When NBC News starts its broadcast as it did tonight with the identification of a record number of "world hot spots" and a report of yet another on-camera beheading of yet another American reporter - whose fate has been known of for weeks - and by what appears to be the same ISIS militant, no less, I don't know how anyone in their right mind can be comfortable with Obama and Kerry's standard mantra nowadays of, "All options are on the table." I don't care how bad an idea the Iraq War was. I don't care what history preceded or led to this situation. I don't care what "right" anyone thinks America has to throw its weight around. I don't care whose feelings could be hurt or whose cultural pride could be stepped upon - Heaven knows enough people are not only willing, but EAGER to sacrifice and offend America's cultural pride in order to make illegal immigrants and potential enemies feel better about themselves.
The fact of the matter is that American citizens - not soldiers, mind you, whose job it is to go in harm's way - but citizens doing what are considered by most to be fairly harmless jobs are being killed, overseas, not just with impunity, but with ADVANCE NOTICE GIVEN while the nation that arguably has one of, if not the biggest, strongest and most capable military and intelligence community on Earth just sits back and does... what? Fly drones around, taking photos and dropping a few bombs here and there? It's not that this kind of thing hasn't happened before that makes me mad because I'm not naive enough to believe that. It is what looks, at least, like a foreign relations and national security policy which actually puts the "respect" of cultural differences and feelings ahead in importance of the actual, physical lives of American citizens. That goes not only for an unwillingness to put ground troops in places like Iraq where, by now, they are so clearly needed (at least temporarily), but also for what seems like an unwillingness to firmly and rationally deal with the unexpected and uninvited influx of South American immigrants, all of whom America cannot possibly take care of or take care of adequately IF, as so many claim, we still have so many economic and unemployment problems of our own and are barely taking care of ourselves, whatever the morality of the scenario(s).
If all options were on the table when it comes to things like Ukraine and Iraq, as they've allegedly been for months now, then why hasn't a better one been implemented? 'Word is that another 300 troops are going to be sent to, um... protect embassies or something. In the meantime, how is that going to stop ISIS from capturing and beheading yet another American or perhaps European citizen? Why, if these embassies are so worthy of ground troops when so much of the rest of the region clearly isn't seen as being so deserving, was not Benghazi better protected two years ago? I know there are people that believe I'm an occasional Fox News/Rush Limbaugh ditto-head, but in fact, most of what admittedly little I know and have heard recently has come from OTHER sources - from interviews and newscasts on public radio and allegedly more moderate news broadcasts. Most of the time, I can't stand Fox News for more than an hour of broadcast (and that's pushing it nowadays), but this idea that dissatisfaction with current foreign and military policy is some kind of alarmist, right-wing extremism is, given what's happening and at the moment, at the very least, categorically and in its own right every bit as biased, narrow-minded and downright STUPID as any other partisan position out there.
Like I said, I don't care how bad the Iraq war was or how "intolerant" or hypocritical it seems to say that America is at war with Islam. Islamic terrorists are no longer even our only or potentially biggest problem. Look, for example, what's been going on with Russia - on the verge of being an enemy of ours yet again for the first time in 25 years! And why? Clearly, these threats don't just materialize overnight, but people like Putin don't generally behave this way unless something - like, say, America's/Obama's foolish ultimatums on Syria which were never really acted upon - indicates that the only or biggest potential obstacle is or might no longer be such an obstacle. In any case, at this point, it isn't a question of how many corporations might or might not get fat government contracts in the Middle East or how many oil companies might be able to profit from conflict in the long-run. America has tried to take just a few baby steps back AWAY from its perceived post as "world police" and look what's happened. How many civilians have to be murdered - executed, with notice given way, way in advance - before LOGIC and DECISIVENESS is put ahead of seemingly useless worrying and moralizing?
