This is a political post.
So like Syria. Again.
In a few of my previous posts, I have alluded to Obama as a kind of political Batman, someone who has all the angles figured. In the comic books, the Caped Crusader is a meticulous thinker, considering the all the possibilities and keeping something in his back pocket, er...utility belt, for each one. But sometimes, because they also make movies of Batman, and there is only so much they can cover in a movie (to our great disappointment), our hero sometimes finds the solution to the problem just plops down in front of him, all nice and neat.
That is what I believe happened this time. Obama got lucky.
I keep looking at John Kerry and I can't believe I voted for him in 2004. How he went from dinner with al-Assad in 2009 to calling the man a two bit dictator boggles my mind, but then maybe he ordered the souffle when Kerry was ready for the meal to over? Luckily, the Secretary of State's dismissive off the cuff solution of the Russians taking over Syria's chemical weapons seems to have found a life of its own, gone viral as they say. And I believe it really was an off the cuff remark because the more I hear him the more difficult that is to believe it might have been a setup and he turned in an Oscar worthy performance. Out of sheer luck, his solution was exactly what was needed: A quick and relatively painless negotiated end to this specific type of hostility.
But according to the pundits, well, at least the conservative pundits, Obama lost. To whom I'm not exactly certain, but somehow in a game we weren't playing, we lost. But then these are the people who, after I re-read the text of the President's speech for the third time, seem to believe through their on-air comments that the President wasn't clear enough in his plan or motivations. How much clearer he needed to be I'm unsure. Maybe they wanted a list of targets, the bombing schedule, and the missile serial numbers? The funniest complaint I read online was wanting to know how much it was going to cost. I'm not sure how to put this, but why would sunk costs be a factor? The navy's costs aren't really going to go up that much from fifteen to thirty missiles launches, will they? We've already bought the ships, paid the sailors...and we've got spare tomahawks, we won't even miss these.
The President's Administration managed to get Syria to the bargaining table and agree to give up its chemical weapons without a shot fired. But we still lost. Giving credit to Putin and the Russians makes us look bad. We let Putin take the reins of the world according to Fox News. Only, as it turns out, this plays out along the lines of a plan outlined by Roger Ailes, head of Fox News. But now it's a bad thing because Obama is doing it. Which is par for the course in Fox News' semi-reality. These are the same people upset that the First Lady suggested we all have an extra glass or two of water a day. You know, something every gym teacher, physical trainer, doctor, any person trying to lose weight and your mom has suggested at one time or another? You know, water?
So to sum up, the Obama Administration stumbled onto a way to get a potentially explosive situation handled without a shot fired...which according to his critics is bad. Confused? You should be.
Question: Does he still have to give back his Nobel Prize?
So like Syria. Again.
In a few of my previous posts, I have alluded to Obama as a kind of political Batman, someone who has all the angles figured. In the comic books, the Caped Crusader is a meticulous thinker, considering the all the possibilities and keeping something in his back pocket, er...utility belt, for each one. But sometimes, because they also make movies of Batman, and there is only so much they can cover in a movie (to our great disappointment), our hero sometimes finds the solution to the problem just plops down in front of him, all nice and neat.
That is what I believe happened this time. Obama got lucky.
I keep looking at John Kerry and I can't believe I voted for him in 2004. How he went from dinner with al-Assad in 2009 to calling the man a two bit dictator boggles my mind, but then maybe he ordered the souffle when Kerry was ready for the meal to over? Luckily, the Secretary of State's dismissive off the cuff solution of the Russians taking over Syria's chemical weapons seems to have found a life of its own, gone viral as they say. And I believe it really was an off the cuff remark because the more I hear him the more difficult that is to believe it might have been a setup and he turned in an Oscar worthy performance. Out of sheer luck, his solution was exactly what was needed: A quick and relatively painless negotiated end to this specific type of hostility.
But according to the pundits, well, at least the conservative pundits, Obama lost. To whom I'm not exactly certain, but somehow in a game we weren't playing, we lost. But then these are the people who, after I re-read the text of the President's speech for the third time, seem to believe through their on-air comments that the President wasn't clear enough in his plan or motivations. How much clearer he needed to be I'm unsure. Maybe they wanted a list of targets, the bombing schedule, and the missile serial numbers? The funniest complaint I read online was wanting to know how much it was going to cost. I'm not sure how to put this, but why would sunk costs be a factor? The navy's costs aren't really going to go up that much from fifteen to thirty missiles launches, will they? We've already bought the ships, paid the sailors...and we've got spare tomahawks, we won't even miss these.
The President's Administration managed to get Syria to the bargaining table and agree to give up its chemical weapons without a shot fired. But we still lost. Giving credit to Putin and the Russians makes us look bad. We let Putin take the reins of the world according to Fox News. Only, as it turns out, this plays out along the lines of a plan outlined by Roger Ailes, head of Fox News. But now it's a bad thing because Obama is doing it. Which is par for the course in Fox News' semi-reality. These are the same people upset that the First Lady suggested we all have an extra glass or two of water a day. You know, something every gym teacher, physical trainer, doctor, any person trying to lose weight and your mom has suggested at one time or another? You know, water?
 |
| One headache down, Eight thousand five hundred seventy... |
So to sum up, the Obama Administration stumbled onto a way to get a potentially explosive situation handled without a shot fired...which according to his critics is bad. Confused? You should be.
Question: Does he still have to give back his Nobel Prize?
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