Yes, He’s The Great Uniter, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #340 | @MDWorld

September 9, 2013 Mike Gold 8 Comments

For the second time this summer, President Obama has united two disparate groups of Americans as people on the westbound side of the political left join with those on the eastbound side of the political right over the decision to engage Syria in war.

The first time was earlier this summer when these two sworn enemies united in their opposition to the NSA files, as revealed by Edward Snowden. Case in point: The National Rifle Association, which is rarely confused with Nancy Pelosi, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union, which is rarely confused with Rush Limbaugh, in the ACLU’s suit that takes on the entire NSA surveillance program.

This is amusing for several reasons. The Koch family, long loathed by the Left, is and has always been a major supporter of the ACLU. And like all political organizations, the National Rifle Association maintains massive data on Americans in its computers, whether they are members of the organization or not. If I were to confiscate all the guns – and we’ll have bespectacled talking dogs inventing time machines before anybody can figure out how to pull that one off – I’d start with that NRA list. But I digress.

So now Barack’s done it again, uniting the hardcore on both ends of the political spectrum. He wants us to invade Syria because their madman-in-chief has gassed his people. Asma Assad should not to be confused with the other global madmen who resort to the same or similar measures. Which is one of the problem points in this Presidential edict: Why this guy? And why at this time? Killing people in order to save lives is a crappy policy.

Here’s another point. I will stipulate that gassing people is bad. But so is shooting them. Or bombing them. Or torturing them. Or nuking them. Dead is dead, and, oh yeah, when the United States takes the moral high ground we drag our own shootings, our bombings, our torturing, and our nuking right up there onto the ethical Iwo Jima – along with our overworked men and women in uniform. You know, the Americans who actually get killed executing our government’s whims.

Does anybody think that our launching missiles into Syria likely will kill fewer people than Asma Assad did with his gas? And even if we killed only half as many people, do we call that a win? Will the Syrian people?

I use the word “invade” with purpose. Obama may think we’re doing a noble thing, but the Syrians – be they Asmaites or Al Qaeda or the Syrian Liberation Front or the Syrian Islamic Front, et al – are more likely to see a foreign nation launching missiles onto their turf as an act of war, as the opening salvos of an invasion. I have never seen a military action that started off with missiles not evolve into some sort of an invasion.

Why did the United Kingdom vote this action down, overruling their prime minister? Why is America alone on this one – except for the French and perhaps a handful of other nations. What’s the end-game? How do we get out of this one in such a way that we can say we did more good than harm?

President Obama is silent on all of this. He did say we’re not looking for regime change, but there is no way in heaven or hell that Barack is anywhere near that stupid or that naïve. Indeed, on this subject, Barack Obama is a liar.

I voted for Obama because he’s smart. The President should start acting like we are as well.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check the website above for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.