America, as a country, is exhausted by war. And not just the boots-on-the-ground type — a phrase I loathe and will explain why later – but everything about it: the rhetoric, the fear mongering, the clear ignorance to the will of the American people.
We are tired of it all.
President Obama said in his speech Tuesday night, “Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong.”
Yes, Mr. President, terrible things do happen across the globe, but terrible things happen here as well. Our country is in the middle of sequestration, a governmental tightening of the belt, and just the notion of spending untold millions to slap Syrian President Bashar al-Assad across the wrist is kicking the American people while they are already down.
People have lost their jobs, their homes and their hope. It is hard for Americans to care about events halfway around the world when 4 in 5 of them are facing poverty.
Politicians have called the situation in Syria a “grave humanitarian crisis.” They touted that America does not stand idly by to watch such atrocities occur. But Congress must forget about the child soldiers of Sudan or the genocide in Congo.
Granted, if you listen to the president, you hear America lives by a different set of values anyways.
According to the president in a PBS NewsHour interview, our core values are stopping terrorist attacks against the United States.
America, apparently, does not value stopping any form of indiscriminate murdering of men, women or children. Look at our drone program. It’s clearly a beacon of American civility.
This leads to Americans’ greatest annoyance, the question of why. Every day there is a new reason as to why we should bomb Syria. It’s like a grab bag of options and all the prizes are the yo-yo that never works right.
Pick your poison.
The president said this would be a limited intervention with clear targets, and he would “not put American boots on the ground in Syria.” Yes, and the Iraq War ended on May 1, 2003. “Mission Accomplished.”
If the president doesn’t believe he has to seek Congress’ approval for military action in Syria, what is really stopping him from breaking his word of not sending soldiers to the country?
Politicians like using the phrase “boots on the ground.” Everyone from the president and congressmen and women to Secretary of State John F. Kerry has used it.
But think about how they are using it. The word disconnects you from the reality of the whole idea. Those aren’t “boots” on the ground – those are American sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and friends and family.
The American people have been jerked around too much to believe that our government continues to have our best interests in mind. Clearly, the American people want no part in the events in Syria, and like a 2-year-old asking for a cookie, the President keeps pestering. When the American people said no, he asked Congress. Congress answers to us, but will they listen?
