What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

"A catastrophic forest fire can be started by the smallest match"

When I was a youth, there was a show on TV called Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. Most have never heard of it - others who have, may have long since forgotten it. I have heard that show mentioned quite a bit lately by those on both sides of the political spectrum. They talk about how our Administration is handling the Syrian issue. They are comparing our Administration to the Amateur Hour.

There are so many problems here, I can't cover them all in this short post. However, I will hit just a few:

• First - In order to "walk softly and carry a big stick", you must be respected by your allies and feared by your enemies. We are neither.
• Second - You must be able to show absolute correlation between using our Armed Forces in anger and protection of national interest and/or homeland. This has not happened.
• Third - In order to look like heroes and not villains, you should have the backing of most of the world, the UN, and possibly the Vatican. We have none of these so far.
• Finally - A working relationship with Congress would help. It does not have to be a good working relationship - just a working relationship. Kiss that one good-bye.

There is an often repeated story that before we went in to liberate Kuwait, President Bush (41) sent a letter to Saddam Hussein. In that letter he told Saddam we knew he had chemical weapons (he did use them on the Iranians and the Kurds). Bush warned Saddam that if hostilities broke out, he better not use chemical weapons on the United States or it's allies. If he did Bush warned, "we have our own weapons of mass destruction that we can use also". In other words, he told Saddam we would nuke them. As we know, not one canister of nerve gas was used in the Gulf War. Saddam believed the threat. 

Right now we have the Russians telling us if we attack Syria, they will support the Syrian Regime. This weekend Assad again denied any involvement in the gassing of Syrian people and if the United States attacks him, he will retaliate. I can think of a hundred ways this thing can go south, and nary a one resulting in a good outcome.

Ronald Reagan knew the most important arrow in your quiver was the one which never had to be used. He backed the Soviets down from the Cold War by the threat of deploying SDI and the Pershing II Missile System. The Soviets may not have liked President Reagan, but they feared and respected him. The Cold War ended without either weapon system ever having to be deployed by the United States. However, the Soviets knew Reagan would have done it if he had to.

We are walking on thin ice right now. This is not an exercise from college Mr. President. If you launch, people will die. Some innocent, some not. History will change. We could be attacked again. Remember, you were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what you might do in your presidency. I don't think this is what the Norwegians had in mind.