Oh, For Pete’s Sake . . . .
Multiple media organizations are reporting that the US will strike Syria as early as tomorrow. And they’re also reporting that Administration officials are making no secret about what we’re planning to do – or our objectives.
I won’t go through all the details; the WSJ article here does an excellent job of summarizing them. But I will respond to a couple of points raised in the article:
- “ ‘I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change,’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday. “ Uh, Mr. Carney – the explicit goal of the Syrian rebels IS “regime change”. If that’s not our goal, then why in the hell are we intervening on the side of the “Syrian rebels” at all?
- “The New York Times, quoting a Pentagon official, adds that ‘the initial target list has fewer than 50 sites, including air bases where Syria’s Russian-made attack helicopters are deployed.’ “ Gee, that’s wonderful. The best military strategy in the world is to tell your opponent what you’re planning to do before doing it so they can get ready.
It seems to me that we’re going to use a limited application of US military force to “send a message” vice engage decisively in Syria. I hope the hell I’m wrong.
Why do I hope I’m wrong? Can you say “ROLLING THUNDER”?
We all know how well that worked out.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Military issues
Yeah, the ninnies at the obamao pentagon can name this one “ROLLING BLUNDER”…
Where the fuck is the OPSEC ? Is this some pathetic attempt to coerce the two sides into stopping the fight ?
They sound like kids getting ready to throw snowballs.
WHERE ARE OUR GODDAM LEADERS??!!
Ask the 52% that voted to continue the current Administration some months ago, PintoNag. Plus those who didn’t think it worth their while to vote because neither candidate was “conservative” enough.
Pinto, at this moment we are truly a rudderless ship adrift on the currents of the whim and whimsy of the POTUS. And I thought Clinton was bad…
Leaders? What leaders?
Oh, they all retired or left for other jobs a while back.
This kind of thing gives me a headache. I swear, it’s Lyndon Johnson all over again, only worse this time because it smacks of pure incompetence.
No. Not incompetence. That would be much easier to correct than this deliberate destruction of our country.
This is just a continuation of the agenda which has been in place for the past 100 years variously called liberalism, progressivism, communism, blah, blah, blah.
“We’ve gotta DO something about this!” wink, wink
“NOW, we’ve gotta DO something about this!” wink, wink
“Which side are we on again, ’cause we gotta DO something about this??”
to quote from the movie “Heartbreak Ridge”…(a favorite of mine)….
“It sure does help knowing where and when you’re going to be hit…sir.”
From the LA Times:
One U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity “just muscular enough not to get mocked” but not so devastating that it would prompt a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.
:facepalm:
“Just muscular enough not to get mocked” – yeah, right.
What’s next? “Yeah, yer mother is so….”
Whether by incompetence or by design, this is the most inept administration in the history of the Republic. From top to bottom this administration really needs to be placed against a wall and shot. If not literally, at least figuratively. All I can say is WTF. At one million dollars a pop, shooting cruse missiles into empty military targets has got to be the most egregious farce in what has become political kabuki theater.
Lobbing a few dozen cruise missiles into a foreign country to divert attention from a political crisis. Shades of the Bubba…..I mean….Clinton administration.
So, let me get this right.
Not only are they blundering their way into a conflict that has no good outcome for us, they’re telling the targets when and where they’re going to strike?
What the hell are they doing? Who exactly is Obama rooting for here, Muslim Brotherhood or Assad?
Why are we doing this at all except for the POTUS “Red Line” and ego. For all we know both sides have and have used chemical weapons. There is NO way we are going to come out the good guys in this. This is Europe’s backyard. Let them take the lead for a change. The French have been pretty mouthy about all this let them send their troops in first. I tell you this will not end without us putting boots on the ground and blood in the ground. We will immediately become the common enemy of all sides and factions in Syria. Leave them alone. If the people want a new, free nation their is a way. We called it the “American Revolution” and it is available to every Muslim nation who’s citizens have to courage to stand up for themselves instead of wanting someone else to come fix their problems. There is an old saying, “never come between a man and his God”. The Muslims are not democracy based but theocracy based, with all its infighting over Shia, Sunni, and Sharia law. No on has ever made a democracy out of that and never will. This is not about chemical weapons, it is about the vacuum in Washington for leadership and guts. Where are all the libs who took Bush to task over WMDs? Why are they not crying out now? If this were a Republican administration and decision, the outcry would be deafening.
It’s not about military dominance or supremacy, it just more of the prevalent “Do Something” attitude. Doesn’t matter what how effective “something” is, just as long as you look like (or talk about) doing it.
It’s more of the same BS that we see EVERYTIME something bad happens. These OPSEC geniuses have given Syria so much advanced notice that there will be very little damage done to Assad. Of course they’re also ignoring the fact that by bombing Assad, we’re about to become Al Qaeda’s air cover.
I miss America!
What the fucking fuck?
Most of the libs in this country don’t agree with this, never mind the conservatives. So who is the Administration trying to impress? Literally NO ONE — not our allies and surely not our enemies — is impressed by what they’re planning to do.
Our government is getting ready to do its very own Miley Cyrus routine.
We’re bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We’re coming in from the north, below their radar.
@17 – They’re impressing themselves, which is pretty much standard by now. Nothing else seems to really matter, does it? (Rhetorical question, BTW) 🙂
Obama’s inspiration.
I hope they are de-briefing Nancy Pelosi.
I imagine she has some good intel from her trip!
If your intention was to get Israel blown off the map, would there be a better way to do it? (This week anyway.)
WTF!?! We are putting Americans out of work and on the street because we can’t scrape enough money together to fix a submarine but we are going to spend how many hundreds of millions so Oshithead can look like he has a pair!? fff
Let’s just call this the McDonald’s syndrome of politics: instant gratification by ‘do something’, without thinking ahead about how, what overall effect it will have done the road, and conveniently forgetting that the military is under sequestration, so there’s no money for it.
It’s ‘blah, blah, blah’ ad nauseum, and yes, this it the worst kind of incompetence on display since that idiot who spent tax money on decorating the White House instead of doing his job.
@17
Our government is getting ready to do its very own Miley Cyrus routine.
So they’re bending us over to get screwed on the world stage.
Yah, that’s a pretty apt comparison.
@18: When will you be back?
@27. Can’t tell you. It’s classified.
Whatever happens we won’t come out of this looking good. Probably end in a bad way all around. This administration will take over where the French have left off.
“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”
You know what this reminds me of? The movie Serentiy.
For those who haven’t seen it, it’s about some space outlaws. Really kind of a Billy the Kid meets Captain Kirk kinda thing.
Now, at the beginning of the movie, they’re going to rob a bank. They’re down in the vault of the bank and they’re talking to one of the security guards they persuaded to surrender. They’re talking about shooting him in the leg so it looks like a put up a fight.
Isn’t that what we’re (and by we, I mean, our government…and by our government, I mean Obama) doing here? “Hey, Assad…we’re going to ‘bomb’ your country. Stay out of such-and-such-a buildings for the next few days. We really don’t want to be doing this, but if I don’t I’ll have to look bad and we can’t have that. So, just so there’s minimal damage to either of us, I’ll bomb the hell out of these buildings. You have a couple of days to move your shit outta there. I look like a badass to my people, and you look like a saint and a genius by moving your people out of there before the attack. Win-win.”
So, the administration is launching a military campaign, without the authorization of congress, because they think WMDs are in the country? I think I am having dejavu all over again…
Now, if only a strong dimocrap will stand up and claim that it is an illegal war…
No, no, Flagwaver, no… It’s not a ‘military campaign’.
It’s called ‘making a statement’.
See, the numbnuts in the White House have already SAID they would do something unspecified if a ‘red line’ was crossed. Well, now the ‘red line’ has been crossed and they have to do something that shows that they ‘meant business’.
Then Bodaprez can get back to his golf game.
Obama doing his damndest to make Jimmy Carter look absolutely brilliant as POTUS…..
An absolute bigger groups of amateurs and idiots has never been gathered into one Administration than we see in the Obama Camp.
Wtf either send in a brigade or leave them alone.
Ya know what, if they do strike, in about 6 mos or so we will have people claiming they were ‘in’ on the Syrian strike (covert mission) and barely made it out alive, yadda yadda. etc. Its coming, I can feel it.
@30. Your point was explained today, Flagwaver. The pResident doesn’t have to go to Congress, because the Republicans control the House. They wouldn’t go along with Baracka, so they must be bypassed.
Next, Code Stink will take to the streets to demand that no blood be spilled for sand. Because, that’s about all Syria has.
@rb325th, truer words have seldom been spoken.
So here’s the real problem: no one in WDC or the Oval Office knows exactly what to do or how to do it, but they’ll sit around and talk about it as much as possible, discuss it with the press as long as they are anonoymous sources, and telegraph every possible move to anyone who can even sound out words over in Syria. Here’s the link:
http://news.msn.com/us/attacking-syria-details-objectives-remain-hazy
Now, whether or not anyone will actually come up with a plan and execute it without talking about it in a public venue like the press ahead of time remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the Syrians know EVERYTHING Bodaprez thinks he’s up to.
I’m thinking ‘Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.’
@32
Obama doing his damndest to make Jimmy Carter look absolutely brilliant as POTUS
Maybe he thought it was a challenge. Maybe he heard someone say, “Nobody could be a worse president than Carter” and thought, “Yes I can”.
Green Thumb@21, you really want to see Nancy Pelosi sans undergarments?
@39.
Not especially.
But she did have a lot of nice things to say about Assad and his “digs”.
She needs to go. Time now.
Well, two aircraft carriers are being kept in the Persian Gulf. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/US-officials-Navy-boosts-carrier-presence-in-Gulf-4769246.php
One of them, the Harry S. Truman, has just arrived and the other, the Nimitz, was supposed to return home but has been ordered to stay there.
Does anyone besides me have a really bad feeling about all of this?
Does anyone besides me have a really bad feeling about all of this?
Not just you. My GF and I were watching the news last night. We were expecting missiles to fly any minute. I still am. I’m sure it’s not going to stop at that.
I do not have a bad feeling.
Lets send our all-female Infantry units and our openly gay support brigades.
All in line with Obama’s vision of the military.
Lets shore this shit up fast.
Any volunteers?
My gut instinct tells me that you are more than right.
I think I’m going to make some popcorn and reflect on my life.
God help us if this goes really sour.
My #44 post was meant for Nik @ 42.
@45.
You sure it was for #42?
OK, OK, since you got yours in there before mine went through, it’s for BOTH of you. But must you be so damned cheerful when I’m doing my best to be gloomy, GT?
Still… the fact that the administration is dumb enough to announce its moves in the press and alert the oppostion, to my mind, does not bode well for the outcome. Is the Navy going to fly drones off the flight deck of the Nimitz? Or will it be dropping Marines into the middle of Damascus?
Stay tuned for more sheer stupidity from the Oval Office, brough to you by our local sponsors, the American taxpayers.
@47.
“Stay tuned for more sheer stupidity from the Oval Office, brought to you by our local sponsors, the American taxpayers.”
And hopefully not Phildo-contracted equipment.
@ 32 – It’s like a really pathetic clown car
Does Syria have an aspirin factory?