(Article changed on September 8, 2013 at 21:36)
As we approach the time that Congress will either vote to authorize this President to attack a foreign nation that is no threat to the United States, without being sanctioned through the United Nations Security Council (which is also against International Law), or Congress will take back the authority given to them in the Constitution. Either way, heads will turn.
Understanding that there are those in Government and elsewhere that want to attack Syria for different reasons (many of them monetary), the President is being manipulated to accede to their demands. Calling on Congress to justify a strike on a foreign nation that will most likely have enormous repercussions, not only in the Middle East, but all around the world, this President might just have kicked the can down the road.
If this is his purpose, he well go down as one of our greatest Presidents if he bends to Congress if they vote no. This will be a giant step in dismantling the "Imperial Executive" branch. Giving Congress the power to authorize the use of force will be exactly what this nation (and the World) needs to see. This will also allow President Obama to backtrack out the pickle he has been put in by his "red line" remark.
If the Congress fails to authorize this strike (and that appears likely), the President could emulate the British Prime Minister David Cameron with an "I get it" remark. This would allow him to extricate the United States out of the Middle East where nothing is completely white or black or good or bad. It appears that maybe President Obama is starting to understand that no matter what the United States does or doesn't do in the Middle East, nothing will satisfy everyone.
The nation is tired of these endless military diversions that seem to go on and on forever. The nation is also tired of the military spending that takes up 54% of our discretionary budget. Hundreds of Tomahawk missiles at 1.6 million dollars each is a lot of money. This is money that the defense industry is salivating over. Israel too would love to see Syria (with whom they are technically at war with) turn into a failed state like Iraq and Libya, the two US "client states" that were introduced to democracy over the barrel of a gun. Our actions didn't work then and they won't work now.
The United States needs to learn a hard lesson. We just can't be the arbitrator of every violent conflict in the world. We helped start this mess by supplying the "Syrian" rebels that are, by and large, mercenaries from all over the Arab World. We stand back and wonder how al Nusra and al Qaida got involved and now realize that we are seeing a playback on how the war in Afghanistan got started. The United States government, in its eternal wisdom, recruited and supplied the "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan led by none other than Osama Bin Laden. So how did that work out for the U.S.?
I can only hope that this is what Obama is trying to do. If it is, he is smarter than I give him credit for. If it isn't, and Congress authorizes the strikes and he proceeds to use military force against Syria, or Congress says no and he acts without authorization, he is the dumbest man to ever sit in the oval office.
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