Friday, July 5, 2013

Damned Whatever You Do

Over and over, This Week returns to the usual topics with some of the usual suspects pontificating as if they (and I) actually know what's going on at the White House.  The airwaves and the Internet have inundated us for a couple of years now with outcomes of the Arab Spring, especially the ongoing Syrian Civil war.  In fact, for a couple of months, my conservative Republican cousin had been sharing posts bad-mouthing the Administration for providing arms to Al-Qaeda rebels involved in that war.  I laughed a weekend or so ago when said posts began reading "might be going to provide" instead of had already done so.  But then, it became a done deal.  The Administration is now sending a small supply of small arms to the "right" rebels in the country.

In a rare move for him, my most oft quoted conservative columnist, George Will, affirmed that he had said all along that Obama was right not to have gotten involved in that war.  Don't faint from shock at this particular conservative offering support to any liberal, especially a Democrat.  Predictably, the decision to provide arms, he now says is WRONG -- just that loudly -- despite the fact a previous Republican presidential candidate says we should be involved (McCain).

The general consensus of the Roundtable the weekend we jumped into the fray was that this step was too little, too late.  Maybe, but let's not be too hard on him for this part of the decision.  He had to make at least a token move now.  His real mistake was in stating some time ago that if Assad used chemical or biological warfare on his own people, we would have to intervene. 

In an earlier blog article ("The Folly of Lines Drawn in the Sand"), I certainly warned everyone that if you threaten, you must follow through when they call your bluff.  Anyone want to introduce this Administration to my blog?  Oh yes, who am I, an obscure author, to hold an opinion that might be of interest to political powers?

But even if they won't read me or resort to consulting experts, won't they at least look at the most recent president's example?  You tell a country's leader you will go to war if he doesn't show his weapons and you have to go to war if he doesn't -- even if he has no weapons to show and you wind up with egg on your face.

So, don't be too upset with our President over this.  He said he would act and he is.  He is sending a token supply of token-size weapons meant to reach "real" people conducting a civil rebellion.  But should the weapons fall into Al-Qaeda or other enemy hands, they won't have received the big guns they might prefer.

As we have all observed for the President's entire stay in office, it hasn't mattered what he has done.  His enemies have almost slammed shoes on tables to get him to move in a certain direction only to stone verbally once he did their bidding.  There's no question they will damn whatever he does.

May God see that all these people lose their hold on power as soon as possible.  The country needs reasonable people with cooperative, intelligent positions.

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