 2 inches in diameter, with the same kind of video targeting mechanism we use for cruise missile guidance. Feed it a picture of Kim Jong Un, wait until he steps out onto his balcony, and we "make a deal" with him.
Avenge! No such revenge - revenge for
ReplyDeletethe blood of a little child - has yet been
devised by Satan.
So many people have so much difficulty joining their awareness of the president’s instability to their commentary on U.S. military actions.
ReplyDeleteThey mentally update the famous line of Donald Rumsfeld’s: “You don’t go to war with the commander-in-chief you want. You go to war with the commander-in-chief you have.”
Yet if any other aspect of U.S. military power were in the same damaged condition as the supreme executive authority, responsible people would pause at going to war at all.
If the aircraft were inoperable, the warships not seaworthy, or the troops disaffected—wise decision-makers would refrain from deploying them. All those instruments are in good condition fortunately.
But the person in charge is not.
His severe personal legal jeopardy dominates his thoughts and deranges his behavior.
That’s a strategic fact at least as real and important as the need to uphold the taboo against chemical weapons.
So you are willing to stand by and let innocent men, women and children die horrible deaths because a madman flouts international law, just because you don't like a President with the tools to stop it from happening? Gee, maybe we shouldn't have entered WWII. It wasn't OUR Jews getting gassed....
ReplyDeleteStopping nothing, other than reducing the narrative about his own crimes and sins for a few days. Cost: 165.2 million in weapons alone?
ReplyDeleteAlso, we are very concerned and are welcoming the Syrian refugees fleeing from horrible deaths with open arms. All 14 of them so far.
Roosevelt did his damnedest to stay out of WWII until Pearl Harbor forced his hand. He wouldn't even respond to Churchill's request for help. We weren't concerned about the incarceration and death of Jews, we were to busy identifying and locating Japanese citizens in our country, preparing for their incarceration.