GOP senators eager for another war
What this country needs is another good old-fashioned ground war.
That was sarcasm, folks.
Two wars, as far as most Americans are concerned, are probably enough.
Don’t tell Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. They’re ready to gear up the U.S. war machine again, and they don’t like the fact that President Obama isn’t getting the U.S. military prepared to invade downtown Moscow.
In the face of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, McCain called Obama’s response the result of “feckless” foreign policy.
Let’s face it, anything short of a Democratic president personally uncovering one of the nation’s nukes with a snarl on his face, could elicit that kind of response from McCain.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, always ready to call Obama something-or-other, declared he’s “a weak and indecisive president (who) invites aggression.”
What has been considered a mild response from the Obama administration, now that Vladimir Putin has plunked his troops into the Ukraine, didn’t seem to bother the same Republicans, after then-president George W. Bush had a similar response to Putin’s invasion of Georgia in August of 2008.
That’s after Bush had just had high-level, face-to-face talks with Putin in (of all places) Sochi, Russia, and he had concluded earlier that he’d looked into Putin’s eyes and “was able to get a sense of his soul.”
Bush mustn’t have looked close enough into Putin’s eyes. Russia sent troops into Georgia, anyway.
In fact, there are still Russian troops there.
Well, what has changed?
That was sarcasm, again, folks.
We know what’s changed.
Republicans aren’t as willing to “leave politics at the water’s edge,” with Obama in the White House.
Of course, most Americans would prefer that the president abstain from the kinds of saber-rattling that could lead to military options.
A diplomatic solution to an international crisis, doesn’t cost the country that much. Definitely not blood, if it does cost a little treasure.
But two wars, with one lasting longer than any in the county’s history (Afghanistan – 12 years, and four months), won’t help McCain and Graham sway many Americans, when they bluster on-and-on about Obama’s more measured approach.
The Obama administration knows too, that since WWII, the United States has invaded more countries (eight including: Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Kuwait and Southern Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Dominican Republic, and Cuba (allies of the US, and the CIA specifically), than the five Russia and the Soviet Union have invaded – (Ukraine, Georgia, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, Hungary).
None of those military incursions, except for the Cuban missile crisis, has elicited the kinds of tough talk Messrs. McCain and Graham would like Obama to make.
Meanwhile, those folks over at Fox News are having a field day trying to support their pre-conceived, misguided notions that Obama is a closeted commie.
“Vladimir Putin believes in Russia. He believes in Russia’s destiny, its mission. Obama does not believe in American exceptionalism. He does not believe in this country,” proclaimed Fox News analyst Ralph Peters.
Saying that kind of thing, doesn’t make it true. Saying it over-and-over, makes it untrue, over-and-over.
There’s not even a shred of evidence the president “does not believe in this country,” simply because he doesn’t call-up Putin on his cellphone and challenge him to a duel.
Obama is far too pragmatic to engage in such knee-jerk, geo-political chest-pounding. That’s simply not his style.
That might not satisfy McCain’s ideas about strong leadership, but he’s not exactly in a position to do much more than talk.
He had his chance, and the American voter said, resoundingly, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
He’s not going to win any more votes. He’s never going to occupy the White House. He’s not going to do much more than stand on the sidelines, and watch as adults make decisions that matter.
Ditto, Lindsey Graham.
It still remains to be seen if Vladimir Putin withdraws Russian troops from the Ukraine.
In the meantime, Obama will be under increased pressure to do something. Whatever that “something” is, still won’t be enough to satisfy Republicans.
To them, he’s got a very serious problem.
He’s a Democrat.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net
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