Bin Laden assault: It's so-o-o yesterday.
Again today, the Republican drumbeat against President Obama's strategy on the Russian-Ukraine crisis pushed the meme that Obama is weak, ineffectual and indecisive. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and other conservatives could be heard wailing on National Public Radio: Obama, to paraphrase the GOP limpets, is himself limp on the Ukraine, and too willing to try diplomacy on Russia. Oh, and that's true for the president's policy with respect to the Syrian civil war, too. Never mind the deal on chemical weapons! He's weak!
Never mind, too, the thorough, back-of-the-barn whipping that Obama laid on a Fox Cable Channel reporter at a news conference the other day when the reporter referenced all of the above. Obama's remarks seemed quite clear and quite decisive -- i.e., the United States of America isn't going to be stampeded into rash, unhelpful actions just because the GOP is trying to score cheap points in an election year.
And still, because they're not saying, no one is precisely sure what GOP lawmakers like Corker or Sen. John McCain would prefer Obama do in either of those international situations: Heavily arm the Ukraine military and Syrian rebels with high-tech weapons? (After all, that worked out so well in Libya, eventually, didn't it?) Bomb Russian and Syrian positions? (World War III is simply not hanging in the balance, you understand) Mount a cyber-attack on Vladimir Putin's online-betting account? (But Putin probably controls the betting parlor). Steal Syrian President al-Assad's selfies and publish them on Facebook? (Well-l-l-l, maybe... .)
All the Corkers of US politics know is that in the case of the Ukraine, it's simply not enough to work with our European allies -- which stand to lose a lot if we don't present a united front -- nor is it enough to impose financial sanctions that already seem to have had a debilitating impact on the Russian economy. Nope, not enough. Because Obama...weak! Nor is it enough to share precious, top-secret US military intelligence with the rebels in Syria or the government of the Ukraine.
Yas, yas, yell the Repubs, the president is asleep at the wheel! Let's return to the good old days, when deciding to mount all-out invasion of a couple of mideastern countries was a job achievable before breakfast. Next problem!
And yet: What about that little, itty-bitty incident in 2011, when Obama took a deep breath and ordered Seal Team Six into that compound in Pakistan, resulting in the death of Osama bin Laden? Weak? Indecisive? Hardly. Nor was Obama's action in the Libyan crisis anything that could be called pussyfoot. Indeed, he may have been too strident, not too little, judging from the after-effects.
But that's all old news. Non-news, even! Everyone knows Obama is incompetent. Everyone knows he's cowardly. They have always known! Bin-who?