Tuesday, September 17, 2013


It should be pointed out here that in spite of all the criticism from all sides of President George W. Bush, in fact he followed Reagan’s Rules in dealing with both Afghanistan and Iraq. He made the Reagan Rule 1 case that each instance involved the vital “national interest” of the United States. He followed the Reagan Rule 2 and went all-in to win — while it was Obama who eventually got Osama it was the infrastructure set up by Bush that made it possible, and Bush himself was responsible for getting Saddam literally out of his hiding hole.

As recommended by Reagan Rule 3 Bush went out and sold the Congress and the majority of the American people on the need to go into both Afghanistan and Iraq, specifically getting congressional authorization. And after repeatedly working through the UN to get Saddam Hussein to open up and come clean — and failing repeatedly — it’s very safe to say Bush and company saw the invasion of Iraq as Reagan Rule 4’s “last resort.” 

America is now in a very difficult spot — precisely because in the Obama era it has abandoned Reagan’s mantra of Peace through Strength.

What we now have — what liberalism in foreign policy always produces from Vietnam to Syria — is War through Weakness.

The so-called “re-set” of American relations with Russia proclaimed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has resulted in Vladimir Putin having nothing but disdain for the American president and his country. Whether the issue is the return of Edward Snowden or blocking action on Syria in the United Nations Security Council, bluntly speaking Putin has given a scornful diplomatic obscene gesture to Obama and Clinton and now John Kerry’s foreign policy.

Going to Congress is the exactly right thing to do. It is no small thing. It is the Constitutional thing to do. Ted Cruz sending out a tweet that showed the British Parliament in full session discussing Syria while the floor of the U.S. Senate was empty was exactly right. Cruz, Rand Paul, and others are to be applauded — and yes so too the President.

But unfortunately doing the right thing so late — and worse complicating the issue immeasurably by blurting out off-prompter talk of a “red line” and giving the impression of great urgency—then befuddling the whole issue by holding off until the scheduled return of Congress on September 9 is precisely the wrong image to be sending abroad. 

If Syria is as urgent an issue as Secretary of State Kerry insisted it is, the President should have forthwith stepped in front of the cameras and stated that he was using his authority as provided by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which reads in part that the president “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses.”

One of Reagan’s heroes was his old friend Harry Truman, whom the young actor and then-Democrat had supported for re-election to the White House in 1948. It was Truman who recalled Congress in a special session not over an issue of war or peace but for a political confrontation with Republicans over his 1948 election agenda. If Truman can do it to make a mere point in a political campaign, Obama should certainly be doing it in a situation which is infinitely of more moment — an actual question of war or peace.

This is a turning point in modern American history.

It is as much about Iran as it is Syria. It is about the American role in the world. It is about the Constitution of the United States. It is about understanding that peace comes through strength and war comes from the perception of weakness.

Ronald Reagan’s success as president came about not in spite of his failure in Beirut but because he learned from that mistake. He made a point of rebuilding the American military that had been so terribly weakened by his predecessor — but he also learned the hard way that real military strength is not simply about “sending in the Marines.” Real military strength comes rather from first, having the military strength — and then knowing when not to send in the Marines — or for that matter cruise missiles either.

Reagan understood the importance of the Constitution. He well understood his authority as commander-in-chief to protect the vital national security interests of the country. Failing to get those 800 American medical students out of Grenada peacefully, Reagan knew what he had the authority to do. Getting the urgent plea from governments in America’s back yard to stop a Communist revolution bristling with arms, ammunition as well as Cubans, Russians and all manner of Soviet allies dedicating themselves to Communizing said American back yard — Reagan knew he had the constitutional authority to go into Grenada.

He never hesitated. Saying simply: “Do it.”

But after Beirut, Reagan made sure he was not turning the United States into some globe-straddling empire. He concentrated on defeating the premiere American enemy of the day — the “Evil Empire” that was the Communist Soviet Union. His philosophy, as he said at the time, was clear: “We win, they lose.”

What we have today is a president who has, in the style of liberalism everywhere, induced the weakness that invites war. All of five years of repeatedly sending a message of weakness by bowing to this or that foreign potentate, trying to make friends with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood while happily sending video greetings to the Imams of Iran and more has now resulted in chemical weapons being loosed upon the people of Syria. Not to be forgotten either is the fact that, as Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has sharply reminded:


Even Gen. [Martin] Dempsey (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) said we are putting our military on a path where the ‘force is so degraded and so unready’ that it would be ‘immoral to use the force…’

In short?

The Obama foreign policy has served up a mess. A lethal mess.

How to get out of this mess? Where to begin this discussion in the Congress on September 9?


Recalling Reagan’s Rules for Military Action would be a good place to start the debate.

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