From the very beginning, the Obama Administration has failed the most basic tenet of national leadership on this debacle in Syria - zig zaging from one banal sound bite to the next, the public is aghast at the lack of a coherent plan or strategy to be implemented in response to the use of chemical weapons against the civilian population of East Damascus. The American people want to rally around the President in a time of international conflict that endangers our national security. Nonetheless, uniting the Nation in support of a plan of action to defend the country has been made impossible most assuredly by the absence of any meaningful plan of action by this Administration. No American citizen believes that a pin prick, shot across the bow will accomplish anything on the ground in Syria other than to embolden Assad that he has taken America's best shot and finds himself neither particularly degraded, nor in the least bit deterred from continuing the slaughter of his own people in any fashion that suits him.
Instead of hearing the rallying war cry of "Remember the Maine", "A Day that will Live in Infamy" or even "The Whole World will Hear Us Soon", we get David Axlerod tweating: "Congress is like the Dog that caught the Car". Cheap political gotcha games do not inspire citizens, nor instill confidence in our allies that America's Commander in Chief will successfully manage any military campaign, however "limited" and "precise in scope".
Yet, far worse than than the dismal optics of the Administration's misconduct of the public debate on the Congressional war powers authorization, is the clear demonstration that this White House truly believes there will be no blow back or violent response to our attack in Syria. A miscalculation of that magnitude is absolutely frightening in its arrogance, naivate and blind stupidity. When Senator Rand Paul challenged Secretary Kerry on the President's Constitutional authority to take the Nation into war contrary to the Vote in Congress opposing such initiation of military conflict, the Secretary dismissed the Senator's contention as frivolous because the Constitution requires Congressional approval only for real or "Classic war". With a straight face, and I mean that literally - a very long, straight face - Secretary Kerry pontificated with deep and sincere conviction that the President is simply going to blow up a few buildings in Syria and then all the unpleasantness will be over in a matter of days, not weeks or months.
A very telling moment then occurred when the Secretary looked to nail down his put down of the Senator by asking General Dempsey, sitting right beside him, to concur on this obviously wise pronouncement that America will take a few names, kick some Arab butt and come home credibility restored, Hezbollah terrorists, the Iranians and Russians rendered impotent. In reply, the Nation's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman turned to face Secretary Kerry and said: "No Mr. Secretary, I do not want to speak to that proposition." Kerry, forgetting to turn off his witness microphone, said to General Dempsey, the Congress and to the entire nation: "Thanks for pulling the Rug right out from under me, General".
Better Secretary Kerry loses control of his ridiculously wrongheaded talking points, than our Great Nation lose all control of its destiny by marching off to inflict a simple pin prick that causes our enemies in Damascus, Tehran, Moscow and Beijing to launch counter pin pricks - through surrogates at first - that lead to a second round of attacks to restore Obama's street cred, that lead to yet another round of counter strikes by these emboldened adversaries, with every escalation met by a similar upping the ante of war fighting until even Mr. Kerry recognizes the existence of that "Classic War" he can't envision happening. Unintended consequences do happen after all, even to Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
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