Let's go (Partway) to War | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Anointed One Challenges Syria with a red line in the sand and when that doesn't seem to be achieving anything, he asks Congress for authority to "go after" them. Before Congress acts, Vladimir Putin steps in to bail him out. (Phew. That was close.)

    The Anointed One's spear carrier from the State Department doesn't have much luck negotiating with Iran after setting a "drop dead" date for completing the negotiations. The negotiations didn't seem to go so well and nothing was agreed to by the "end date", so what do you suppose happens?? The end date is moved and more of the Iranian wealth is released presumably to keep them "talking". Not necessarily agreeing to anything substantive, but continuing to talk.. In a lot of places that would be called bribery - or more descriptively - something for nothing. The individual (nominally) handling this situation is the brilliant military strategist who after only four or five months in Vietnam was able to return home and tell Congress how the war should be conducted... (If you stop to think about it, the only thing he seems truly good at is finding rich women to marry - and he is good at that.) Between the military strategist and the Community Organizer, let us hope that we don't have to reconcile ourselves to "containing" Iran after they develop and test their bomb and delivery systems.. Of course when if (or perhaps when) they do succeed in building and testing a bomb and delivery system, we can always put sanctions on them... Maybe we can cut off their supply of American Bourbon... Yeah, right.

    After they test their bomb and delivery system, surely someone will start a "pool" to see whether it is Israel or the US who gets bombed first - or maybe simultaneously. In he meantime, we wait while we contemplate alternative strategic responses..

    Now we hear the Anointed One telling us that we must get rid of ISIS (I'm quite sure a lot of jaws dropped either in surprise or disbelief when people heard that coming from the Commander in Chief.) But then he must have realized what he said and it gets changed to something like we need to go after ISIL and shrink them down to where we can handle them. (So much for "dropped jaws".) But then after watching two Americans get beheaded, the public seems to have decided that maybe those ISIS folks aren't so nice after all. Maybe we can't make them like us by "making nice" with them as the Anointed One seems believe is the way to handle bad guys like them. The truth be known, they aren't interested in being friends with us. They just want us dead. So much for "making nice".

    It will be interesting to see how many countries have bought in to the "We'll bomb and you guys can (presumably under our direction) provide the grunts on the ground (presumably wearing boots) to get rid of the last remnants of ISIS." The commitments I have seen from the Arab Countries who stand to lose (or win) the most (depending on how one looks at the situation) are almost on a par with the double talk we have learned to expect from the Anointed One. They sound pretty good on the surface. But when you pay close attention, they say almost next to nothing that you could hang your hat on..

    What a surprise it was to read in the paper that the great military strategist in charge of the State Department has selected General John Allen (USMC Ret.) to "coordinate" bringing together the coalition that is going to bring ISIS to their knees and then eradicate them. No wonder he didn't want to call the undertaking a "war". If it was a war, you would think that the DOD would be in charge. We can only wonder about the significance of the Anointed One's WH spokesman finally calling it a war

    Watching how the difference in nomenclature between the State Department and the White House (whoever that is) is resolved will likely provide an interesting diversion for those who have any semblance of humor left after the last five and a half years. In the meantime we can only wonder what is to become of the CIA's "army".

    What seems clear is that our Chief Executive is someone who has never been in a schoolyard fight. (Don't take that too literally - although it is probably literally true.) It does seem clear that he must have never had to "put up or shut up" when he was in school in Hawaii or Indonesia. In Hawaii he was schooled with the "elite" at Punahou in Honolulu. They don't fight there. In 87.2% Muslim Indonesia (Hmmm...), he reportedly lived in a very upscale part of town and surely went to one of the better schools there. While most American youth were learning what it meant to be an American and stick up for yourself he was hob-nobbing with the elite wherever he was. The same seemed to be true with his University exposure (which was likely paid for with other people's money). His love of America and exposure to American religion seems to have come courtesy of Jeremiah Wright. Too bad he didn't learn much about ordinary Americans and the American psyche from any of those sources.

    D'ya think??