Archives for September 2013

U.S. military leaders are staunchly opposed to President Obama’s call for military action in Syria and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis says the brass need to be very focal in letting Obama know where they stand and why.

Maginnis was a career military officer, advised the Army after his retirement and is also author of the new book, “Deadly Consequences: How Cowards Are Pushing Women Into Combat.”  He says officers with the highest command need to be more forceful in explaining their reservations to the president, even to the point of resignation.

“The idea that these men who understand war are not making quite a case, I hope behind the scenes (they are),  Evidently, it’s not to the point that they’re willing to put their stars on the table,” said Maginnis.  “I think at some point, and I’ve talked with some of these types of folks and they are my peers, very few will ever see the utility of putting stars on the table even if it means the loss of a lot of American lives.”

Maginnis says history offers a tough lesson on this front.  He says the service chiefs went to the White House in the lead-up to Vietnam and discouraged President Lyndon Johnson from doing what he ultimately did.  Maginnis says several of those officers later regretted not putting their careers on the line in an effort to make their case more forcefully.

“That cost us 58,000 lives and it kept us in war for over a decade,” said Maginnis.  “Now we’re still in a war and have been for 11 years.  Are we going to now extend that to a civil war which questionably doesn’t have any national interests at stake just because we hate to see, and rightly so, people being murdered.

“Syria is not our fight.  Syria is a Turkish fight, a Jordanian fight, a Saudi Arabian fight and others, but not ours,” he said.

Maginnis says the military’s reticence could be seen in the testimony of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey this week on Capitol Hill, as he stated the military could carry out any orders from the president but made it clear there was little enthusiasm for the mission.  In published statements, Dempsey has criticized Obama for saying a delay in the mission would make no difference and said that the Syrian rebels weren’t people he wanted to do business with.

According to Maginnis, the military is also severely strapped for cash thanks to sequestration and he agrees with Dempsey that any U.S. action will likely mean a much bigger commitment than anyone is admitting right now.

“The idea that a pinprick is going to do anything other than irritate the monster called Assad is ludicrous.  What we need to do if we’re serious about this is go in there and destroy his military.  Otherwise, let’t not make the monster angry.  The Syrians are not the Libyans and the Syrians are not what we fought in the Balkans and they aren’t the Taliban.  They’re an organized, very capable, large military that, oh by the way, happens to have the Russians as their ally and the Iranians with all their proxy forces,” said Maginnis.

As a result, Magginis asserts that Obama can wage an air campaign that accomplishes few objectives and will end up killing civilians because Assad is placing high-value targets among the people or be forced to put “boots on the ground” to achieve real results.

He believes the lack of support for this missions goes through all the ranks of the armed forces and could be a hindrance to our performance if attacks are ordered.

“They’ll vigorously execute whatever the mission is, whatever the plan is.  That’s our tradition and we do obey the civilian leaders.  But when you have civilian leaders that ignore sage advice it becomes pretty evident.  The morale will sink and so the effectiveness of the force will be diminished to a certain degree,” said Maginnis, who believes Congress is the last real hope of preventing this military action.

“Congress had better show some courage here and step up and say we’re not going to be co-conspirators here in what is a badly planned operation that could lead us into another ground war in the Middle East and kill more Americans.  And for what?”

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review shake their heads as a new jobs report shows some jobs created, but not enough to offset people leaving the workforce.  They discuss Obama’s unsuccessful efforts to convince anyone that attacking Syria is a good idea.  And they celebrate the start of the 2013 NFL season.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review appreciate a BuzzFeed article showing Mitt Romney was proven right on issues ranging from Russia to Obamacare to Detroit.  They also sigh as John Kerry seems to misrepresent the strength of Al Qaeda within the Syrian rebel movement and Syrian rebels are caught on video executing prisoners.  And they slam Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey for mustering up the courage to vote “present” on use of force in Syria.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are impressed by a new ad for Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli that explains how he was able to exonerate a man falsely convicted of rape.  They also groan as President Obama says it wasn’t his red line on Syria but the world’s and that his credibility is not on the line.  And they examine the shaky performance of Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on Capitol Hill.

As President Obama presses the case for military action in Syria and members of Congress debate whether to authorize that action, Israel is watching developments unfold with great division over whether the United States should act and great apprehension about what might replace a deposed Assad regime.

Congress is expected to vote next week on whether to authorize force against Syria.  If approved, the military action could begin at any time.  What’s not clear to Israelis is what impact the strikes would have and that uncertainty is prompting strong divisions over whether an attack would be good for them.

“We don’t know what we will have after Assad, if he will go,” said retired Israeli Brigadier Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn, who is now a radio talk show host in Jerusalem.  “We don’t know who will come after him and what will happen in Syria.  Will Syria be divided into three, four or five parts?  Maybe Al Qaeda will come closer and then jihad will come close to the border.  Israeli public opinion is very confused.”

Gen. Ben-Onn says Israel does benefit from two radical Islamic elements warring with each other rather than trying to attack and agitate Israel.  Still, he says he hopes the U.S. is effective in deterring Assad from further chemical weapons attacks on his own people.

He is also convinced that if the U.S. does strike, a Syrian counterattack against Israel is unlikely.

“They have the power, maybe, to attack Israel but they know if they would dare to do that the response of Israel will be so strong that, according to many officials in the state of Israel, the regime of Assad will disappear,” said Ben-Onn, who notes that Bashar Assad has never attacked Israel.

“He will not try to play this game this time.  If he does play this game, it might be the last day of his position as the president of Syria,” he said.

Press reports from the Middle East confirmed Israel and the United States conducted joint missile exercises recently.  Ben-Onn stresses this was a planned exercise and not specifically in response to the ongoing standoff.  However, he says missile defense preparedness does send a pretty clear message.

“I hope this message is clear to the Russians, and to the Syrians and to the Iranians that Israel will always protect our citizens,” said Ben-Onn.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleased to see the U.S. and Israel preparing for possible retaliatory strikes if we hit Syria.  We also cringe as Obama flinches on Syria – and then goes golfing.  And we comment on Dennis Rodman returning to North Korea to hang out with murderous dictator Kim Jong Un.