REPUBLICAN FOREIGN POLICY DISGRACE

Secretary of State John Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—for hours. The most obvious outcome was that every single Republican on that committee had one objective, which was to use this crisis in foreign relations to create a no win situation for President Obama. Disgracefully, it was a pure political objective; it had nothing to do with what is good of “our” country.

As always, during these hearings, the senators, one after another, frame a statement in every question they ask. They asked; does the President want to put troops into Iraq and Syria, which is what they want to do but do not want to take blame for doing it because overwhelmingly, the American people are tired of war—they do not want that. The Republicans on the committee had one aim, which was to try to get Sec. Kerry to say, or even hint, he would put troops on the ground. They know the answer would be no because the President said repeatedly that he will not commit combat troops in that conflict.

Our president is an intellectual and has a good reason not to put troops on the ground. He has taken a long time to put together a strategy. Unlike, the neo-cons, he learned from Vietnam and North Korea. He also leaned from the misstep[s of Johnston and the knee jerk bungling of George W. Bush. If the people of Iraq are not willing to fight for them selves, then we should not sacrifice our blood and treasure for them. President Obama also learned the cost of doing nothing from Cambodia and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot who killed 25 percent of that country's population after we chose to ignore what he was doing—because we were tired of war.  

The committee Republicans were saying that if we do not put troops on the ground ISIS will win in both Syria and Iraq—period, and it will be Obama’s fault. At the same time, these same Senators, to a man, will vote to authorize financing the arming of Syrian rebels at the same time, they are refusing to make a war declaration vote and identify them individually as wanting our troops on the ground for nothing more than the McCain like silliness of the glory of war. To a person, they are political cowards who lack the courage of their convictions. They are aware of the fact that the American people are tired of war while the neo-cons (military industrial complex) want them to do that and so do they. The committee’s Republicans were being clever; they were putting them selves in an enviable position; no matter what happens in Iraq, they are right. If we fail to defeat ISIS, we will have failed because Obama did not put “troops on the ground” if we win, they were the ones who supported arming the rebels who are actually doing the fighting. If we do put troops on the ground, and causality lists mount, it will because Obama who did it.

I think President Obama knows something else as well, which is that if we have to put our troops on the ground, it is Vietnam all over again; we will lose. Only this time, religion is involved. The Vietnamese wanted to rule their small country, as did the Khmer Rouge; in contrast, radical ISIS wants to defeat all Christians thus rule the world.  

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