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A President Who Ran Promising Peace Cautiously Declares War

September 10, 2014 Never has a declaration of war been so cautious. Never has an American president spent so much time talking about what the declaration doesn't mean and left so many questions about what it does mean.

But what President Obama put forth in his nationally televised address Wednesday night still was a declaration of war—even if he did prefer to call it a "counterterrorism campaign." What made it more remarkable was that it was delivered by a president who ran for office on an antiwar platform and hoped his legacy would be leaving the nation at peace.

This is the president who, 19 months ago in a speech at the National Defense University, stated that the war on terrorism, "like all wars, must end"; who 33 weeks ago in his State of the Union address said, "America must move off a permanent war footing"; and who 14 days ago told reporters that "we don't have a strategy yet" for combating the Islamist terrorist group, ISIS, that has seized broad swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Video

But here he was Wednesday evening unveiling a strategy and vowing to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and "hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are."

And he was doing it precisely one year to the night that he stood in the same place in the White House Cross Hall looking into the East Room. It was there, on Sept. 10, 2013, that he backed down from his threat to launch military strikes into Syria to punish dictator Bashar al-Assad. He used that speech to appeal to the emotions of war-weary Americans, drawing what he called a "sickening" picture of Assad's massacre of civilians, of "men, women, and children lying in rows, killed by poison gas." He didn't even mention that more than 160,000 civilians have perished in the fighting in Syria. But neither the president's talk of children dying nor the broader reports of civilian victims moved this country to support American intervention.

One year later, it has taken just two deaths to accomplish that. The sea change in public opinion in favor of intervention is explained by an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday that found that 94 percent of Americans are aware of the news of the beheading of journalist James Foley, the first of the two American journalists brutally and publicly killed by ISIS. That makes the beheading the most-followed story by the American public in the last five years.

Read more & see Video mentioned above at:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/a-president-who-ran-promising-peace-cautiously-declares-war-20140910

I know Obama has said that the "United States is not, nor will ever be, at war with Islam." So it must kill him to declare war against the terrorists. However, as President, his first and foremost responsibility as commander and chief of this nation is to protect its citizens. So for this reason, it is essential that he takes a firm stand and put this country and its people first and foremost.

Lisaleenie,

You're right, it must be killing him. However, will he go through with it, or is it a bunch of words to appease the people? As President it should be his first and foremost responsibility to take a firm stand to protect the people and the country. Hopefully, he'll stick to His word and make good on it.

God knows what He truly has in mind; as always, actions speak louder than words.

God Bless!

Valerie

I have said in my replies that this man speaks nothing but lies. He would not know how to tell the truth if his life depended on it. Also he is probably following orders from the New World Order people since he is their puppet to do their bidding. There was a video of him when he was running for President and he told 10 lies in a minute or so and every one was proven to be true that he lied. As the Bible says the truth will find you out. He thinks he is smarter than you because he come across articulate and strong at times but I am afraid there are many people who are wise and know his every move.