House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio)
At last week's Capitol Hill press conference, John Boehner addressed Saudi Arabia's bombing of ISIS strongholds along its border with Yemen.
"The world is starving for American leadership; but America has an anti-war president. We have no strategy...to deal with the growing terrorist threat. I applaud the Saudis for taking this action to protect their homeland and to protect their own neighborhood. If America leads, our allies in the region would be tickled to death and would be happy to join a coalition. But America has to lead."
Daniel Larison, a writer for The American Conservative, responded this way: "We have an obsession with ill-defined 'leadership' as some sort of cure-all."
what eye thynk: First: when did being anti-war become a bad thing?
And, while Mr. Boehner's anti-war epithet may make for good press, it is inherently false. In posturing for the media, he conveniently ignored, not only our continuing entanglement in Afghanistan. but our current involvement in Syria--actions initiated by President Obama eight months ago and then summarily ignored by Congress.
That point aside, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Larison. Saudi Arabia has moved in Yemen against ISIS, and I can't help but see that as positive for the region and for the U.S. The United States of America cannot and should not be seen as some omnipresent entity to which that region's powers look for leadership in time of crisis. Protecting their own borders and their own people should be viewed as unexceptional, not something extraordinary to be noted with applause.
what eye thynk: First: when did being anti-war become a bad thing?
And, while Mr. Boehner's anti-war epithet may make for good press, it is inherently false. In posturing for the media, he conveniently ignored, not only our continuing entanglement in Afghanistan. but our current involvement in Syria--actions initiated by President Obama eight months ago and then summarily ignored by Congress.
That point aside, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Larison. Saudi Arabia has moved in Yemen against ISIS, and I can't help but see that as positive for the region and for the U.S. The United States of America cannot and should not be seen as some omnipresent entity to which that region's powers look for leadership in time of crisis. Protecting their own borders and their own people should be viewed as unexceptional, not something extraordinary to be noted with applause.
POTUS is anti-war? Don't know that I ever heard him say that. Never heard him say he was pro war either. I have heard him say that he has had to, reluctantly, send troops into harm's way. I find that to be reasonable. And another reason why I couldn't do his job. I truly feel that history will be kind to a very good president.
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