OBAMA: "LEADERSHIP" (for these times) ??

The Return of the STATESMAN (to the U.S.)

 

Yesterday's turn of events in the Syrian Atrocity discussions, prompted me to pull out my (rare)

War Ration Book No. 3.  Issued when I was 4 years old (between mid- 1943 and mid- 1944); it is full of stamps of ships and tanks.  On the back, the last line of Instructions reads:  "If you don't need it, DON'T BUY IT."

 

Yesterday, Russia (Putin) decided to pick up an option offered to him by the United States repeatedly over the past two years (most recently during a private meeting with President Obama at the G-20 meeting); and put pressure on Syria to turn its supply of poison gas over to international authorities.

Diplomacy, is beginning to work, under the pressure of  a U.S. military "show of force" off the coast of Syria.  The President may have found his "way out"!

 

According to recent polls of public opinion, the citizenry is still in its reflexive crouch, refusing to back the President's call for the  military resolve needed to back up our diplomatic push.  Unlike the citizens in this country during the days of my War Ration Book, most citizens of today don't want to sacrifice anything, or pay for anything.  Because of these craven tendencies, Cheney and Bush got away with destroying our credibility with their War on Iraq.

 

This challenge to President Obama is more difficult, in certain details, than the challenge faced by President Kennedy in the Cuban Missile Crisis.  President Obama has to "de-fang" a poisonous snake, without killing the snake or removing it from its position in the government of Syria (for now).  THEN, he has to insure, in a short time window, that the stockpile of poisonous gas is removed safely and permanently destroyed; posing no risk to anyone.  He will need all the "tools" he can muster to accomplish this, in these austere times.  One "tool" that is not readily available to him is an understanding and supportive public, both at home and abroad.

In the 1940's this nation put everything on the line; against threats that were mostly in the form of large standing armies, heavy artillery, and ships and planes.  They also put our country "in hock" for debts and deficits much larger than we now have (percentage-wise) today.

Going it alone, both at home and abroad, this President has shown  Statesman qualities; the likes of which we have not seen in a President since Kennedy, and before him, Truman (who put FDR's visions in place).

Stay Vigilant!  This may only be the first of many such "Crises" we face, as we proceed into the 21st Century.

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