http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/us-airstrikes-libya-isis/index.html Isn't this a bit unusual to strike the day before the Inauguration, especially with no SOD or SOS chosen?
It is odd timing. Hope it put a dent in the right people. I am surprised that Obama could not get the Iraqis to finally take back Mosul before he left office.
Maybe Obama felt like taking his frustrations out on ISIS. At least he's being constructive about it.
It is my understand these two camps had been under surveillance for a while. We have a SOD and a SOS in place and their term doesn't expire until noon on the 20th. Hitting them now before ISIS leaves or relocates is in my opinion a good move. War doesn't stop just because we are changing presidents. Terrorism and the threat of it doesn't stop because we are changing presidents or SOD or SOS's. Until noon on the 20th Obama is in charge. No problem as far as I can see.
Agreed. We both lambasted the tide of the war changing because of our political apathy, we can't get hesitant now that we're finally taking charge again and not "leading from behind.". Do we want peace? Of course we do, but it has to be a long lasting and sustainable peace. Not a "withdrawal" that leads to more aggression from foreign enemies.
He's going out with a bang - people hardly even remember that he killed Osama. Well played Barack now please go away for real this time.
I think there is a time to be bold and aggressive and a time to be timid and hesitant. It boils down to knowing your foe and the situation. Not every leader or situation is a Chamberlain/Hitler one. I remember the Cuban missile crisis, lived it. We're probably here because when it came to invading and bombing Cuba, JFK was a hesitant and some would say timid. At least his advisors and military would. I think JFK knew Khrushchev didn't want war either and gave him a way out without losing face to the world. Know your foe. There are leaders and situations if you give an inch, they will take a mile. Others who will be happy with the inch and the situation is diffused. Know your foe.
JFK was quite a pragmatic guy and we've lost that in our government. Pragmatism and reason. I think that R/D thing has something to do with it. It's said that after the Missile Crisis, JFK no longer trusted certain departments and had them revamped. Looks like some things don't change. People in Washington have 'careers' based off reputation they don't deserve, and their mediocrity clogs up the drain.
I'm not sure it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that caused his distrust. I think it was the Bay of Pigs where he began to distrust the CIA. JFK gave the military a lot of the CIA functions in Vietnam, covert operations and the like which normally the CIA would have run. MACV-SOG. One of the problems today is back in JFK's days, both parties had their liberal and conservative wings. Things were so party orientated as they were ideological. The GOP has its liberal Rockefeller wing in the northeast and the Democrats had the conservative south. There were very few party line votes back in those days. Today all the liberals have congregated in one party, all the conservatives in the other. Most of the moderates have been defeated in 2006 and 2010 and replaced with ideologues. Those who could work across the aisle are now gone, compromise and cooperation have become four letter words as polarization set in. Then too, independents have increased from around 20% of the electorate during JFK's time to 44% today. They are moderates, center right, center and center left which no longer have a political home due to one party moving far right and the other far left. Those who run for elected office now are of the fringes instead of closer to middle America. One has to be either really conservative or really liberal to win in the primaries of our two parties who have shrunk down to more and more ideologues. I do think polarization is here to stay unless, somehow, a third viable party arises which is more center orientated. More moderate in their views, less extreme and less set in ideology, are more pragmatic as you put it.
