Obama 2 years ago: "I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria". He lied.

Only conservatives think you don't need to adjust for changing conditions.


I would guess there is a bigger need for Forward Air Control as things on the ground get more complicated. We are probably going to need US 'eyes on' to call in air strikes to avoid friendly fire or even killing Russians. The Doctors Without Borders incident showed us we can't fully trust "ally" calls for air strikes.

 

doesn't address the question

 

I thought everyone was happy that Russia was taking care of business in Syria and we let someone else handle the problem.

 

You just compared America's elite commando forces to Royce White.

Where is the respect? #bewell

 

Um, you forgot, CLAP CLAP CLAP.

 

Are you for troops or against troop or are you just against anything obama does?

If he sends troops you will be against him. If he doesn't send troops you will be against him.

 

I like the way republicans play politics... it's like SNL.

 

You still haven't answered what you think an acceptable strategy would be in Syria. Please enlighten us and don't mention President Obama.

 

Or Democrats or liberals.

 

You still didn't answer the question what do you think should happen.

 

this.

 

Is it really worth a thread every time that Obama says something then goes back on it later? Shouldn't we just assume that he's "lying" pretty much every time his mouth is moving?

 

Here is my biggest gripe about Conservatives regarding foreign policy.

If you're gonna attack Obama, don't attack him because he lied or "flip-flopped" or that he doesn't have a strategy.

Attack him for going around the War Powers Act/Res and initiating hostilities without congressional approval..

Don't cry about HRC's emails or benghazi, cry about them attacking a sovereign country without congressional approval.

You guys are such idiots. It just makes it seem disingenuous when you attack the president for doing things the vast majority of the Republican party would support.

You know why I think the Republicans in congress won't either

A) attack obama for illegal wars
b) pass authorization for wars they clearly support?

Because politics. They don't want to be on the record to supporting the war in case it goes wrong. It's easier to just neither say you support or oppose it and attack Obama/HRC every chance you get.

It's disingenuous and anyone with a brain sees right through it.

 

You got jokes that's the way you would see it it's been like that with the GOP for years.

 

Then most people don't have a brain. The reality is most people just don't care about reality. They just want justification to think the way they think. Texx is a prime example. He doesn't care if articles are true or intellectually honest, as long as it fits his narrative.

 

You're still not answering the question. What is a better plan?

I'm a liberal and I think Obama has botched Syria. He's been indecisive and the lack of a cohesive plan has allowed a quagmire between Assad, ISIS and rebels to fester. Frankly, I don't know what the answer is. That's why I'm asking what the best course of action is beyond the knee-jerk criticism of Obama. Conservatives would have a lot more validity to their arguments if anything other than hot air propelled their opposition the last seven years.

The Middle East wasn't ready for a post-Arab Spring world and that has been shown in Egypt's return to military rule, Libya's chaos and Tunisia's tenuous hold on democracy (while seeing a staggering proportion of its men travel to Syria to fight with ISIS). Obama's rush to declare that Assad had to go, without considering how to fully support the rebels and what level of involvement to commit to, smacks of Bush's ill-prepared Iraq justification. Frankly, humanitarian justifications for American action in the Middle East fall on deaf ears when we turn around and give unyielding support to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, etc. It's a region where all that matters is the devil you know.

Now that Russia has entered the fray in support of Assad, there are no good options. Assad is aligned with Iran, who is at odds, and fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with Saudi Arabia. So, what is to be done? Do we continue to support a ragtag group of rebels that have no hope of actually winning this fight now that Russia is involved? Do we decide that ISIS is the larger existential threat, swallow our pride and tacitly allow Assad to remain in power?

I honestly don't know. That's why I'm asking for any solution to this instead of the constant anti-Obama, "liberals do it too" bleating.

 

I also want to point out. There is an entire layer of strategy 99% of America is not privy too. The situation is probably a ton more complex than what is de-classified. How does Israel feel, what about Turkey? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Jordan? Egypt? Europe? Hezbollah? Russia?

So to pretend that you know of a better way without all of the intelligence, military professionals, generals, etc is pretty stupid in the first place.

The military complex is much bigger than any President and has much more influence than anyone ever wants to admit. The president just takes the blame when things go wrong (and credit when things go right) because thats his job.

 

This. I'm a bleeding heart liberal. But you know the biggest difference between a lot of liberals and conservatives. We can admit when we ****ed up. We aren't beholden to ideology.

Humanitarian justifications are total bull**** as you pointed out, Saudi Arabia is the worst country in the Middle East as far as supporting terrorism/unrest. Does anyone know about what they're doing in Yemen, and how we are supporting them murdering tons of people?

Does anyone care about that? Why is the Syrian refugee crisis better than the yemeni refugee crisis? Can anyone answer this?

Here is the difference between warmongering of Bush and Obama. Obama destroyed a country (Libya) and created a breeding ground for instability and extremism and it cost about a billion dollars and 0 solider deathers.

Bush destroyed a country and created a breeding ground for instability and extremism and it cost about 2 trillion and many soldier deaths.

Give me Obama, any day of the week guys.