This was beginning to sound too familiar. A president is calling for a new war based on his inherent authority while members of Congress warn that it is war or death for America. However, former NSA director (and my neighbor) Michael Hayden added a new element: explaining that air power is like “casual sex” and that we need greater commitment than the military equivalent to a one night stand. Of course, this one night stand is expected to last months and cost billions. President Obama has already asked for $500 million to just arm Syrian rebels despite the fact that we are now facing our own weaponry in the hands of ISIS (captured from our past supply of rebels and the Iraqi military). Sort of like Warren Zevon’s song to send “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” except we are leaving the lawyers behind on this one.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the American people that the choice is simple in going to war:
“[T]hey’re intending to come here. So, I will not let this president suggest to the American people we can outsource our security and this is not about our safety. There is no way in hell you can form an army on the ground to go into Syria, to destroy ISIL without a substantial American component. And to destroy ISIL, you have to kill or capture their leaders, take the territory they hold back, cut off their financing and destroy their capability to regenerate. . . . This is a war we’re fighting, it is not a counterterrorism operation! This is not Somalia; this is not Yemen; this is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”
Graham was heavily ridiculed for his drumbeat to war in Iraq over the non-exist WMDs and previously called for war against Iran.
Graham however at least portrayed the war in relatively platonic terms. Former NSA Director Michael Hayden who was tied to both the unlawful torture and surveillance programs under the Bush Administration compared the U.S. air strikes as nothing more than enjoyable but meaningless “casual sex”:
“The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex: It seems to offer gratification but with little commitment. We need to be wary of a strategy that puts emphasis on air power and air power alone.”
No first base for Hayden on this date. Of course, given our continuing and perpetual military engagements, we are under Hayden’s terms something of a promiscuous power. Hayden clearly wants more of a commitment and long-term relationship. Something like . . . well . . . Iraq.
In the meantime, dating on Hayden’s term is not cheap. We are about to commit an initial half a billion dollars to just arming Syrian rebels — the same area where ISIS emerged with U.S. weapons to become the current menace. This is a collateral cost and does not include our direct military costs.
However, Obama insists that he does not need anyone’s approval to launch such a war as previously discussed. In a bizarre twist however the Administration is arguing that the President can always rely on Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which authorized attacks against Al Qaeda and those who “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups. The problem is that that authorization occurred 13 years ago and the Islamic State happens to be the moral enemy of Al Qaeda at this point. Thus, Obama is claiming that he is fighting Al Qaeda by waging war on its enemy (while of course claiming that he needs for such authorization).
Perhaps Hayden is right. War, like dating, is just too confusing, too expensive, and just a bit dangerous.
DBQ- better go enlist right now.
“Like Vietnam, DBQ? What a raging success…”
Exactly like Vietnam!! We didn’t try to win. The political class hampered the military. Impeded the military. The media turned public opinion against the war. We could have won. We chose to lose.
Whether we should have been there in the first place is debatable and a completely separate issue….but we WERE there. There is no excuse for a half @ssed attempt at war. Once you jump off of the diving board, there is no way to get back up there. The choice has been made.
Win or lose. Those are the options. The only options. I say WIN or die trying.
Video by Dr. David Griffin on believers in miracles of 9/11
Interesting comment from Michael Hayden. I’ll compartmentalize this, as having casual sex with phone metadata. Having more than one is fun. Any phone calls from Syria lately?
PS – 9/11 was a false flag operation, blamed on OBL, who was never even listed as being wanted for it by the FBI.
The evidence is so overwhelming that it’s hard to believe that anyone still believes the bush fairy tale —which btw was itself a conspiracy.
You would be well-advised to do some reading and watch some of the videos showing just how blatantly phony the official conspiracy theory is.
Paul C
Is MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT advocating bombing Mexico now? Or is it just a rouse to drum a war beat?
Paul C
Don’t you even ask yourself where the NSA has been in all of this? 40% of Iraq gone… NSA never saw it coming? ISIS is miles from our borders now? And the NSA never saw them coming? Really???? ?(just for good measure)
Max-1 – personally I am not sure that the NSA is not doing its job. We know that Obama does NOT attend his intelligence briefings.
Some tactical nukes now might preclude a total exchange later.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
The testosterone is building to a climax.
Who’s going to back down, Mr. Kerry/Mz. Clinton?
Shall we wait ’til we’re all in?
You can’t win someone else’s civil wars. Let the various religious/ethnic factions fight it out without outside interference.
I’ll believe the “hair on fire” moment for Michael Hayden when he, well, has some.
Paul C
Not Canada but “Mexico”… Where the “other” brown people come from? Why not shipping cargo containers from Muslim Asian countries?
Beware prayers halls disguised as soccar jerseies?
Oh, and watch out for Jefforsons Koran, too?
Max-1 – I am not the one making the claim. The claims are being made by others.
The boy who cried wolf may actually have a point. A broken clock is correct twice a day.
“The Beslan school hostage crisis also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre, started the first of September 2004, lasted three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children), ending with the death of 334 people. The crisis began when a group of armed Islamic terrorists, mostly Ingush and Chechen, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation) on 1 September 2004.” Wiki
Soft targets are plentiful in America.
The Mexican border in wide open and “coyotes” and drug cartels negotiate with anyone with money. ISIS has a lot of money including gold and hard assets obtained in recent actions in Iraq and Syria.
*volunteer army*
If this people in this country want to win a war against radicalized Islamists, then we better be willing to step up to the plate. War Tax, how are you going to pay for this grand war? Reinstate the draft because our volunteer area is tired from repeat deployments. PTSD is rampant and suicide among veterans and active duty is at an all time high. War rhetoric is fun, huh? Let’s our ‘money’ where our mouths are? So how does a War Tax sound to the Taxed Enough Already folks? Also how does getting some of your own skin ( so to speak) in the game sound?
DBQ, You got some Margaret Thatcher in you.
Like Vietnam, DBQ? What a raging success…
“We should not equate this problem with war. A nation state declares war on a nation state. Now this ISIS or ISL or however ya spull it, proclaims themself a nation”
Shall I go all Whoppie Goldberg on this one? War? or War War? (like the different types of rape? or is rape just rape?)
War is when someone is trying to kill you, take over your stuff. The radical Muslims have stated this repeatedly that they are at war with us and want to destroy us. Why should we ignore this. Whether they are one person at war with you or a group without uniforms or a country with flags and the whole enchilada. War is war and when you are dead it doesn’t matter whether they played by the rules and wore cute uniforms or not.
War is war. We should plan to WIN. There is no other acceptable option.
Also, there should be no war unless Congress declares one. Will this cowardly Congress put on their big kid pants and do it?
What other nations will step in? What ME nations can we trust?
“Pope Francis warns on ‘piecemeal World War III'”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29190890
“Pope Says Today’s Crimes, Massacres, Destruction Could Be Seen as ‘Piecemeal World War III'”
http://www.christianpost.com/news/pope-says-todays-crimes-massacres-destruction-could-be-seen-as-piecemeal-world-war-iii-126370/
“War is madness,” the Pope said at a memorial to 100,000 Italian soldiers at Redipuglia cemetery near Slovenia.
The Argentine Pope has often condemned the idea of war in God’s name.
Only last month, Pope Francis said the international community would be justified in using force to stop what he called “unjust aggression” by Islamic State militants, who have killed or displaced thousands of people in Iraq and Syria, including many Christians, the BBC’s David Willey reports.
In Saturday’s homily, standing at the altar beneath Italy’s fascist-era Redipuglia memorial – where 100,000 Italian soldiers killed during WWI are buried, 60,000 of them unnamed, the Pope paid tribute to the victims of all wars.
“Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep,” he sai