There is this story about a kid and some sheep. Ok, there are two such stories but I’m not talking about that other one you perv. What I’m talking about is the kid and the sheep and the wolf. As you will recall, the tragedy of the story was not that the kid called for help when he did not need it. The tragedy was that when the kid did need help, his credibility was shot. Nobody came.
You would think that, by now, America’s credibility would be in the toilet vis a vis desert tyrants. Maybe crying “WMD” is different from crying wolf. When WMD wears out, what do you cry? “Freedom” seemed to work. Or it worked good enough to get a second term. That kind of broad justification of force is bound to come back and bite you in the ass though, right?
Right. If, by “bitten in the ass” you mean “obligated to be part of a third active military campaign.” Yeah, war sucks. Yeah I’m for peace. Yes I know that we are currently engaged in two land wars in Asia while assisting with a tremendous humanitarian effort in a third country. Any second now Yoko is going to show up in the Oval wanting to get some of her legislation on the agenda.
But there are also very brave people fighting for their freedom in Libya. We have long held out the promise that if they stood up for themselves, we would stand with them. There are very brave people all over the Middle East standing up in peaceful ways so far to oppressive governments of long standing. They and the leaders they protest are looking to Libya and to us. They want to know if we really mean “wolf” or if we are just playing.