Thread: Strike against Syria

Actually I was thinking more of Weird Al Yankovic and Christmas at ground zero.

Good grief it's been years since I heard this song. Forgotten about it

If nothing else, this thread got Wullie to pop up out of his bunker.

As for Syrian intervention, I thought of an analogy today: Obama has bluffed his way into a no-win situation. He has shown his hole card. Everyone at the table knows he loses the hand (and really, his whole pot) whether he plays it or not. The tough, unpredictable gambler in the corner (Iran) is smiling behind his shades.

There is no good outcome for this, none, and I think everybody knows that (even him). I think this will doom his presidency to lame-duck status at best. He should have just launched a midnight Tomahawk strike (ala Clinton in Sudan). Now it's just death by a thousand cuts with what looks like the whole world against him. Bet he's wishing he could commiserate with old Georgie about now. Conservatives, I know you're enjoying this...

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

If nothing else, this thread got Wullie to pop up out of his bunker.

As for Syrian intervention, I thought of an analogy today: Obama has bluffed his way into a no-win situation. He has shown his hole card. Everyone at the table knows he loses the hand (and really, his whole pot) whether he plays it or not. The tough, unpredictable gambler in the corner (Iran) is smiling behind his shades.

There is no good outcome for this, none, and I think everybody knows that (even him). I think this will doom his presidency to lame-duck status at best. He should have just launched a midnight Tomahawk strike (ala Clinton in Sudan). Now it's just death by a thousand cuts with what looks like the whole world against him. Bet he's wishing he could commiserate with old Georgie about now. Conservatives, I know you're enjoying this...

I never developed a taste for "incoming" during my IDF service, and even less during Gulf War I, with the SCUDs falling on Tel-Aviv every night, and me having to put gas masks on my 6- and 8-year-old daughters. So, when you write "[t]here is no good outcome for this," I understand it to mean "for Americans" -- global politics, maybe Americans in uniform, but mainly the negative effect on our economy -- all at a distance from where those Tomahawk missiles are targeted. But I'm really not "down" for such an attack -- at arm's-length, or otherwise -- because just like with Saddam Hussein, so, too with Bashar Assad: he can't slap back at the US, but he sure as shootin' can, and will, take it out on Israel. If he can't hurt us at home, he'll be happy to hurt our friends. Friends don't set-up friends... and my now-adult daughters still live in Tel-Aviv.

I think Wullie has been hiding in his bomb shelter also
Nice to see ya around again.

Obama is twisting more than a hound dog trying to pass a peach pit.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I think Wullie has been hiding in his bomb shelter also
Nice to see ya around again.

Nah, been out in the real world enjoying myself. Lots of hours (75 to 80 hr a week) on the summer time gig.

Went up to Idaho scouting around about a month ago. I was on the other end of the state from Glen. Pretty country where I was. If it hadn't been for the smoke from three big fires it would have been perfect. As the kid is out of school and working full time, we're thinking of maybe relocating. Wife has some kin up there and we had a great time with them.

Enjoyed everything except the TSA baloney at the airports. I'll drive next year IF the bonehead in the white house doesn't get WWIII started with his present plan of reaction.

Finally decided there is life beyond the inter-web.

Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they sow with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.

Thomas Jefferson

Thanks for the Isreali persective, JBHoren-I did not mean to come off as a jingoistic "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out" type at all. I guess what I was/am saying is that Obama tried to turn this into too much of a long-term consensus-building exercise, showed his hand way too early, and is now damned if he does/damned if he doesn't. No good deed goes unpunished.

Yeah, I remember well Saddam's crude scud missile attacks on Israel; sounds like you and your loved ones lived through them. Believe me, I have nothing but respect (and a scary kind of awe) for the way Israel has held on in that region when every nation around it wants to wipe it off the earth. (Though I can't understand its insistence on continuing to build settlements in the middle of the Palestinians, but that's a whole 'nother debate, I guess).

Part of me would like nothing better than to see Assad (and every other tin-pot, murderous dictator) dragged from his palace and dealt with like Ceaucescu was, or Mussolini. But then, and this is a big part of the dilemma over there-is the "devil you know" maybe a better option than the chaos and sectarian slaughter that will undoubtedly ensue in such an event? Bush I thought so, which is why he kept the leash on Schwarzkopf in Desert Storm when he wanted nothing more than to storm on into Baghdad. His son failed to learn that lesson in the ignominious years after '03 and the infamous "Mission Accomplished" landing on the carrier.

In short, God, what a mess over there all the way around. Solomon himself couldn't begin to solve the problems in the Middle East, and we damn sure won't either. How many American presidents will shoot their wads over there before we figure that out?