I’m assuming, after Libya, this is meant as a rhetorical question.
Because really, who’s going to stop him? The anti-war left isn’t really an anti-war left, save for a few fart-dusting sixties throwbacks. Instead, they are a progressive lockstep political movement that relies on antifoundationalism to bracket its own hypocrisies and rationalize its own ends-justify-the-means policies.
Here, Obama needs to save face. And to do so, he needs to lob a few missiles at Syria — though nothing too damaging — to show that he’s willing to do so. But not so much that he’ll do Syria any real harm, as he’s already made publicly clear, in one of the most ridiculous bits of political maneuvering I think I’ve ever seen or heard.
So the left will stand behind him.
And the right — save for people like John McCain and his cabal of statist frauds, who cheer on such a lawless departure from the check on warmaking power — will belly ache and grouse and grumble, but they’ll allow the funding, and then fund raise on the President’s imperialist penchant.
It’s all a dance. A puppet show. A farce.
There are no checks on government corruption save a public uprising or a return of virtue to the arena of politics.
So to answer the headline’s question, yes. So stop asking the question and let’s get on with doing something about what we all know the answer to be.
As far as I am concerned, Obama can go to Syria and fight whomever he thinks is the enemy. If he is lucky, congress might let him take the US arm forces with him.
Well, we all know Obama is no W. Bush.
In the United States we’ve always been kind of big on keeping civilian control of the military so that the guys fighting the war are distinct from the guys deciding to fight the war. The US Consitutiondraws a rather similar analogy in giving the power to declare War to Congress and not to the Commander in Chief.
Welcome to the post-constitutional America. Living Constitution my ass, it’s dead.
What Charles A. said.
Of course, now, the only wars we’ll fight are the ones which have nothing to do with our national interests or security, but those that seem “really groovy” after a night of bong hits and mescaline.
I don’t see why we should pick a side.
Bomb both Assad and the rebels farther back into the stone age.
And/or help the civilians escape. But don’t try to make it a “win” for anyone who seeks power.
I say we should bring the troops home and let the ragheads fight it out among themselves. Our soldiers don’t even have decent boots and winter’s coming.
Sending people on 4+ tours is cruel and inhuman. Either change the rules of engagement or we GTFO.
oh noes baracky
British Parliament Votes Against Syria Strike
UK Parliament confirmed as hyper-crypto-racists and therefore probably Republicans.
Obama says he”ll [we’ll] go it alone if need be. He won’t let any other country distract him. “My Little Phoney” war must happen to save [his] face.
More on old “go it alone.”
So now he wants other fingerprints on the button? Or is that just a bit of chaff thrown out when the “consultation” and/or “dialogue” becomes his usual monologue at the last minute to make it look like “our” decision.
Whatever, the anti-mocking campaign of calibrations continues full speed ahead led bravely from behind.
Congress gets to consult with Hagel, Kerry, and “Mouth of Obama” Rice. Obama & Gal Pal Val consult with Magic.
More on that conference call.
This call could be his “consult” but he doesn’t really need it or any approval for 60 days.
The conference call was not on a secure line and contained only unclassified information so:
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to war he’ll go. He’ll bomb Syria some, and then he’ll run. Hi ho, hi ho-hi ho-hi ho.
We should just be making popcorn. Lots and lots of popcorn.
Instead, Kerry says Obama will back up his rhetoric with action. Unilateral, cowboy style action, just muscular enough not to get mocked, which will have not any ongoing consequences for us, but will surely change everyone’s mind about our resolve.
[With a deep bow of humble appreciation toward our friend McG, who lighted the way:]
*** When you don’t find a utopian world suitable to your self-aggrandizement on your Cable TV, you become enamored of race-baiting Marxist claptrap. When you become enamored of race-baiting Marxist claptrap, you join a jew-hating Southside Chicago racialist church. When you join a jew-hating Southside Chicago racialist church, you fail to develop a MiddleEast strategy worth a damn. When you fail to develop a MiddleEast strategy worth a damn, you don’t know what to do when Bashar Assad gasses a few thousand people. When you don’t know what to do when Bashar Assad gasses a few thousand people, you reach for the nearest stand-off weapons system. When you reach for the nearest stand-off weapons system, everyone sees you’re a jackass without a coherent MiddleEast strategy reaching for the nearest stand-off weapons system.
Don’t reveal yourself as a jackass without a coherent MiddleEast strategy reaching for the nearest stand-off weapons system who got there for want of a sufficiently self-aggrandizing utopian world on Cable TV: get Direct TV — We’ve got whole channels devoted to you, and nothing but you. ***
Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah. Libya. Which has worked out smashingly.
I would happily deflect the credit for that meme to whoever originated it, if I could remember who it was. All I know for sure is I saw it either posted or quoted in a comment thread, quite likely here at PW, and expressed an opinion that it should become a popular meme among those willing to go to the effort.
Which, so far, at least you and I have been.
This is going to go berry, berry bad.
I hope the Swedes demand their Nobel back for Mr. World War III.
sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the chinless man
If only the mission was to kill Assad and take his oil. All that sand would solve the beach erosion problem in Florida, too.
Instead, we are floating a bunch of destroyers like bathtub toys that may or may not lob some tomahawk missiles at a camel or two starting an international incident that will go off like a string of fire crackers.
It’s an Archduke Ferdinand moment in the making.
that sounds ominous
Very. I am skeered.
But this time the archduke incident is planned. It’s gonna happen in broad daylight, on CNN, and we’re gonna see US tin cans sunk, not just have confusing gulf of Tonkin radar reports.
If one wanted to deconstruct the US, wouldn’t this next thing be the final act in a five year play?
It would. It’s all very sad and doesn’t have to happen.
Someone needs to grab Presbo by the lapels, pistol whip him (okay, slap him) and say “No! We aren’t going to do this!”
i’m not skeered because johneffin’kerry has still got the hat.
“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?” – Sarah Palin
See? John has lied to us many times in the past, why should we believe him now?
And Presbo has never told a straight story in his life. (See what I did there?)
he’s got the hat. ok? /sarc