Secretary of State Lurch says that the administration isn’t asking Congress for permission to go to war in Syria because bombing Syria wouldn’t be “war in the classic sense”. You know, more of a Diet War. War Light. New War. Less filling than the old kind.
Trying to move goalposts by changing definitions—that’s pretty much the only thing both parties excel at when they get their hands on the Purple Robes of Power. That’s why everything is terrorism now, even stuff like raising concerns about water quality. (And before you Conservatives go all, “Well, that’s Liberals for you, nyuk nyuk,” remember that you guys put all those nifty tools in the shed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. after 9/11, ready for the next guy to use.)
War in the classic sense. It boggles the mind that anyone would think this class of people fit to run anything more complex and important than a porta-potty at the county fair.
As staghounds pointed out, when the US had a weapon of mass destruction that was threatening Japan, and the IJN degraded its effectiveness in a time-limited, scope-limited kinetic action, we seemed to consider it an act of war.
One minor quibble: The Japanese government was also declaring war. Only the incompetence of their own diplomatic communications prevented the declaration from being delivered before the bombing started.
That was their mistake. Yamamoto should have just bombed our fleet and then said it was a limited military action. Then we would have just shrugged our shoulders and said “Oh, okay then,” instead of reducing their cities to glowing rubble.
Sounds pretty much like what happened at Oahu on 7 Dec 1941. Limited air strikes, no boots on the ground. The Japanese didn’t even push for regime change.
“War in the classical sense”, brought to you by the people who necessitated calling rape “rape in the classical sense.”
Sometimes I think that McCain’s hard work sneaking into the White House night after night and whispering in the President’s ear while he sleeps is what lead to this. Then I came to my senses and realized it was Raytheon’s doing – they need to sell more cruise missiles but can’t until that big stockpile we have is consumed.
Throw in the fact that there’s some evidence from a few corners that the rebels gassed themselves… just to get this kind of response and I’m even *less willing* to go drop bombs worthlessly on another country. Maybe we should provide CAS to *both* sides and see who wins. It could be a War game that we pit the Naval air arm against the Air Force and the Marine Air Corps and see who can do a better job.
War games, now with live ordinance. Totally not war.
What with this being the Most Transparent Administration Ever, shouldn’t this be called War Clear?
😀
I believe the phrase we are looking for is “New, Clear War,” because the current administration needs to be seen doing something that no conservative administration has dared to do.
and some of them couldn’t even pronounce ……
“Trying to move goalposts by changing definitions—that’s pretty much the only thing both parties excel at when they get their hands on the Purple Robes of Power. That’s why everything is terrorism now,……” ……ummmm …….. errrrrrrr……. except when it’s deemed “workplace violence” …. Up is down, down is up …… and we are gearing up to provide airstrikes for the same stripe of wierdbeards that flew airliners into buildings in our country ……. what, EXACTLY 12 years ago to the day. It just keeps getting screwier and screwier ……
“in the classic sense”, as in forcing a permanent political change on our enemies via the use of force? Remember when we used to do that, and we actually won wars and they didn’t drag on for over a decade?
Yeah. I’m not feeling backing anyone else in their civil war. Especially if the rebels are probably Al Qaeda. So not feeling that