Holding Out For A Hero

Two similar takes on the American mood:

First, Piers Morgan. Really:

Trump's Muslim travel ban may be dumb but laid-back, do-nothing Obama is even dumber

...

But Trump’s not the enemy here, ISIS are - and it’s very important to remember that.

I watched President Obama’s address to the nation from the Oval Office a few days ago and thought it was dreadful.

He sounded utterly devoid of any real new ideas on how to tackle ISIS, whose military and economic power strengthens every day.

He spoke in weary tones of how we were going to beat them but nobody listening to him could have felt remotely convinced that he has a clue how this will actually happen.

His current strategy clearly isn’t working, yet all he promises is more of the same. Gee - you mean "I have been pursuing the same strategy for fourteen months and the results are visible in Beirut, Paris and San Bernardino, so we are going to continue with more of the same" didn't reassure people? "ISIS is here, we can't stop them, so we are asking law-abiding citizens to turn in their guns" didn't catch fire?

John Sexton at Breitbart says we aren't afraid, we're angry:

Recall that two years ago the President was referring to ISIS as the JV team. And in a major address on ISIS last September he suggested ISIS was only an imminent threat to the region. More recently he claimed that threat was contained. The President always seems to be a day late and a dollar short when it comes to dealing with ISIS.

Given the shift in the national mood is it any surprise that Donald Trump is doing well in the polls? Trump’s problems as a candidate have been cataloged extensively but one thing he is not is a shrinking violet. It may not be clear what his plan is for dealing with ISIS but the tone is clear. Like a lot of Americans he seems to be tired of watching the school bully brutalize and threaten everyone on the playground while the largest adult on campus stands back at a safe distance and promises gradual change.

Well, I disagree a bit - I am afraid that we are stuck with a President who made up his mind that American power was the root of the world's perils back in his freshmen year at Occidental and has learned nothing since.

My final stray thought on the idea of US troops in Syria - not to minimize the effort and courage of the people involved, but liberating Iraq was the easy part; it was the poorly planned occupation/administration that went sour.

There are no Sunni armies capable of matching up with ISIS right now. But could the US lead a vanguard to liberate ISIS-held Syria and Iraq and then find Sunnis to run the occupation? That is what I would be studying.

Comments

[Old Lurker]

This is, I think, my first first.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

If only 404 hated ISIS as much as he does us...

[peter]

Congrats, OL, that's giving it the old college try.

Looks like the NYSlimes week in review section is "all-in" for Islamophilia, all the time.

And how about that great climate agreement? Let's shovel our money to third world countries? sounds awesome.

Great Pieces, this morning, Clarice. Obama's transgressions are so sweeping it is hard to take inventory of all of them, but you did a bang-up job.

good morning, all

[jimmyk on iPad]

Such a brief run at the top, OL. You're already supplanted at the new thread.

[Old Lurker]

awww.

Well they say you never forget your first time, Jimmy.

[henry]

OL, a first time where Musket Morgan says something sensible? I expect porcine aviation any minute now.

[Jim]

W had different rules of engagement than obama. obama commits planes and people but they are not permitted to kill anyone.

Can't win a war that way.

[Cecil Turner]

Trump's Muslim travel ban may be dumb but laid-back, do-nothing Obama is even dumber

But the choice is not between Trump and Obama, but Trump and Cruz/Rubio/Carson/Fiorina . . . (at least for now).

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

CT,
I don't believe Morgan was presenting our theoretical electoral choices.
He was juxtaposing the caterwauling about Trump's proposal with the actuality of Barry's dangerous lassitude.