Home » John Hinderaker on Obama’s bombing announcement

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John Hinderaker on Obama’s bombing announcement — 20 Comments

  1. Given the current trajectory in the ME with all of the various groups working for supremacy it is just a matter of time before one party decides to use a WMD. After that all bets will be off.

  2. He is riding his own platitude-based thinking right downhill, his approval numbers are ever-plunging, his only defense is via Earnestspeak, and there is doubt that he believes his own gobbledegook?
    Not in my mind.

  3. Frankly we have all misjudged Obama. He has already sent two planes to bomb ISIS and there may be another two on the way. We can all be sure that this will be enough for ISIS to turn over a new leaf and enter negotiations.

    Sarcasm off, for a few hours I thought Obama was actually going to do something wise and forceful. I hope these lapses of judgement are not a sign of worse things to come.

    Here is a question, if this “bombing campaign” has the effect I foresee, that is, none, and the result is a genocide of Yazidi and Kurdish peoples, will the Democrats finally turn on this knave?

  4. Obama: “And so even as we support Iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq, because there’s no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq.”

    ISIS is not just a disaffected Sunni group. Though predominately Sunni, they are composed of the most radical fundamentalist Islamists. Their intention is not just to overthrow Maliki’s Shia favoritism. Their goal is much greater than that. Once they secure control of enough territory and oil wealth, they intend to misbehave. They want to attack Jordan to get to Israel. They would love to lay their hands on Saudi Arabia’s oil. The Saudis may have supported them at first. Now they are getting very nervous. With plenty of money and many Muslim recruits with Western passports it is just a matter of time before they begin planning their version of 9/11.

    Only someone who has a naé¯ve view of the radical Islamist intent could not see this bigger picture and the eventual threat.

    I worked for the National Park Service back in the day. We were taught that the way to stop forest fires was to be alert to snuff out any small embers or low to the ground flames before they blew up into major, life-threatening fires. That lesson applies for anyone that wants to snuff out small wars before they get really big. I’m prejudiced, but a month of around the clock bombing on supply routes, supply depots, forces on the move, and other targets (Some shock and awe!) could be like throwing a spade full of dirt on a small fire, turning it from a big threat into something manageable by Irag’s army. That said, I wouldn’t be averse to putting a Marine expeditionary force of 15,000 in Jordan as a threat to ISIS and potential mop up force. Will the ISIS and their supporters hate us more because of taking actions against them? Nope. It isn’t possible for them to hate us more than they already do.

    Showing our fangs, can also stiffen the spines of the Iraqis. And if we do have to engage, it should be a full-on, no-holds-barred, ferocious effort to win quickly and decisively.

  5. “Does Obama actually believe his own gobbledegook? Hinderaker seems to think so, but I have grave doubts.” neo

    Obama’s statement was carefully crafted to appeal to his pacifist liberal constituency. There is a profound opposition between Obama’s domestic behavior and his behavior in the foreign arena. Domestically, Obama is ruthless, cunning and cynical. In the foreign arena he is all about appeasement. I think that exactly reflects his base constituency’s attitudes.

    Obama is an ideologue and so I do not perceive him to be insincere but rather as cognitively dissonant as his liberal base. He and they are a strange, oxymoronic mixture of ruthless domestic oppression and external ‘kumbaya’…

    Bob From Virginia @ 5:09,

    Not a chance.

  6. Not likely, Bob … it will take more than a genocide in a faraway place of which Obama knows nothing to make the Dem establishment turn on him. No, I believe that most of them have metaphorically lashed themselves to the mast of a ship taking on water, the USS Obama – and they’ll stay on board to the very end. They’d lose too much face and credibility now, to admit they were hosed by a slick-talking, sweet-smelling, pants-creased hustler.

    If it weren’t for the fact that our national credibility is sinking right along with him, I am eagerly waiting to see what happens when Obama’s approval ratings hit single digits. Chris Matthews committing hari-kiri on air? David Brooks leaping from the roof of the NY Time building?

  7. Sgt. Mom,

    The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded: “There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.”

  8. J.J.,

    Anythings possible but I rather doubt that the Saudi’s ever supported ISIS. Qatar on the other hand, fully supports every fundamentalist Sunni terrorist group. It’s even possible that ISIS is Qatar’s covert proxy.

    Given Obama’s ‘limp wristed’ foreign policy, I think it highly probable that within the next 5 years, we will be facing a nuclear armed Iran and an emerging nuclear armed Sunni Caliphate.

    There is IMO, no chance whatsoever that Obama will commit American ground troops to fight in the M.E.

    Don’t you realize by now that Obama is a ‘peacemaker’ not a ‘war monger’ 😉

  9. JJ,

    There’s a “larger crisis” in Iraq? What did Obama say that is? If he’s implying that ISIS is ultimately just regular ol’ Sunni-Shia conflict, that matches the lead rationalization for non-intervention.

  10. Geoffrey Britain: “Don’t you realize by now that Obama is a ‘peacemaker’ not a ‘war monger’”

    To Obama, what’s happening with Iraq falls under “ending the war”.

  11. Geoffrey, I agree that the official Saudi government didn’t support them, but some of the wealthy Saudi fundamentalist sheiks may have.

    Qatar is an interesting case. We have a big military base there and they were our allies during OIF. They have begun to play the duplicitous role of cunning Muslims – two faced and untrustworthy. Why we don’t get out of there and move our base to Kuwait is a question I have. They also host and fund al Jazzera – that loving voice of Muslim peace. 🙁

    Eric, I was saying that Obama seems to believe that, if Maliki would just make nice with the Sunnis and Kurds, ISIS would fade away. I don’t think that’s the case. ISIS is much more malignant than al Qaeda and has bigger ambitions. Anyone who can’t see that picture is, IMO, naé¯ve.

    There are Sunnis in Iraq who are not supporters of ISIS, but Maliki has cut them out of the picture. Note that the Kurds, who are Sunnis, have not been getting the arms and ammo that Shia groups have gotten. That’s one reason why things are so bad around Irbil. The Kurds will fight, but they need beans and bullets. We could supply them, and provide air cover. But we won’t. He’s waiting for Maliki to “do the right thing.”

    Obama has this idea that these poor, backward countries/terror groups are no threat to us. After all, we have the “Golden Fleece” (Our economy) and that makes us untouchable. Back in March President Obama acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea would be difficult to reverse, but he dismissed Russia as a “regional power” that did not pose a leading security threat to the United States. The fact that they have nukes with ICBMs that can deliver them does not seem to bother him. He’s got it all figured out. We’re in the very best of hands.

  12. Bho agitates for strife and division here at home, I can not think of a good reason why he does not do the same abroad. Chaos off shore and his willingness to “lead from behind” weakens America, emboldens the bad players, and demoralizes our allies. From chaos and a new caliphate in the ME along with the shoddy treatment of Israel we can pivot to Putin’s bold push in Europe and pivot again to China pushing into the South China Sea. Meanwhile the messiah pivots from vacuous press appearances to fund raising to golfing and vacations. The boy king is an expert at pivoting and lying his ass off.

  13. “Bho agitates for strife and division here at home, I can not think of a good reason why he does not do the same abroad.” parker

    Obama “agitates for strife and division here at home” because he believes that the Western domestic right are the real enemy, not misguided jihadists and misguided criminals. He believes we are the real enemy because it is we who are preventing them from leading the ‘misguided’ to the light of understanding… which they as the elite have been granted by their demonstrated nature.

    How’s that for narcissistic insecurity?

    Obama is sympathetic to our enemies because he believes their complaints and hostility toward us are valid and justified. He agrees with George Soros’ view that, “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.” Obama believes that the UN should lead in all cases of foreign disputes.

  14. GB,

    I do not doubt that the boy king and 90% of democrats think we on the right side of the bell curve are ‘enemies of the state’ and in this they are correct. We are the enemy. We oppose their agenda. We insist on being free of their oppression. We recognize they are the enemy that wishes to deny us of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We will have to wait a while, no more than a few years, to see how much blood and gore they are willing to expend once push comes to shove.

    Meanwhile, I continue to buy powder and primers and cast bullets from wheel weights and other sources of scrap lead.

  15. Bob From Virginia, 5:09 pm — “Here is a question, if this ‘bombing campaign’ has the effect I foresee, that is, none, and the result is a genocide of Yazidi and Kurdish peoples, will the Democrats finally turn on this knave?”

    I have read numerous serious, albeit intermittently entertaining, pieces centering on speculating just what it might take to convince the Democrats to turn on the incumbent.

    I have yet to find one convincing.

  16. M J R: “I have read numerous serious, albeit intermittently entertaining, pieces centering on speculating just what it might take to convince the Democrats to turn on the incumbent.

    I have yet to find one convincing.”

    You won’t ever go broke betting on their dedication and ability to rationalize.

  17. I don’t think what Obama thinks has ever mattered. He handed health care over to Pelosi and Reid. His foreign policy seems to mostly be contrived by Valerie Jarret. He golfs, fundraises, blames Bush. He is the big giant head blowing smoke, he is not the man behind the curtain.

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