OK so Republicans and Democrats have their next yelling session on the books. We can all figure out what we are going to do in Syria. The problem is basically that both sides are right but their level of energy proves beyond anything reasonable that their arguments are based on party rather than pragmatism.
The President as has well been documented needs to consult congress if he is going to war. This is true. The people at the White House know that. There are enough lawyers there to tell the president what he can and can’t do.
The problem is that this country has history to look back to. And here is the reason why we drop the ball educationally speaking. You can’t have this conversation with a school kid today because they don’t know, don’t care and don’t want to consider anything that came before them.
Remember the last war that the US declared? Most people will tell you it was Vietnam or Korea. In actual fact, the last time Congress declared war was World War 2. Korea and Vietnam were military actions, but not by definition a war. Korea was a UN led action when the South Koreans were nearly at the point of the defeat in its “war” with the North. Congress was never involved except to foot the bill.
Vietnam was an armed conflict as well between the North and the South. South Vietnam was our ally and that’s how we got involved.
There is a part of me that says we are better than a purely political debate about what to do next. But then again there is another side of me that says that is what we are going to get.
“Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.”That’s my favorite Henry Kissinger quote. And that’s the problem that we have here. How do you do one without being the other.
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