“In war,” the Greek dramatist Aeschylus told us, “truth is the first casualty.”
This came to mind when Secretary of State John Kerry testified in the Senate last week.
The new Iraq War has been pitched exhaustively to the American people as “only air strikes” and “absolutely no boots on the ground” — even as the Obama Administration continues to send additional U.S. military advisors to place their boots on Iraqi sand (and, at least once thus far, to engage ISIS directly via Apache attack helicopters hovering above Iraqi ground.)
Kerry again assured senators that the president “has been crystal clear that his policy is that U.S. military forces will not be deployed to conduct ground combat operations against ISIL.”
Strangely, however, the Secretary most adamantly urged Senators not to pass an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would restrict President O from doing precisely what he has so often and emphatically pledged not to do: put combat boots on the ground in Iraq.
The fact that the Obama Administration has foreclosed any possibility of putting US troops on the ground to fight, according to Sec. Kerry, “doesn’t mean that we should preemptively bind the hands of the commander in chief or our commanders in the field in responding to scenarios and contingencies that are impossible to foresee.”
Impossible to foresee? Yeah, right. The “no boots” promise provides all the stability of leaves in the wind.
Having any trust in this administration is impossible to foresee.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Aeschylation”
As usual, Paul you have pinpointed an important observation. One other point though is that as much as I disapprove of Obama’s economic policies, I doubt if he is much worse in other areas than the majority of prior Presidents.
The important difference is that we have the wonderful internet and information, analysis, events, and previously held “secret” information is revealed much sooner. Yea for the techies!
Kerry has a long history of lying to Congress so it is imprudent to put too much credence in anything he says. As an accomplished prevaricator, he is miscast as Secretary of State. He would have been perfect as the presidential press secretary.
President Obama’s “crystal clear” has always been rather opaque. As for John Kerry, he’s Pinocchio.