I watched all of MTP today. I have not done that for months. Now I remember why, and it's not just this show. The constant barrage of media talking heads we hear every day distorts our view and cramps our morality. David Gregory did his duty, asking Sec. Kerry essentially the same two questions in slightly different ways. The first is very important: “Will the President consider American Military intervention to resolve the Crisis in Ukraine?”
In fairness, Kerry wanting to seem tough, sort of danced around a direct answer to the questions. We know how that goes and how that can go, but in this case everyone knows American military action is not in the tool case.
The second question is more nefarious and it gets to the reason that the question about war needs to be answered. Gregory came at it several ways from different directions, but the gist of it is this: “You know that Putin is a bad mofo, Why is the President such a wimp?” At the moment Americans are anti-war bordering on isolationists, so one may rightly wonder what moral standard must be abridged so that the US feels compelled to roll out the long bombers and fire up the tanks.
It is odd even to an anti-war liberal like me to think that American can no longer be the police force for the world. How strange to consider what options are available beyond brute force? The world gets complicated when you have to accept and understand the perspective of every other nation on earth: We cannot deploy our forces and engage every problem. We’re going to have to talk our way out of some of these. We’re left with lesser weapons which require rather more sophisticated leadership.
Weapons of diplomatic isolation and economic pressure can work, but they’re a little like tax evasions charges which send gangsters to prison for 20 years, so much less satisfying. We live in a complicated world with evil forces of rather substantial size and scope, but I think this is a good and challenging dialogue to have. Most of the world has already adapted to this reality. Only the US still thinks we can project a macho big d*** foreign policy and fix all the problems of the world.
Of course these tactics are easily demagogued.
So the only questions Gregory was interested in directed everyone’s attention to what he characterized as Putin’s vigorous leadership as compared to Obama’s weakness. That Gregory did not accept Kerry’s non-denials of war as actual denials of war is what journalists are supposed to do. Kerry waffled and jived to no apparent purpose until Gregory finally asked the question that closed the loop so Kerry had to say no to militarism. But the mano-a-mano bullshit Gregory was spewing completely undermined any environment where an honest answer could be rendered. At the beginning of the panel Gregory went so far as to say this moment is all about the credibility of the President of the United States.
Really?
To every slob that followed, everyone who exhausted their book of clichés in reference to what they called a weak president, including Sen. Marco Rubio, I wanted to ask, “What would you have them do?”
Of course with America this is exactly what happens and before long we are sending two carriers in a wild scrum of “My d*** is bigger than your d***.” Up until now Obama has navigated that well. He entered as an anti-war president. With some glaring and disappointing exceptions he has governed that way. This is especially true as it pertains to Iran, where both Repub Romney and Israeli PM have proposed policies that likely would have led to war. It’s hard for me to see how the events in Ukraine could lead to American military involvement, but I still found the exchange interesting. It says so much more about Americans than Obama himself.
Beyond the news mongers and the posturing of our politicians it seems to me that Americans are the real reason we find ourselves so easily on the brink of War. Americans protect their macho manhood like a teenage boy on a football field.
Gregory asked all the questions about the President because people sitting at home go, “Hey, you know, Obama is sort of a wimp.” He bows to kings, apologizes for this and that, and he never seems to stand up for anything.” I get that it’s a part of a narrative now and it resonates. But so is the fact that 13 years after Afghanistan most Americans view it as a mistake. Four years after Bush took us to Iraq most Americans thought that was a mistake. Since Korea once American’s see the price of war they come to the conclusion quickly that the price is not worth it. Yet every time, the jacked up talking heads postulate questions about manhood, or strength, or power soon America’s internal abhorrence of war, is trampled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwgrjjIMXA
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