Grow Up Mr. President
Between my six-year-old son and Barack Obama, I've been having a hard time of late telling the two apart. When President Obama gives a press conference, it's like watching a child in the middle of a temper tantrum. Take away a few Harvard Law School words, boil his statements down to their essence and what you're left with are pouts, complaints, and empty threats.
Add on the wreckage left in his and his administration's wake, and it's hard to come to a conclusion other than what this president needs is a good scolding.
"President Obama, keep your guns to yourself and don't give them to the drug cartels!"
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"Get your feet of the desk and show some respect for the Oval Office!"
"Mr. President, say you are sorry for using the IRS to target those who opposed your reelection!"
"President Obama, stop daydreaming about your next round of golf or visit to the beach, and start doing some work!"
"It's not nice to call things 'phony,' President Obama."
And my favorite right now, "President Obama, mind your own business."
Obama has decided to bring Syria into his playpen of distractions – anything to avoid the real issues of facing Americans today: stagnant and falling wages, sky high unemployment, strangling taxes, and spiraling health care premiums to name just a few.
But now a man who has never served in the United States military now fancies himself Commander in Chief. And yet deep down he has as much respect for our soldiers, airmen, marines, and sailors as a toddler has for a bucket of blocks. They are the first to be out on furlough. The first to see a reduction of benefits and yet they are the first to be volunteered to fight whenever this President has an agenda or when he feels like playing toy soldiers.
Sending our forces to fight alongside al-Qaeda allied jihadists and publicly announcing the method and timing of the strike seems to make as much sense as potty training a newborn. But what else would you expect from an immature President who was so excited to brag about the US killing Osama Bin Laden that he forgot about the lives of the soldiers on the ground and the valuable intelligence information that could have been obtained if he had just waited a few days. By explicitly outlining the plans of a US attack, we have just eliminated one of the most important elements of a successful battle plan: surprise.
And if Congress decides to not support the Presidents airstrike, will the President decide to follow the same course of action as he has with gun control and issue a slew of Executive Orders in the middle of the night, hoping none of us will notice or object?
On our current course the American people will wake up one morning to find ourselves embroiled in a Syrian civil war where both sides are considered our enemy, without a clear definition of a victory, and no exit strategy.
What is the motivation for President Obama's persistence on getting involved? Again, six-year-old psychology offers an explanation. He drew a line in the sandbox, and he doesn't want to seem like a coward when the line is crossed. (Never mind that the line of using chemical weapons in Syria was already crossed last Spring.).
Secretary of State Kerry and Vice President Biden want the American people to believe that it is because of the images of Syrian body bags and wounded children, which are being shown on our newscast. Our Nobel Laureate president, they argue, is motivated by nothing more than a humanitarian impulse. While these images are horrific, there has been more devastating examples of torture and death, yet no action from our Government in the cases of Darfur, Iran, North Korea, and Rwanda.
The timing of Obama's orders for U.S. military action in Syria deserves special scrutiny. We cannot ignore the past track record of distraction from one scandal with another. Nor can we ignore this President's reckless persistence, despite opinion polls showing the majority of Americans are opposed to involvement in another Middle Eastern war, and despite our closest ally Great Britain wisely voting to stay out.
I keep waiting for this President to grow up and realize our military is not comprised of plastic toy soldiers, our tax dollars are not Monopoly money, and the American people are not kites which can be easily swayed depending on which way he wants to make the wind blow with his supposed rhetorical genius.
As any parent with an out-of-control child knows, the last thing you do is to give in to his or her temper tantrums. The best thing we can do is be adults, get the Senate back in conservative hands and give President Obama a much-needed time out as an ineffectual lame-duck president.
