Monday, September 29, 2014

Opening Pandora’s Box

Congressional Republicans can’t bring themselves to support Obama even when he does what they want him to do

Isn’t it interesting how, up until now, Republicans have been clamoring for ramping up the war effort in Iraq – calling Obama weak because he pulled out of that country? Of course, the entire Iraq withdrawal plan was signed, sealed and rightly delivered by the Bush administration. If you will recall, back in 2011, Republicans were outraged that President Obama was actually abiding by the agreement made by his predecessor and bringing the last of the American troops home.

Remember just over a year ago when Republicans were happy to side with the president about bombing Syria? Senator John McCain was almost giddy at the prospect.

But now, when the president is asking Congress to vote on giving him the power to do what they have long been wanting him to do – go back to Iraq and into Syria so he can bomb ISIS terrorists into eternity – well, they aren’t so up for doing their job.

Now, they would prefer the president go it alone. They don’t want to vote on giving the president the power to go in and do something about ISIS. Their reasoning is the president doesn’t have a “real” plan. Presumably, anything that does not entail putting American boots on the ground isn’t enough for the warmongers on the right.

On the one hand, Republicans are doing what they do best: fear mongering. To listen to some of them, ISIS is on the march and is likely to make an appearance at your next town picnic. Who knows? Maybe members of ISIS will launch a real war against Christmas and behead the baby Jesus statue in the town square.

Never mind that ISIS poses a more serious threat to those poor souls who reside in the region and are being systematically tortured and slaughtered by a bunch of extremists whose goal is the Islamification of the entire world, even though their brand of Islam is perverted and rejected even by the likes of Al Qaeda.

On the other hand, our Republican legislators don’t want to actually vote on whether or not we should provide airstrikes, citing the president’s authority to do so anyway under the war powers granted to George W. Bush following the events of 9/11.

A reading of those authorizations shows that they were particular to those events and to fighting Al Qaeda, not ISIS, but who’s quibbling when there’s an opportunity to bag on the president?

Also, as our illustrious Speaker of the House has pointed out, the president hasn’t sent him a written memo requesting authorization. Never mind that the president has publicly asked Congress to act. Gotta have that memo!

Of course, if Obama does nothing, he’s weak. If he does something, he’s a dictator who should be impeached. And meanwhile, Congress is abdicating its responsibility to vote on matters of national security because they just don’t want to do anything that might muck up their chances in the upcoming midterm elections.

A lot of people have a lot of opinions where ISIS is concerned. It’s a real can of worms; a Pandora’s box that was opened when the Bush administration decided to remake the Middle East in order to plunder the resources of the region. Now we have to deal with the resulting chaos and nobody really knows what to do.

So when the president takes a measured stance and approaches those in the region who have the most to lose, all we hear is squawking from the right. As for me, I agree with the Democrats in Congress who are saying that the president needs Congress to grant him the powers – or not – to deal with ISIS. 

Our tax dollars pay these people to take up the hard issues. Instead of posturing, I, for one, would like to see them actually do their job! But I’m not holding my breath.


Ann Werner is a blogger and the author of Cooper’s Grove, CRAZY,  Dreams and Nightmares. Check out her website Ann Werner on the Web. Visit her on Twitter @MsWerner and Facebook