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Plan A is not working; Crimea will vote to join Russia next Sunday, and then what. We need a new perimeter. Crimea is not worth the risk of going to war. But neither can we allow all other nations wonder, are they next.
What would stop that?
US troops in the Baltics, Moldavia, Ukraine, and any other nation surrounding Russia that asks for it. And yes, we will now bring our anti-ballistic missiles.
Perhaps Putin would like to reconsider moving his Crimean troops back to his bases now, before the referendum and perhaps we can execute a smoother transition than is current, if that is truly what Crimea wishes to do and finds to be in its best long termed interests….
Just think if we’d surrounded Hitler with massive armies after his initial sorties?
Let’s get started on Plan B now…
More later…
This was lifted from the Smart Balance test given in the eleventh grade. An example of why scores will be low. Please tell me what occupation this problem would be involved within? Please tell me what college remedial math class would ever have to cover this topic?
Common Core and the higher standards are nothing but irresponsible intellectual buffoonery. This is nothing but a dork playing around and saying, … how difficult can i make a question so everybody fails?
And if everyone fails something no body ever needs, are we hurt by it? Yes, if you are the teacher….
Common Core is an embarrassment to human creativity and intellect. Opt out now, even if it “supposedly” impossible to do… Get sick that week and get doctor’s orders requiring your child to recuperate only in Jamaica. And don’t forget to bring back duty free rum….
At least someone gets something good out of Common Core.
If current trends continue, estimates are the Bald Eagle will be extinct by 2020.
It appears that the American Bald Eagle is picking up some type of neurotic toxin in the Athabasca Tar Fields of Canada. Athabasca Tar Oil is obtained by pumping toxic chemicals into the bedrock to flush out thick oil. Those toxins can then contaminate wildlife when they leak. Mercury content in water samples has increased by 40% from 1979 to 2009. These oil fields and methods are developed by the Koch Brothers, the same organization which funds the our local Caesar Rodney Institute. This is the same entity that is currently pushing for the Keystone Pipeline to cross the aquifers of the Midwest thereby enabling the Koch Brothers to sell oil to America’s future enemies, most notably called out by Allan Loudell on his blog today, as China…..
The bird’s symptoms just showed up. Utah is the wintering location of Bald Eagles. Earlier this month, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the normally skittish raptors lying, listless, on the ground. Many suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis in the legs, feet and wings…
The Ogden rehab center said all the sick eagles seen suffered from encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and many had heart damage.
Currently there are only 9,789 Bald Eagles breeding in the US.
Coupled with the mysterious die off of the Monarch Butterfly, the American Moose, and now the Bald Eagle, this makes 2013 a very cataclysmic year for traditional North American icons.
The canary has stopped singing in the coal mine….
We hear about a divided America. But look at our at-large candidates in the Senate. Fairly even after all.
Next look at the House, where districts are gerrymandered. In this case it was done by the Republicans in 2010. …. We don’t really have a divided country. We have a country arbitrarily divided.
§ 7557A. Complaint procedure; unlawful election activity altering result of election.
(a) A citizen of a municipality may submit a written complaint to the State Election Commissioner regarding any aspect of that municipality’s election activity that is contrary to state or federal law which altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election. Such complaint shall be filed no later than 20 days after the result of the municipal election shall have been certified by the municipality’s Board of Elections.
The complaint shall state with particularity:
(1) The action or activity that is contrary to state or federal law; and
(2) The specific basis for the complainant’s belief that such activity altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election…..
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The election law is very clear and is designed to prevent an outside group with lots of money from dominating and one-siding an election before anyone has any idea it is being done…
This law was put in place for the protection of the majority of a municipality’s citizens. It has been a long standing tradition grounded in Delaware election law, that every candidate, PAC, or group trying to influence an election file finance reports. The first deadline is 30 days. The second one is 8 days. Then the final one gets filed at the end of the year.
There was still a window under old law, where a person could spend from the 7th day onward, and the election would be over two months old before any accountability would be mustered. One could then see that one’s official was not the real choice of the people, but perhaps the choice of someone willing to put up a lot of money…
That window was closed by Tony DeLuca last year. After the 7th day, every large expenditure has to be reported in 24 hours… thereby giving the public decent time to acknowledge its influence and use that as part of the electioneering decision.
Polly’s campaign spent $5000 on winning the election. The PAC spent $45,000… That is a big expenditure. Nine times what any other candidate spent.
The PAC did not acknowledge its existence until 14 minutes before the Election Office closed on the eve of the election….
At points beforehand,
- they had previously made calls to organize.
- Got promises of financing.
- Designed and approved proofs of printing.
- Put down a deposit for the printer.
- Called and acquired manpower for their distribution
- Paid in full all those who distributed the pamphlets.
- Paid for gas for those vans distributing the pamphlets.
Every one of these acts is in violation of existing election law…
The (a) provision is fulfilled.
Now for the (b) provision…
(b) The State Election Commissioner shall review the complaint and such other materials as he or she deems necessary or appropriate. If, following such review, the Commissioner determines there is reasonable probability that conduct in violation of state or federal law altered or is reasonably likely to have altered the result of the election, then the Commissioner shall file suit in Superior Court on behalf of the complainant to invalidate the result of the election or such other relief as shall be appropriate.
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As one can see from the text it is up the the subjectivity of the commissioner. Which means if she chooses to ignore the overt influence caused by 9 times what any other campaigner spent across the municipal election, all of which was purposefully not legally reported, … she is free to do so.
She apparently taken that choice, and has chosen instead to reflect upon the sidebar of there being little evidence of misdirected voters, instead of a blatant gross violation of election law. She has thereby reinforced the continuance of actions, this law was expressly passed to forbid.
One can never know who showed up at their regular polling place, which of course would be in its normal business operation as a school, office, etc, and seeing no polling signs, then left….
Could it have possibly been 116 people? That is indeterminable. But at a ratio of only 19 per district if falls within the areas of possibility, and we do know that in the districts where this literature was reported being hung, all voted overwhelmingly for the other candidate…. In fact, it appears that this entire $45,000 expense was not to promote a Data Center among voters most likely to be negatively impacted by its creation in their own back yards, particularly in the two districts where it was distributed, …but to instead, confuse and obfuscate the proper location of the polling places in order to cut down the number of supporters who would actually vote, which if they did could overwhelm the election in favor of the candidate who was against the building of the power plant.
This leaves two overwhelming clouds of doubt. It leaves a cloud of doubt over the Commissioner of Elections… Is she kowtowing to the pressure to overrule common sense and allow this vote to continue? A doubt will always remain. This decision also casts doubt upon the current winner. Is she the real choice of the voters, or was she put in solely by illegal methods despite the voters choice of a different direction?
When clouds of sulfurous gases, rare earth elements, and radioactive particles begin descending upon the patio furnature, pets, cars and children of Newark, the clouds of this election will become even more important….
The clouds of doubt need to be removed.
That is why the subjective will of the commissioner needs instead to nullify this election, for the very reason that all appearances portend that illegal activities have “perhaps” caused a mis-election…. The commissioner has taken great pains over the past to keep the aura of trust that Delaware’s elections are honest and open… Now with one fell swoop, she is throwing that out of the window?
Nine times the amount spent by any candidate, was dumped into this election… 9 times the amount… Campaign finance laws were broken, and based on the time line we can almost ascertain, done so with intent….
The only proper thing which would put this past behind us… would be to have a runoff election between the two top candidates…. it could be held in two weeks…
Only then, would we know… for sure…
The Golden Flush Award /Click Image for Past Winners
Usually this is an after thought…” Oh, wow, year’s over, let’s get a person of the year”… And then once we elect one, we go… “holy crap… we totally forgot so and so….”
So to try to stir up some old simmering coals of memory, both mine and others, and perhaps even to (heaven forbid) get some debate going in the blog sphere, I thought I’d make an initial run on Thanksgiving Week, and then add people into the nominating category as others mention various ones I should kick myself for forgetting.
It will also force me to review the year which is something I rarely do… because face it, as a human being, I am slave of the moment…. If I did this last year, come December 14th the entire world would have been turned upside down and all the old priorities of 2012, would in one day become trivial….
And so starting early gives me the chance to make the argument for each of those I decide to enroll with your kind recommendations included….
Julius Cephus: Particularly this one man organized and stopped an end run around the Port of Wilmington. The Kinder Morgan deal did not go through, and the Wilmington Port is bustling like never before… Kinder Morgan was to strip the union of power, and drop the rates of pay, further dampening the economy of Wilmington proper. It was also the first defeat of a Lavine-Markell development project, .. Fisker and Bloom had gone forward without a hitch. Julius and other’s push back resulted in a General Assembly motion that stated they, not the governor, had final approval. It was the first time we were exposed to the current Governor’s manipulations. They were to play a significant part across this year’s tapestry.
Steve Newton: A blogger who has written infrequently, but effectively. His piece on SB 51 is what alerted us to the end run being performed by Dave Sokola on lowering the current standards being used for educating teachers. It is brilliant. It took an evening of reading the legislation line by line and cross referencing it with Steve’s analysis, to understand the huge negative impact this bill would cause. By the time this was done, the Bill had already passed the Senate unanimously without comment, and with an friendly amendment added that was voted upon without even being read. Some public outcry was mustered within the House, both in committee and on the floor, but under the Governor’s direction, the Speaker of the House, pushed the bill to the floor before significant outcry could be mustered. Only 4 House members were not on record for it’s passing. Our educational schools now have to water down their teaching standards to meet the new law. Steve also has brought the Highmark story to Delaware. His research in the increase of medical costs in Western PA as a result of knocking out competition by unfair practices, leads one with a cold chill of what to expect in Delaware’s future. We are already there. As an insurer, Highmark is only paying medical claims in its own affiliated clinics. As the new Blue Cross/Blue Shield owner, that is a huge percentage of Delaware’s residents. None can go to any other hospital. He has properly fingered Karen Weldham Stuart for not catching this prior to implementation. Without Steve, this would have passed unnoticed. The News Journal still has not once mentioned the takeover of Delaware’s health field under one owner.
Ernest Lopez. If Kennedy were still writing Profiles of Courage, he should include this man. Ernest Lopez is a conservative, and voted with Libertarian values to pass the gun legislation recommended by Markell and Biden. Reflecting the views of his district, instead of taking the threatening message sent to him down from the NRA, he voted for his district. A very vocal minority, who is always vocal, and always in the minority, swore they would unseat him. He disregarded their idle threat, and voted both his and his constituents conscious. A major billboard was put up to call him out. His vote caused the passage of us now requiring background checks at public gun sales. Now a certifiably insane person cannot slap cash and get a gun. It is a no-brainer, and Ernie was the only Republican with brain enough to even know what a no-brainer is….
Cathy Cloutier: her vote allowed gays to marry. Again, she is a Republican who said enough is enough… Tired of voting against her conscious just so Sussex County would not flip over to the Democrats, she finally did not toe the line and voted along the lines of her own constituents, all overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage. In doing so, she went against the entire grain of her party, who firmly feel that gays are second class citizens, even though most Republicans in office are closeted gays.
Bethany Hall Long: on the same vote, made a viable personal decision, and also voted for the legalization of gay marriage. Unlike Cathy’s vote, this was accomplished at great personal sacrifice, for all of those in her personal life, were solidly against this policy from taking effect. In voting for what was morally right, she had to contend against those whose influence she could not escape. She went with the correct vote, over the easy one. As a result, Gay marriage is now legal in Delaware.
Paul Baumbach: gave great ammunition against the fight for SB51, and later against HB 165. Both bills which will damage Delaware’s education for years to come. He was one of the four who put up a fight on the House floor. Paul also arranged for the meetings in Newark to discuss the new Power plant that figured in this past week’s election.
John Kowalko: also was against SB51, HB 165, as well, being against the power plant. In fact, John was the first person to sound the alarm over how big the power plant would be. Without his big voice, it may have slid through unnoticed. The power plant has defined northern Delaware politics since September.
Kim Williams; responsible for HB 40 which investigates Charter School’s meddling into our educational systems. She was as an acting state representative, allegedly refused entrance into a committee hearing on education, for fear she might say something damaging to the bill being rushed through…. She brought to the public’s knowledge, that the Charter School bill was drafted illegally without public input, and the charter group constructing it, was also under FOIA, to which the private group denied. The Attorney General backed up her assertion, that the bill was formulated illegally but their decision was moot, because the bill was passed both houses anyways. Kim Williams also in the HB 40 task force, led the group to realize that charter schools unlike public schools, do indeed filter those entering charters to weed out those who might lower their test scores….
Mark Murphy, Rodel, Sweeney, Hefferman, and the Fake Educational Reform Establishment: I almost purposefully did not post this. Although the first person’s name is usually followed by explicatives whenever mentioned, it is unlike Voldermort’s, still getting mentioned. Mark Murphy was not put in his position based on his ability. He was placed there for his loyalty to the cause of corporatizing public education. Markell pulls the strings, Murphy figures how to get it done… It is hard to make a puppet the most influential person of the year… So I was going to skip him… But at the last minute, remembered that every time he or anyone of these make an op-ed, it resonates as gigantic news. The entire community rises up to counteract each op-ed, usually with the word “lies” thrown liberally about…. So, they do exert an influence. I looped all of them together, as the group of liars in a Greek play, who stand on the stair steps and taunt the protagonists. Well,… they are part of the play…….
Dan Short: Sometimes villains get noticed too. Primarily a single issue candidate, who personally supports the NRA, he actively campaigned and organized to create enough backlash so Markell’s gun laws could not get enough votes… Without him, there is a possibility that all four of Markell’s gun control pieces of legislation would have passed both houses of Delaware’s legislature. Dan Short should be given the credit for stopping them.
John Sigler: Single handedly by his very brief tenure as the re-elected head of the Republican Party, he pointed out through his pigeon shooting, just how inept the Republican Party was at everything else. With his leaving, all fissures cracking the Republican bedrock, were impossible to ignore. Blogs split. The IPOD’s split. Former candidates of the same party just months earlier, now not talking to each other. The Delaware Republican Party is dead; no it is past dead. More dead than a pigeon shot inside a box by John Sigler, former head of the Delaware Republican Party.
Nancy Willing: Her blog, the Delaware Way, is the go-to site for local information. Whether about Dover, about New Castle County, about any of New Castle County’s associations, Nancy combs all sources and puts them down in aggregate form. Heavily involved in the Power Plant controversy, The Delaware City Rail Yard controversy, Barley Mill controversy, the Woodlawan controversy, the Kinder Morgan controversy, the Charter School Controversy, the Common Core Controversy, Nancy has who is saying “what”, and links to “why”. One can expend less energy by using her blog to follow all the stuff the News Journal neglects, in a few quick empty steps.
Amy Roe: a head of the Sierra Club, who emerged from nowhere to lead the fight against the power plant, and give quite a run against the establishment candidate. Becoming the face the anti- power movement could coalase behind, she gave the anti power plant movement both dignity and grace. Coming up short only 115 votes, she has awakened Newark now politically as never before… The power plant if it goes forward, now has a strong group of Newarkeans against it. Hopefully they will be monitoring it regularly and helping authorities keep in in compliance with all local law.
Tom Gorden; although much quieter than his first term in office, Tom Gorden is rapidly rolling back the privileges the previous Clark administration handed over to our state’s top developers. The Barley Mill plaza which had a green light, is now parked at a red. In a big sea change, though handled quietly, community groups are now no longer persona non grata in county government. It is no longer accepted as a matter of course that the Woodlawn Trust will be gobbled up by developers. If enough fight can be mustered, it can be stopped. Furthermore, with Tom there is closer coordination with the City of Wilmington, than we have experienced anytime in our lifetimes. In the county, local policing has been stepped up, particularly in neighborhoods prone to crime…
Dennis Williams: Came in with grand expectations, which looked deliverable for a while. The tide is turning and his relevance on this list, is because every day, the headline reality in Wilmington’s streets, brings his electioneering boasts back to haunt him, like a sizzling hot branding iron. Time, Dennis, to say “Damn the torpedoes… Their punk asses are going in jail no matter which blowhard on City Council spouts off,before mine gets tossed in jail for impersonating a mayor..”
Alan Levin: Jack Markell’s second in command, he was instrumental in defending Markell’s position on Kinder Morgan and the port, as well as the new power plant for the data center. He also had a hand in keeping Dole in Delaware, and worked to slip the power plant past a slew of unsuspecting Newark City officials.
Jack Markell: had his hand in everything. He was behind Kinder Morgan’s takeover. He was behind SB 51 and HB 165. He was behind the illegal charter group, requiring HB 40. He also was the driving force for the four rational steps to gun legislation, 2 of which were passed. He was also the driving force behind the passage of gay marriage, signing the bill in the chambers just moments after its passage. He also supported the transgender bill in its travels through the labyrinth of Legislative Hall. He as behind keeping Dole in Delaware. He was behind changing an icon in Millsboro away from pickles, over to poultry. He pushed the bill to curtail Flowers. Despite your opinion over whether these were good or bad, they still showed a ubiquitous and wide reach across the state of Delaware. Seems like nothing got done that didn’t have his fingerprints all over it.
John Young: As head of Christina board, John Young led the board in standing up to Mark Murphy and Jack Markell, by refusing the RTTT funds slated for his district. Although some hired fools, (Jea Street) tried to paint Young into a corner, it served the opposite purpose and gave Young a platform. For the fist time, Common Core was getting publicly bashed. For the first time, many were finding that aligning themselves blindly to this sham of improving standards, was probably going to hurt them politically in the next couple of years. It was the fist salvo back, so the damage estimates were not high, but it did open eyes of many who had been on the sidelines of all educational issues, making them also become vocal in fighting Common Core. His blog Transparent Christina has channelled a lot of detailed information into the Delaware market, and had made Common Core an apprehension, instead of the savior it was supposed to be….
Kilroy: Kilroy has always been haranguing over education. In fact he was doing such a good job I left that issue alone for years, because other issues for me, like the economy and elimination of guns from the hands of the mentally ill, were more important. But as the issue has shifted back into the limelight, Kilroy’s hard hitting is making its mark… Kilroy is blunt, and right now, that is the language that needs to happen. Blunt descriptions of what takes place in the stratosphere of he academic field…. Kilroy often breaks stories before the News Journal, especially ones embarrassing to the Murphy/Markell cartel of education. If you have read Kilroy over the past couple of years, you would already know that Common Core is not the panacea we have been promised. It is a power grab for taxpayer dollars, financed by Wall Street itself…. If you think otherwise, you haven’t been reading a balanced reading list….
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That is what I have so far. In retrospect I am surprised that education has played so much, as even I have only come to that topic lately… But if one looks over the News Journal op eds, education really did dominate the discussion in the 2nd smallest state this year….
I may have forgotten some big ones. To reiterate, that is why I am posting this early, to catch those big mistakes as they get brought to my attention….
It used to cost 40 pieces of silver. Now it costs $45,000 dollars.
Apparently there was a giant rally at the Chrysler Plant in support of the power plant. A quick check of car plates (and bumper stickers) showed that Union members from Philly, New Jersey, Maryland were there. Surprisingly, none identifiable from Delaware were there. The surprisingly few Delaware plates that were there, all were black, and stuck on the back of $70,000 cars or trucks…
It appeared to be an attempt to show Newark that lots of people still support putting in the largest power boiler in the state right next (only 20 Wal*Mart aisles or 200 feet) to houses with kids and dogs and cats playing in the yard….
But none of this crowd came to all the public sessions. All those were 20 to 1 against installing the power plant.
So vans of strange people who talked funny were roaming Newark neighborhoods last Saturday and Sunday. They put on two door hangers... One in support of the power plant. One in support of Polly Sierer, candidate for mayor.
Polly Sierer denies she knows who is doing it… “I wish they’d stop she says…” Well, one person whose name is on the pamphlets, is Mike Mullens. The pamphlet says for further information, contact the Delaware Department of Elections. A lot of people did.
The Department of Elections said…”we know nothing of this. Nothing at all”… Most politicos just shrugged and said, “well they got us; they filed under the window of the 8 day reporting, so we will have to wait for the year’s end filing to see who was putting up all this money… It has to be a lot of money.
Very late Sunday night,last night, someone actually looked up the code and discovered that Bob Gilligan changed it last year. And it was signed by Jack Markell. After my memory was jogged, I can now remember El Sonambulo discussing it on Al Mascitti’s show… They have 24 hours to contact the Department of Elections upon either spending or receiving money.
They scrambled all night and most of the day, trying to create a political action committee, get officers in line, get everyone’s story straight, and then file with the Elections Office… There is nothing still on the websites. The election is today….
Finally just before closing yesterday, around 4:46 pm, those who emailed request, begin to get their answers….
The PAC is worth $45,000! Prior to this notice, Polly’s 8 day report shows the total expenditures at around $5,000.… The PAC IS SPENDING 9 TIMES THE AMOUNT OF ANY CANDIDATE TO THROW THE ELECTION….. It may be throwing it your way if you are a Polly supporter; it is throwing it against you if you are not….
Polly still says she has no idea. The man she is pictured with on the PAC’s piece of literature, former Mayor Vince Funk, also says he has no idea of who is running the PAC that features him on the front page…
Here is what the Department of Elections told us….
Among its founding board members is Andrew Lubin, University of Delaware’s real estate director, who is responsible for the development of the STAR Campus….
It is safe to assume, that the University of Delaware is probably putting in $45,000 dollars to swing Newark’s election, in order to get the go ahead from Newark to build the largest gas boiler in Delaware…. nine times the amount any other candidate can raise….
The University of Delaware put up the money, and for cover, had the Delaware and New Castle Chambers of Commerce, the 100 Club, the Delaware Contractors Association, the Home Builder’s Association, Delaware Realitors Association, and a dummy corporation called DEED, for Delawareans for Environmental and Economic Development… a shill sounding name and website if I’ve ever knew one…. It had all these companies pile on…
Why not, to them it was free.
But they all got caught because of Gilligan’s law…
The question is, Newark… what are you going to do about it? Stand there and take it, let the University buy your vote as if you don’t matter, without you even considering any of the alternative?
Or……. you can set them back by voting for Amy Roe…. She is not for sale… nor is she someone who can be pushed around or bullied, she will have your backs…
I happen to think it is a pretty easy choice, but the beauty of democracy is that each one of you gets to decide… Your decision sets in stone a power plant for 75 years… Good luck Newark… As of 7am this morning, everything is riding on you…..
We are a tired generation… We grew up with ‘Nam. Which ever side we were on during the battle here in America over that police action, or war, looking back after it was done, …. we all knew it was wrong….
After that we thought all war was wrong, and unfortunately took some of that angst out on those who least deserved it: those coming back from the steamy jungles of hell…..
Against our will a certain president soon sent Marines into Beirut; what happened then reinforced our belief that an American war was unjustifiable and that all other means must be utilized to prevent American war from ever happening again…. Against our will, we propped up a Nicaragua dictator against some rebels. Against our will, we sold arms to Iran to use for paying for our support for that Nicaragua dictator, since a Congress elected by the American people, flatly said no to supporting him in Nicaragua… We found a way to do it anyway….
I remember Senator Rudman, (R-NH) saying at the hearing while addressing Oliver North,… “The American people have the RIGHT to be wrong.”
Oliver North had been insisting that even when Americans flatly say NO, one still must do what one deems is necessary, that whatever one deems necessary, is the highest moral truth. “Sometimes one has to go above the law!” was actually said by the defense at this hearing. Only one good thing came out of those hearings: we all were introduced to Fawn Hall.
But then… The Brits quickly regained the Faulklands. Then came Grenada, which went off without a hitch. Then Panama, which was successful and almost painless. Then came General Schwartzkopf. The 4th largest army in the world, was routed in hours, and in days, had been completely mopped up. Then came the Balkans. We were on a roll. We’d finally nailed down the successful formula of how to win in battle.
Today we say Iraq is a failure. But that was so not so just after the invasion. Inside Baghdad, the pulling down of Saddam’s statue, the victory of capturing Saddam, the ability of us to hand out billions of American dollars, initially gave this campaign the luster of looking like another success story…
Until we tried to steal their oil. The standard global rate of dividing oil revenues is that the US gets a 20% cut for the development, and Iraq would get to keep 80% because it is after all, their resource. That is how we deal with Nigeria.
But Brenner announced that we’d flip that to pay for the war, and that Iraq would be allowed to keep 20% because we liked them so much, and we’d only, by our good graces, take 80% of the revenues. 24 hours after letting that cat out of the bag, the first IED went off under a US military vehicle… Before week was out, the total was in the hundreds.
The luster was gone. We were an invading army, something we have not called ourselves since WWII. We always saw ourselves as the policeman who leaves as soon as order is restored…
Afghanistan likewise, got worse. Then Pakistan. Then Yemen. On the diplomatic front instead of doing no harm, .. we could do no good. Then Libya costs us an ambassador who was running guns through Turkey. He shouldn’t have been there; it should have been a low level staffer with security clearance.
This baby boomer generation knows that war is wrong. We know from experience. The only time it can be employed successfully, is a) when the whole world is united behind you, b) you go in and get out, and c) you have a structure that stays in place long after you are gone.
The only time it goes badly… is every other scenario.
Which brings us to Syria. Syria has no importance to anyone. (They couldn’t even defend the militarily advantageous Golan Heights in ’67!) Which is why we let the Russians have them.
People are going to die in Syria if a): Assad wins, b): the rebels win, or c): no one wins. The only thing changing upon this wars outcome, is which side will be massacred at war’s end. Hence the battle for survival over there now.
So by having the US intervene or not, we are choosing which side gets to kill the other after the hostilities die down.
The weakest argument for going in still left with standing, is that they used chemical weapons. In WWI, the British, French, and Germans all used chemical weapons. Are chemical weapons really worse than being burned alive? Or asphyxiated as a bomb blast sucks all the oxygen out of your lungs and the room? Or a milk jug sized piece of jagged metal shrapnel ripping and leaving a hole through your body? Or a mine being stepped on? I’m trying to think why chemical weapons are so much worse, except for the fact that we’ve been told” they are so much worse”?
A causality is a causality.
We understand “why” some say we should go into Syria. Because if we do not respond to chemical weapons in a big way, someone else will become confident and use theirs. There is only one way to keep the genie inside the bottle, and that is to never leave a opening for it to escape….
We also understand “why” one of our beloved School districts had a policy that suspended, and expelled those who brought weapons to school! Not just guns, but knives too. After all, the argument for punishing Syria, applies to soon-to-become high school felons too.
But, there came a time when the response generated by a policy, actually became the crime, You remember the little boy expelled who brought a cake to school, and his grandmother thoughtfully sent a knife knowing teachers usually don’t have utensils in their classrooms. The teacher actually cut the cake, served it, thinking nothing of it.. it was someone higher up, reviewing the situation, who said, “wait, that can be interpreted as a breach of regulations. Let’s make an example out of this little boy”. He was suspended and could have been expelled, except it eventually became news and public outcry was solidly on his side. The policy makers were laughed out of town.
Which is why, if you are making this decision, you need to stall. Acting quickly and decisively is equivalent to acting on rumor and innuendo. So what if Syria lied and shot the gas cannisters off?
Does a military strike create enough excellent good will to neutralize this bad act?
Ironically what is best for the US in this situation, is for Assad to stay in power, to have a zealous change in heart, to work closely with the USA to get his economy working, to becoming a partner in that region with the US, and to signing a treaty with Israel, as did the Egyptians many, many years ago…
What is worse for us, is if the jihadists win, push out the moderates and take over the reform movement (they always do), then go to war with Israel, Jordan and Turkey. Making ourselves into the evil empire will only create more explosions everywhere, flare-ups which would not have occurred had we taken the Jedi way, and used the “Force” in our possession, to make events on the ground turn our way and happen in our favor….
Realistically such a rosy scenario probably can’t happen; but if it did, were this to come about, there would be no doubt: Obama would be lauded as the best president we’d ever see in our lifetimes. The cost of failure is so low that it just might be worth the try.
The second point… which all us Viet-namers will well remember, is that you may win every engagement you participate in Syria, but you won’t win the war at home, and that… will suck all your energy away from all the good you plan to do before 2016.
It broke LBJ. It broke Bush II. Don’t let it break you….
kavips 
