For John, BLUF: The Democrats have not just fallen into lockstep behind the President. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Washington Post there is this OpEd by Ms Rosa Brooks, "Why Obama's assurance of 'no boots on the ground' isn't so reassuring". Here is the short bio of Ms Books:
Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, was an Obama administration appointee at the Defense Department from 2009 to 2011. She is married to an Army Special Forces officer.The President is having a tough sell job within his own Party.
And then there is this from "Speech Boy" (Michael A Cohen) in our local Boston Globe—"Obama’s imperial about-face on ISIS". (The print edition did not include the word "imperial" in the headline.) Here is the conclusion.
Congress is not off the hook here. The legislative branch has a responsibility to weigh in and not abdicate its responsibility by heading home as the current Congress has done. But considering that Obama has said he doesn’t need their permission, there is little political incentive for them to act. If anything, Obama should demand their support, for precisely the reasons he told the Globe six years ago.For those who are thinking I am dredging up another Republican, I assure you from reading articles and EMails from Mr Cohen that he is a Progressive and up to this point a strong supporter of President Obama and his path.In the era of the imperial presidency, Obama may end up being the most imperial of all — an outcome that would have been unimaginable seven years ago but one for which the next president intent on fighting an endless war with no congressional check will thank him.
Regards — Cliff
President Obama please stop looking to the polls and media reports on how you have decided to wage this war. You are now in your second term in office and nothing under the sun will get you a third term. It is not YOUR job to secure that the next president of these United States is a democrat. That is the job of the national democratic party and possibly the Vice President Joe Biden, under the assumption he wants to run for the office you will vacate.
ReplyDeletePlease use your time wisely delegating military operations to expert military commanders and intelligence gathering to appropriate US intelligence organizations. You need to step away from the TV and not concern yourself with how the media (domestic and international) portrays you. If you can get your cabinet secretaries to step away from the TV polls as well, then I think it would be much easier for us as a nation to win this war against ISIS.