Obama's Apparent Ambiguity

In this article titled Obama's mixed messages on war (Jonah Goldberg, LA Times, 9/29/2014), Obama is criticized on his taking responsibility for the war in Syria. The author notes that while the president uses words like I, and me when talking about his victories, he will cast the blame on others when the situation is less than perfect.

He implies that the act of taking troops out of Iraq and moving them to Syria was a mistake. That's the issue Obama is criticized about in this article: What's more important? Fighting in Iraq? or Syria? While it is true that Obama seems to be avoiding responsibility when he said this quote about Iraq: "What I just find interesting is the degree to which this issue keeps on coming up, as if this was my decision [to withdraw U.S. troops]," I think the author is focusing on a minor issue in comparison to what the president should be held accountable for.

He (the author) acknowledges in the last paragraph of his article that the US is constantly called upon for assistance in world affairs, almost always concerning war. Given this role of our country, if the president sees fit to move troops from one war zone to another, it would be best to refrain from excessive or thoughtless condemnation. I mean how much experience do you actually have as a war commander? How do we know that Syria would not have been worse of than Iraq had we kept troops there?

Maybe it is true that the president is neglecting some accountability in his decision, but as far as I am concerned he is still more competent than Jonah Goldberg in managing a war.

U.S. To Support Syrian Rebels With Weapons

Violence continues in Syria, as ISIS keeps pushing for Islamic power in the Middle East. In this article: Congress Gets Ready to Arm Syrian Rebels, we learn that Obama has proposed a plan to arm Syrian rebels to fight against the terrorist group, and that the US House of Representatives is now debating it.

The Senate being mostly democrats is expected to approve of the plan as well as the majority of the House of Representatives.  One House speaker, Boehner, says that he agrees with Obama's plan but argues that we need to take it even further. He thinks Obama's plan is not strong enough, and we need more than just dropping bombs and training a few Iraqis and Syrians.

Despite everyone in favor of sending weapons to Syria there are a few who are worried this will blow up into a fully-fledged war, requiring large numbers of US troops. Maryland State Representative Steny Hoyer says, "I don't think train and equip is the principal concern. The principal concern is deploying American men and women, spending a large sum of money, prosecuting a war."

This is article is definitely relevant to the interest of anyone who lives in the US seeing as our tax dollars and loved ones are at stake. I personally know someone who is joining the military soon, and may have to fight in this "war". It's a tragedy to see so much violence in this part of the world and to see so much money being used to kill one another. Let us think carefully about these kind of political events.