House Speaker John Boehner is quoted by the Weekly Standard today as saying in regards to the presidents proposed military strike against Syria -- and please note these words --,
"We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary."
I emphasize that word "whether" because it is very unusual to use "whether" instead of "if" unless one is thinking about following things with something like "or not".
Boehner doesn't of course follow things up that way because it would make the United States foreign policy in the region look ridiculous. Imagine if the quote read,
"We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary or not."
That would mean to say that our allies need to know that America is more than happy to throw around its military might for little to no reason at all. Uhm, wait a minute. Maybe this wasn't so much a Freudian slip as it was a coded message to the United States' allies. That would go along with something I heard former UN ambassador John Bolton say in a television interview. He said,
"I think what we have to do now is explain to the rest of the world that basically we’re in a 1200 day period when the president is not going to be effective but that doesn't mean America can’t be reinstated into its proper place once we get a real president in Washington."
Speaker Boehner is in a tough spot because while Obama is a disaster who really shouldn't be supported in any military action short of defending American citizens and property, he has to think about the implications of anything he does or says now for future presidents and how future legislative leaders may deal with them.
He's got two choices to choose from and both are bad. He can either openly agree with Ambassador Bolton and declare the nation leaderless for the next 1200 days or support a military action that will achieve little to no good at all. A military action with much greater potential downsides than upsides. He knows this military action is likely to be administered from a White House more interested in repairing a presidents broken image than it is longer term and much more important things like actually being effective and minimizing casualties.
Ah but we are talking about John Boehner here. For him there seems to always be a third way and based on what those third ways have looked like in the past here's what I suspect may be in his mind. He may be trying to follow in British Prime Minister David Cameron's footsteps. That is his plan is to support or pretend to support Obama only to have the House of Representatives vote no "against his wishes". He then will run around looking embarrassed while secretly being relieved a disaster was averted without him setting any precedent for future Speakers in their dealings with future presidents.
Perhaps I have this spot on, perhaps just close, perhaps not at all, but one thing I've got is that oddly worded statement of his.
"America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary."
Or not?
"We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary."
I emphasize that word "whether" because it is very unusual to use "whether" instead of "if" unless one is thinking about following things with something like "or not".
Boehner doesn't of course follow things up that way because it would make the United States foreign policy in the region look ridiculous. Imagine if the quote read,
"We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary or not."
That would mean to say that our allies need to know that America is more than happy to throw around its military might for little to no reason at all. Uhm, wait a minute. Maybe this wasn't so much a Freudian slip as it was a coded message to the United States' allies. That would go along with something I heard former UN ambassador John Bolton say in a television interview. He said,
"I think what we have to do now is explain to the rest of the world that basically we’re in a 1200 day period when the president is not going to be effective but that doesn't mean America can’t be reinstated into its proper place once we get a real president in Washington."
Speaker Boehner is in a tough spot because while Obama is a disaster who really shouldn't be supported in any military action short of defending American citizens and property, he has to think about the implications of anything he does or says now for future presidents and how future legislative leaders may deal with them.
He's got two choices to choose from and both are bad. He can either openly agree with Ambassador Bolton and declare the nation leaderless for the next 1200 days or support a military action that will achieve little to no good at all. A military action with much greater potential downsides than upsides. He knows this military action is likely to be administered from a White House more interested in repairing a presidents broken image than it is longer term and much more important things like actually being effective and minimizing casualties.
Ah but we are talking about John Boehner here. For him there seems to always be a third way and based on what those third ways have looked like in the past here's what I suspect may be in his mind. He may be trying to follow in British Prime Minister David Cameron's footsteps. That is his plan is to support or pretend to support Obama only to have the House of Representatives vote no "against his wishes". He then will run around looking embarrassed while secretly being relieved a disaster was averted without him setting any precedent for future Speakers in their dealings with future presidents.
Perhaps I have this spot on, perhaps just close, perhaps not at all, but one thing I've got is that oddly worded statement of his.
"America will be there and stand up whether it is necessary."
Or not?
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