Bill O’Reilly’s commentary on Tuesday was nearly spot on, nearly…
He spoke of the nobility of the United States. He spoke of how our great nation has righted many wrongs, and of the literally hundreds of millions of people we have freed from the bonds of tyranny. But Bill went off the rails when he attempted to draw a comparative line between “Conservatives” who oppose potential military action in Syria, to the Liberals who opposed the Bush Doctrine in Iraq. This is a convoluted observation at best, and I’ll tell you why.
Firstly, Saddam was not actively “at war” with his own people at the time of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. President Bush applied what he believed was the correct action, in that striking before a rogue nation strikes at you is always the better choice. This would come to be known as “The Bush Doctrine” of preemptive warfare. Right or wrong, Bush’s actions followed a clear and definitive line after 9/11 and he made no secret of his intentions. He mustered the support of a shakey international coalition and of “We the People” and Congress. The results are mixed at best, and now sadly colored by the political rhetoric. Syria however, is another matter all together.
President Obama was swept into office partly on the idea he would be as far left of the “Bush Doctrine” as was humanly possible. He campaigned on that premise and preached mightily about the benefits of “diplomacy” in place of, well, everything else. Now however, with his political back to the wall, and having sat on the sidelines in Syria for far too long, he appears to be searching for political as well as personal redemption.
To be clear, what has happened in Syria is nothing short of war crimes, and Bashar al-Assad is a madman who deserves the business end of cruise missile up his backside at the earliest possible juncture. The problem for the POTUS is that he didn’t lead when he should have, (which may even have prevented the gas attack), and now faces what many see as a losing proposition jumping in now. Regrettably, O’Reilly is right when he says the United States must still act, or run the risk of opening the floodgates of evil around the globe. He is flat-out wrong however, to compare supporters of the “Bush doctrine”, Conservative or otherwise, to the Anti-American John Kerry types who are now trying to hide their cowardice and disdain for America’s “nobility”, behind the courage and exceptionalism of the U.S. Military and all they/we stand for.
We must right this wrong to be sure. But Barack Obama and his ideology of “lead from behind” has made it virtually impossible for us to look right doing so.
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