Heh. Couldn't resist.

EXACTLY like Reagan...

:D

Although, I am certain that Reagan had every intention of making good...

THAT is a concept that is utterly alien to Obama...

Michale

*MY* complaint over this issue is, and has always been, the fact that Obama neutered himself and American prestige by issuing the "Red Line" and then got all milquetoast when his Red Line was crossed

You mean, like Reagan in Lebanon?

Heh. Couldn't resist.

-CW

I am constrained to point out that Benghazi is VERY much in the news in the here and now and is likely to become a VERY big headache for the Obama Administration..

Not too shabby for just a "simple protest that went wrong" eh???

Once again, when it comes to these kinds of issues, I call it...

Michale

As I said in your prior commentary, you nailed things pretty much perfectly..

There ARE no good answers..

But, as Liz so eloquently pointed out, Obama's mistake is ISSUING the "red line" in the first place...

*MY* complaint over this issue is, and has always been, the fact that Obama neutered himself and American prestige by issuing the "Red Line" and then got all milquetoast when his Red Line was crossed..

But, I'll re-iterate MY plan from the previous commentary...

SF Kill Teams blanketing Syria and given the green light to take out any and all Syrian leadership...

Cut the head off the chicken....

Liz,

You didn't think this was going to easy, did you? :)

I never do... :D

When you tell us what you would do, you must also provide us with a complete cost-benefit analysis for each action you would recommend without which your advice will not be very useful.

What am I, an economist??

"Dammit Jim, I'm a ground-pounder, not an accountant!!"

:D

The one draw back to my plan is that, like cutting the head off a chicken, there are out of control death-spasms that would likely produce undesirable side-effects...

But my plan has the advantage of actually ACCOMPLISHING something beyond the "hand-wringing" and "option/navel gazing" that is so prevalent and desirable in Democrat circles...

Michale

Michale

You didn't think this was going to easy, did you? :)

Chris just summed up the situation perfectly.

When you tell us what you would do, you must also provide us with a complete cost-benefit analysis for each action you would recommend without which your advice will not be very useful.

So, what exactly would you do if you were (shudder) the president right now?

I bet that any answer you give to that question contradicts one of your complaints about how Obama has handled foreign policy in the past. There simply are no good answers in Syria, and there never have been. All are risky, and the American people don't support most of them.

-CW

Ya know, there is a certain logic to that.. :D

Because putting out ultimatums like that actually LIMIT options..

And, if one has a propensity to fiddle-fart on previous promises, then "red lines" are ultimately self-defeating and leaves one open to ridicule..

Michale

I'm against all publically announced red lines. :)

Completely agree.. As I indicated previously, any action in Syria begins (and possibly ends) with Turkey...

In any event, this will be a real test of the Obama doctrine. And, critics of the Obama administration's handling of this crisis must outline, in detail, the entire array of possible consequences that may flow from the actions they suggest. Otherwise, their advice is not credible.

MY only critique of the Obama administration is that they established a Red Line and then tried to finagle out of it when it became politically inconvenient..

Take a position and stand by it, fer chreest's sake!

Michale

Turkey's involvement in the Syrian conflict is already substantial, for obvious reasons. There are more than 300,000 Syrian refugees inside Turkey today and the International Crisis Group estimates this number could triple this year.

Also, according to ICG, Turkey is openly supporting and has stepped up the arming of the opposition fighters and but isn't considering significant military intervention. It really can't change anything in Syria by acting alone but it sounds like Turkey would be fully on board if an international military intervention were to be seriously considered. Though, ICG believes that a protracted stalemate is likely over the medium term.

In any event, this will be a real test of the Obama doctrine. And, critics of the Obama administration's handling of this crisis must outline, in detail, the entire array of possible consequences that may flow from the actions they suggest. Otherwise, their advice is not credible.

http://www.crisisgroup.org

We have fiddle-farted around for two years and 70,000 innocent Syrians have died

Michale

Yea, because they have done such a bang-up job so far, eh?? :D

Michale

I'm glad you're keeping up on this - your piece the other day was a great summary of what the options are.

Judging from the clip you provided here from the press conference today, President Obama and his national security team are approaching this crisis with the prudence and rational thinking that the situation deserves.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we won't know about for a while. In any event, it's a great feeling to know that Obama/Biden/Hagel/Kerry are in charge as I, for one, have complete confidence in their ability to handle the situation responsibly and with great care.

So, let me see if I have this straight...

It's a game "CHANGER" and, since the game is "changed", we have to RETHINK the options we already thought of.

So, in other words, NOTHING really has changed...

We're just rehashing the same things we already hashed.. But we're re-doing it again because the game has "changed"... But even though the game has "changed" we're still going to rethink all the same options we already thunked...

No wonder Obama has such a frak'ed up administration...

With "logic" like that, one has to wonder how Obama can even decide whether to get out of bed in the morning...

Michale