Making It Up As He Goes Along

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RedState: Obama, Syria and Iraq: Any End But Victory Making It Up As He Goes Along

By: Dan McLaughlin (Diary) | August 28th, 2013 at 05:15 PM

 

The plans being floated by President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry for a wildly unpopular military intervention in Syria are incoherent on any number of levels. Rather than identify an enemy and seek the enemy’s defeat, the essential requirement for using military force, the Administration is unwilling to declare the toppling of the Assad regime as a goal – despite Obama’s own proclamation two years ago this month that “[f]or the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” Instead, according to one unnamed “U.S. official” quoted by the LA Times, the Administration wants a military strike “just muscular enough not to get mocked.” Churchillian, this is not.'

 

That Was Then, This Is Now

Nor is it in line with what Obama, Biden and Kerry used to claim to believe. Once upon a time, Obama’s expressed willingness to meet with leaders like Assad made him popular in Syria. Then-Senator Obama argued in the 2008 campaign that “[t]he President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation” (Senator Biden agreed); now, as in Libya,

 

“Blacks are not willing to feel obliged to support the president’s agenda,” explains Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama. “They are much more likely to feel that (Bush) is engaging in disruptive policies at home and using the war as a means of shielding himself from criticism on his domestic agenda.”

 

 

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

 

Links galore

The Syrian Nightmare

Hugh Hewitt

8/28/13

 

On Tuesday I interviewed one of the worlds most accomplished combat correspondents, the New Yorkers Dexter Filkins, on the Syrian nightmare.

 

The transcript is here.

 

Filkins is very clear-eyed on the risks and likely outcome of what he believes will be a warning shot but not a regime-changing use of force against the butcher Assad.

 

(Snip)

 

In particular

 

Thinking About Second & Third Order Effects: A Sample (And Simple) Methodology

Michael G. Miller

 

Editorial Abstract: Mr. Miller explores the classical problems of cause and effect, and offers a systematic way to address

complex contingency options. He advocates changing existing methodologies to support contemporary operational planning.