Syria: Ready to Vote

The stakes for the country and for Mr. Obama have dramatically risen in the past few days. With the decision to seek Congressional approval to strike-even on a limited basis-a foreign country, the political implications have shifted.

The Obama Administration is intensely lobbying members to approve something. They have dispatched everyone they have to make the case. Unfortunately for them, the case is difficult. Plus, all the political capital they have will have to be expended to save face for the President and believe me there is not much built up good will for the White House. Many of the House Members on the Republican side, well no, make that all of them have been vilified, lied to, ignored and called about every distasteful name in the book.

The only thing that will save the President is the fact that some, many of the members, who think this is a bad idea will support it because they are putting the country and the Presidency first. Not Mr. Obama first but the Presidency. It will be the way it used to be, when different factions would pull together on important threats to the country. I think the announcement of Speaker Boehner falls into this category, noting his support but that he will not lift a finger to whip or convince his fellow members. 

I can understand this thinking, but in this case, I would vote no. For the past 20 years or more, the United States has been involved in the Middle East and elsewhere in some kind of conflict or another. Somalia, First Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq War, Libya, Pakistan, plus terror attacks and drone strikes. The Arab spring is a bust. Egypt on fire, Benghazi disaster, Tunisia in turmoil. Are we any safer, better off even with hundreds of billions of our money spent in the past 20 years plus the poor soldiers killed and maimed? Hard to make the case.

One of the things I have agreed with Mr. Obama on was that the Syrian civil war was not our affair. He has different reasons than me. But my reasons are we could not influence it (maybe at one point but too late now), nor affect its outcome. There are no good guys there. I do not see how that is changed.

 Chemical weapons are lethal. Look at the warfare in the trenches of WW I where gas was used by opposing sides.  However, being killed from a bomb from an airplane, a drone, a bullet from an AK-47 leaves the person just as dead.

I do not know how this will ultimately be resolved. The President does not have the support of the people according to polls; the international community has turned its back. Now Mr. Obama is looking to share the risk by asking the very group he distains for help, I suspect he will get his support but if he does not, he becomes a political gelding. He just does not know it yet.  

 

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