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Post by Sailor on Sept 11, 2014 2:03:10 GMT -8
A President Who Ran Promising Peace Cautiously Declares WarNever has a declaration of war been so cautious. Never has an American president spent so much time talking about what the declaration doesn't mean and left so many questions about what it does mean. But what President Obama put forth in his nationally televised address Wednesday night still was a declaration of war—even if he did prefer to call it a "counterterrorism campaign." What made it more remarkable was that it was delivered by a president who ran for office on an antiwar platform and hoped his legacy would be leaving the nation at peace. This is the president who, 19 months ago in a speech at the National Defense University, stated that the war on terrorism, "like all wars, must end"; who 33 weeks ago in his State of the Union address said, "America must move off a permanent war footing"; and who 14 days ago told reporters that "we don't have a strategy yet" for combating the Islamist terrorist group, ISIS, that has seized broad swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. Much more here: www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/a-president-who-ran-promising-peace-cautiously-declares-war-20140910
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Post by tankcommander on Sept 12, 2014 8:39:13 GMT -8
Limited air strikes are an act of war?  |
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Post by Sailor on Sept 16, 2014 15:52:23 GMT -8
If it's intended to send an enemy to hell, it's an act of war.
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Post by 101ABN on Sept 16, 2014 16:36:40 GMT -8
Last I checked, only congress has the power to declare war.
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Post by warrior1972 on Sept 17, 2014 4:10:10 GMT -8
Enough.
Declaring war has been obsolete since WWII.
The Japanese made declarations of war obsolete at Pearl Harbor (and Hitler's European invasions hinted at it), and Congress will never grant any President the powers a formal declaration of war grants. And if the situation is that bad, mushroom clouds will make such a declaration irrelevant, won't they?
You don't tell an enemy you're going to kick their ass. You just DO it. Just another change in modern warfare that World War II provided for us.
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Post by 101ABN on Sept 17, 2014 17:13:55 GMT -8
"You don't tell an enemy you're going to kick their ass. You just DO it. Just another change in modern warfare that World War II provided for us."
Somebody better tell Obama, since he keeps telling the enemy what we won't do as well as what we will.
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Post by warrior1972 on Sept 17, 2014 17:33:25 GMT -8
"You don't tell an enemy you're going to kick their ass. You just DO it. Just another change in modern warfare that World War II provided for us." Somebody better tell Obama, since he keeps telling the enemy what we won't do as well as what we will. That's the problem, you see. This thing is such a mess, whose ass are you going to kick, and HOW? You have NO strategic targets. NOTHING of any real value. You can't even truly identify your enemies. SYRIA is a basket case. We can't stand Assad, son of Assad, tyrant and user of chemical weapons. We would love to see him overthrown. Yet Assad is ALSO fighting ISIS. or don't you remember that one of the primary reasons we didn't want to assist the rebels fighting against Assad too much is because they looked as militant as Al Queda?
THAT WAS THE BEGINNINGS OF ISIS IN SYRIA.
IRAQ isn't much better, but, instead of a tyrant, we have a faltering government that replaced Saddam Hussein, ANOTHER tyrant that we decided to overthrow. The resulting vacuum is where ISIS came from in IRAQ in the FIRST place (THOUSANDS of Irai Soldiers who were not allowed to participate in the regime that replaced Saddam are now hardcore ISIS fighters.) IRAN is against ISIS, but will not participate in the US-led coalition. They have far more to gain from sitting this one out and watching us spend billions more and lose more American lives. So, how about you (or anybody else, for that matter) telling me who and what we should side with, and who and what we should bomb? SUNNI and SHIITE. ARAB and IRANIAN. KURD and IRAQI. A DOZEN SMALLER GROUPS, MORE OF WHICH POP UP EVERY DAY. And, don't forget, ISRAEL against EVERY FUCKING BODY. Ancient enemies who were described in the OLD TESTAMENT, for God's sake. Meanwhile, CHINA and RUSSIA keep building, militarily and econmically, watching us bleed oursleves white fighting wars we cannot win.
The more we fuck around over there, THE WORSE IT GETS. I am so sick and tired of all of this. A salvo from a TRIDENT missile sub on the region is sounding better and better, you know?
DO YOU REALLY THINK THERE'S A WAY TO "WIN"?
God, LET'S HEAR IT.
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Post by 101ABN on Sept 17, 2014 20:32:00 GMT -8
You damned sure don't tell your enemies what you will and won't do.
Christ, you even argue when I'm agreeing with you.
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Post by warrior1972 on Sept 18, 2014 2:59:36 GMT -8
You damned sure don't tell your enemies what you will and won't do. Christ, you even argue when I'm agreeing with you. I am not arguing with you. I've said previously that I am sick and tired of the Middle East. That hasn't changed. I seriously doubt that it ever will. And on that note, 101, I am damned angry. I don't mean to take it out on you. It's just part of the frustration of watching our country go to hell in a handbasket, and not having a solution.
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Post by 101ABN on Sept 18, 2014 6:15:48 GMT -8
Warrior, I do understand that frustration.
I fear we may never recover.
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