Doing It Right, For All The Wrong Reasons.



Doing It Right, For All The Wrong Reasons.  My wife and I were sitting in our sunroom drinking coffee the other morning, listening to media details of Obama’s latest debacle, and we both wondered out loud…”Has he done anything right?”   I studied for several minutes and finally replied… “Nothing that I can think of”.  I dwelt on that response for a day or two and realized how truly pathetic (of him or me, I am not certain) it was.    I have come up with something that I believe the One has done right, but he did it for all the wrong reasons and in a shameful fashion.

I was raised as a conservative Republican with pretty hawkish tendencies.  I am now a moderate/conservative Independent with much less hawkish tendencies.  At some point in my fifties, I grew tired of America’s youth  spilling its blood on foreign soils for people who hated us for what we are, what we stand for, and who hold no appreciation whatsoever for the ultimate sacrifice paid by far  too many of our best and finest.  While it was pretty plain to me that Iraq’s invasion of its neighbor could not be tolerated by Bush #1, I came around much slower to supporting the deposition of Saddam; not because of any WMDs or Bush Doctrine, but because of his genocide atrocities committed on the Turkish people.  While a student in school, I had often wondered how the world could stand by so long and allow the Holocaust to occur.   I could not fault our President Bush for intervening to prevent this tragedy from playing out once again.  Foreign policy is one area where intelligent and experienced journalists often proceed with caution.  This makes it even more imperative for those of us who really don’t have a clue to withhold our tongues and our judgments.  That having been said, we must speak to what we know (or at least what we think we know), lest we give our leaders free reign to conduct foreign policy without heed to public opinion.  Following this creed, I will now give Obama credit for doing something right; for getting us out of Iraq and moving quickly to getting us out of Afghanistan. 

Now...he is accomplishing this with an absence of honor, a heavy dose of deceit, and in his typical self-aggrandizing fashion.  He wants to play the tough guy while being a closet weasel.  He supports a troop surge when he privately disagrees with it and has no faith in it.  He seeks to make himself look like a master of diplomacy while decrying the supposed idiocy of his predecessors.  Even when it comes to an issue where the stakes are the very lives of our soldiers, he cannot bring himself to be honest and straightforward about his ideas, hiding instead behind political facades intended to improve his standing in the almighty polls that he holds so highly.

The blood and treasure spent in both countries is an investment that should be properly noted and appreciated.  But those efforts did not yield a tangible gain that could be held in a material sense.  They yielded instead an opportunity for good, honest people in foreign lands who were oppressed by ruthless leaders to have a chance at a better life.   Once that opportunity was secured, the mantle passed from our brave soldiers to those people fighting for freedom and dignity; the outcome was never guaranteed and anyone who thought so was foolish.  This does not excuse the failure of this administration to successfully negotiate a meaningful SOFA; failure to do so is a palpable disrespect to those who fought in both theatres.  What it does mean is that when the cruelty of mankind against mankind reaches a certain level of evil, good people and good countries are obligated to step up.  But that obligation cannot be open-ended and, at some point, peoples must earn their own freedom and dignity with their own sacrifice.  There are many ways to help these people seeking better lives other than doing their fighting for them.  We can pick sides with supplies and diplomacy, with economic leverage, and with the strong voice that always rests with our great nation.  My God…what has happened to that voice?

Too many American soldiers have died for other people’s wars, for unprincipled leaders who hold their self interest above those of the people they lead, and for political causes that have no bearing on our nation and its people.  I do not believe in isolationism.  I do believe in a world-wide terrorist threat that requires us to have a rapid-response military force in various strategic locations around the world.  Our leaders must learn, and we as citizens must accept, that there are times when we must watch and times when we must intervene.  That line has become much too blurred over the course of my lifetime.   We must once again elect people who we can trust to see this line clearly and then have the courage and wisdom to take action accordingly.