Ted Rall for May 13, 2013

So either his complete ineptness does not allow him to speak without a Teleprompter or this is a sorry excuse for why his empty threat was laughed at by our enemies.

Which one?

It is bad enough dealing with his scripted material.

What, exactly, did he say?

Script or off script doesn’t matter toRepubs. And whether we go in or not won’t matter either.

I don’t see the problem. This is nothing a few hundred drones wouldn’t fix. Or a half dozen bunker busters.

And, lichtentunes, when drones fill our skies, we’ll have our guns to protect us.

“When drones fill the skies of America (very soon) I wonder if everyone will still be glad that they are “saving lives”.”Maybe they’ll make a drone that can track my car keys.

Making a statement to support Netanyahu’s position on excuses to bomb Syria WAS a bad idea, blown out of proportion, both as “response” by the U.S., and the actual impact of “chemical weapons”, that are actually far less “brutal”, especially nerve agents, than conventional weapons like napalm, white phosphorus, or even grenades that throw out thousands of pieces of shrapnel, or iED’s and land mines. Simple fact folks, compare killing say, a chicken, with something that leaves it dead in seconds (nerve agents) versus slowly removing a part at a time until it dies, like “conventional weapons” do to people.

Yes, I’ve seen combat, and also been a CBR NCO “back in the day” and am very familiar with the effects of chemical agents. (Mustard IS very nasty however!)

“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.”In this instance, I think we started out with a sound idea: the U.S. would not stand by if chemical weapons were used in Syria. Obama included both sides of the conflict, which was a fair & good point. He should have made it clear to Turkey & the Arab nations that they would be expected to take the lead both in any military action & diplomatic resolutions. Instead, those nations seem to be looking to America.Our conservatives may hate this ‘lead from behind’ style, but it makes sense both in terms of reducing America’s image as an Imperial Power & in terms of the cost to our military, not to mention our budget.

Are conservatives upset because Obama has not started a war with Syria. Are we angry because Obama warned Syria’s Assiat not to use chemical weapons or else? Or else what? Does Obama have a time limit to react? Does that limit Obama to war? Screw the speech writers and typos. Obama can take all the time he needs and he will. War is not the only option. Too bad Bush forgot that.

Ron Burgundy for President!