Good Lord, please spare me from the efforts of “
the intellectual leader of the Republican Party” trying to sound presidential.
First it was his fluffer-nutter of a presidential prospect book The Way Forward: Renewing The American Idea, whatever the hell that means. [Tip: reading it doesn't help with that]
Then yesterday, Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) took the opportunity to zing President Obama's foreign policy for creating the "power vacuum" in Iraq and Syria that led directly to the rise of ISIS and, inexorably, the beheading of Steven Sotloff:
Ryan had been taking questions from a panel of reporters during a Milwaukee luncheon when he was asked to respond to a news report that journalist Steven Sotloff had been beheaded. The congressman asked the several hundred people in the audience to observe a moment of silence, and then suggested that the Islamic State's rise to power coincided with a series of Obama missteps.
"I do think a good deal of this rise stem(s) from bad decisions made by the administration in foreign policy with respect to Syria and Iraq," Ryan said, adding, "Those decisions created a vacuum which is now being filled by ISIS," a reference to the Islamic State.
Jeez that's a really simple-minded, reductive foreign-policy rookie thing to say, even for a Randian pseudo-budget wonk at a Rotary Club of Milwaukee luncheon.
Just allow me to play devil's advocate for a sec . . . do you think Bush&Co lying its way into invading Iraq, spreading our military thin, loading up local factions with advanced armaments and losing Osama bin Laden could have sucked just a tiny bit of air out of Iraq's sovereignty long before we knew who Barack Obama was?
But, in case anyone in the lamestream media rushes to connect those dots and challenge the premise, Ryan warns us that he now reads "intelligence reports and has been getting regular briefings about the Islamic State."
And since he's in a foreign policy state of mind, lately, Ryan has been trying out other criticisms like:
Ryan said the U.S. needs a decisive campaign to "finish off" the Islamic State, warning that "if we don't do it here and now, it will come to get us."
He said he wasn't trying to be a scaremonger, but he worried that Obama doesn't recognize the severity of the threat.
I don't want to scare you, but . . "Obama doesn't recognize the severity of the threat?" Why do you suppose that is, Rep Ryan? Guess he's just not as smart as a brood of blood-lusty neocon chicken hawks about foreign policy, eh?
"I don't want to scare you but . . . says Fox News "foreign policy expert," Judge Jeanine:
Because of his feckless foreign policy, President Obama - a man with no foreign policy experience - who doesn't learn a thing from his foreign policy blunders, a man who prefers to surround himself with political operatives, our nation - once the world's super power - has been minimized on the world stage and is neither respected nor feared.
Barack Obama has proven to Russia’s Putin, to Syria’s Assad, Iran’s Ayatollah and Afghanistan’s Karzai, they can cross any red line he draws with impunity.
"I don't want to scare you but . . . says
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC):
. . . we must act to “stop another 9/11,” possibly a larger one.
"I don't want to scare you, but . . . says
Rep. Peter King (R-NY):
“Every day that goes by, ISIS builds up this caliphate, and it becomes a direct threat to the United States. They are more powerful now than al-Qaeda was on 9-11. So Dick Durbin says we’re not going to do this, we’re not going to do that. I want to hear what he says when they attack us in the United States.”
You know what, neocons? we've seen this movie before. How
stupid do you really think the American people are? We're not all your base. We know your script so well we can deliver your lines verbatim. We know that no matter what conflict or crisis occurs, outside of the US, you're going to declare Obama a) wimpy b) indecisive c) inexperienced or d) all of the above. Because you are all masterful geniuses with mad foreign policy chops and USDA Grade A American testosterone coursing through your veins? We get it.
If Obama launches limited air strikes in Iraq, well, by golly! we need "greater involvement" we need "boots on the ground" otherwise the end is nigh. We know what your real fear is, though . . . how well could a black man really understand world domination? or behavior befitting a Master Race?
Of course you say it a little differently . . . things like Obama “was not raised in the American experience;” or Leftists Like Obama and Kerry Don't Think the United States Has the Moral Authority to Confront the World's Bad Guys courtesy of thought leader, Rush Limbaugh; or John Sununu holding forth on how "Obama has to learn how to be American."
All I can say is, thank God elections do have consequences and we don't have Boy Blunder, here, any closer to the Oval Office. At least for the time being.
Please vote, people!