Monday, September 08, 2014

It's Time For Multitasking

They say women are better at multitasking than men.  In looking at how the President handles issues I can see how that conclusion has been drawn.

I can be proven wrong if his speech Wednesday night will outline more than a linear strategy for dealing with ISIS. I expect however, for him to lay the bulk of the burden on others.

In some respects he should.  Europe, Britain in particular, have more active radicals in their country than do we.  Note I said active.  France has a larger Muslim population than even Britain.  They both have a great deal at stake.

So do the other Middle Eastern countries including Saudi, the Emirates and Jordan.  Even Pakistan and India where the radicals have been gaining a foothold.  Ideally they should all share the responsibility. Israel too is in the mix.

The President has promised no boots on the ground.  This can be achieved by properly arming those who would provide those boots, namely the Kurds, but will we?  Can others fill the need if we don't?  Will they?

It's hard to fight a war without an action being identified as such.  It will be interesting to hear just what the President will call it. I wonder what the families of the beheaded journalists would call it. No matter, it is a war. It needs to be fought like one. All the fancy words in the world can't change the reality of it.

What worries me is how he tends to try to shape events to suit his idealistic vision rather than the actuality of it.  He did it by withdrawing everything from Iraq leaving them hanging.  We're about to do it in Afghanistan.  He did it in Benghazi with a ridiculous tale both he and Hillary should be ashamed of rather than trying to perpetuate.

Because of his previous behavior I don't expect his about to be announced strategy to be sufficient.  Especially when he's talking about a three year plan!  This isn't some leisurely chess game where hours can be taken between moves.

I'll wait and see though.  There's nothing else to do.  I'm wagering he'll do little if anything before the midterms then will drag his feet on anything he's laid out. It's the nature of the beast.  Boy, I would really be glad for this to be a misjudgement on my part!

1 comment:

marlu said...

I had to look it up - it's a minor detail but George W. Bush signed the SOFA agreement to get troops out of Iraq by 2011.
(www.duckduckgo.com is great search engine.)
Always enjoy your posts. May not always agree, but you are thoughtfully respectful in giving your opinions.