More Basketball, Less War

More Basketball, Less War

Sometimes it really gets to me that so many of our fellow citizens fail to grasp the intricacy of trying to form a multi-lateral consensus while still promulgating the policies and interests of the United States.  Why is it so hard to understand that it is not within the proper scope of the United States to force its will on the rest of the world?  It would not be a proper role even if it were in the short term best interests of the United States if it imposed undue restraint on another sovereign nation.  Just as we were taught to do as children about the Golden Rule, we are bound to apply the same constraints to our foreign policy.

As the readers of this column know, I have serious reservations about our intervention in Libya.  I mentioned a week or so ago that support from the Arab League, the United Nations and NATO would be a prerequisite for intervention.  To my surprise all three of those conditions were met more quickly than I can ever remember happening after which we promptly entered into action to intervene in what is a civil war in Libya.

Imagine my astonishment when the President was criticized for taking too long to send our men and women into harm’s way again.  Apparently there are those who wanted the United States to take unilateral action in advance of being able to act as a part of a larger coalition.  Have those critics been living in a cave since 2003 when we hurled an insufficient force into Iraq based on false intelligence?  (Is it really intelligent when it is false)?  And hasn’t that intervention worked out splendidly?

Personally, I am elated to have a President who does not take lightly committing our men and women to combat while the rest of the world watches us squirm.  I still would prefer that we had not intervened in this civil war and I have to wonder if it is payback for Great Britain and France supporting our own military adventurism.  Libya ships most of its oil to Europe and without that supply the Europeans are forced to seek new sources from the rest of the oil-producing world.  That has the effect of driving up prices to everyone including the United States.  We certainly don’t see China helping out even though they will benefit as much as we will.  Cruise missiles are fired off with abandon at a cost of a million dollars and up per shot.  Where are the deficit hawks while this is going on?

Well, Newt Gingrich, who recently lost his cushy job at Fox News because he was becoming too overtly political even for them, has taken on the President for his inaction.  Yes, Newt is blaming the President for squandering time filling out his NCAA tournament bracket saying that Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan would never have been caught doing that.  And, lo, all of a sudden the news media repeated it as if the President had told the Joint Chiefs to just hold on, he had something important to do.

Every President I can recall, and that goes back to Eisenhower, had a special pastime that they devoted time to.  Eisenhower was an avid golfer. It bears mentioning that our military did not venture overseas very much during his administration after that Korean thing died down.  Kennedy was, well, he was a Kennedy.  He played golf but he especially loved those family football games at Hyannis Port and yachting.  Maybe if he had paid more attention that Cuban Missile Crisis thing wouldn’t have taken everyone by surprise.  And the icon of the right, Ronald Reagan, was fond of his enclave at Rancho Mirage where he could go horseback riding and chop wood.

Presidents are just as human as their naysayers are prompt to point out.  I am happy they are.  Personally, if I don't get some down time I get a little hard to get along with and I’m far more likely to pull the trigger on some ill-advised scheme.  Maybe that’s what happened here.  Maybe the President didn’t get enough basketball time in and was just out of sorts and decided to take in out on Gaddaffi.  I would much rather him spend more time on basketball and less on war.

I think most sane people will take Newt’s poke at the President for what it is worth.  I am much more worried about how we have tied up the 6th fleet in this action.  I am also worried whether or not we will be expected to do the same when the Saudis and Bahrainis begin killing off their populations.  Now, to top it all off the Arab League says that what we are doing with the no-fly zone is not what they meant.  They didn’t know we were going to actually hurt people.  All we need is more Muslims mad at us and another tool for Al Qaeda to recruit with.

My take is that the only thing that really made sense was picking Kansas to win the championship even though I suspect it will be Duke again.