Scheer writes: "A strong response to the use of those weapons is in order, but instead of more violence that would inevitably kill innocent people, why not give peace a chance?"

Can Obama finally stop acting like George W. Bush? (photo: Getty Images)

Obama Remembers He's Not George W. Bush

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig

10 September 13

�

t may come to naught - calls for peace so rarely still the drums of war - but there was a moment Monday when the odds for sanity seemed to finally stand a chance of prevailing. It came when President Obama acknowledged the Russian proposal for Syria to avert war by agreeing to destroy its chemical weapons stock as "a potentially positive development." It was quintessentially an un-Bush moment when suddenly this presidential "decider" seemed possessed of a brain capable of reversing his disastrous course.

It helped that a majority of the public, and even many of its representatives in Congress, had expressed strong opposition to entering into a civil war without a plausibly positive outcome. According to The New York Times/CBS News poll conducted over the weekend, "nearly 9 in 10 Americans are concerned that United States military action in Syria will become a long and costly mission" and would lead to "a more widespread war in the Middle East." Imperial hubris has been soundly rejected by a properly chastened war-weary public, and nation building, particularly in that part of the world, is now most often treated as an expectation that is indelibly cursed.

The bipartisan rejection of the inevitability of a military response has been stunning in its geographical reach, and as Peggy Noonan, a leading Republican intellectual as well as a former top speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, observed in her Wall Street Journal column Saturday: "The American people do not support military action� . Widespread public opposition is in itself reason not to go forward." Although underscoring the need to "rebuke those who used the weapons, condemn their use, and shun the users � a military strike is not the way, and not the way for America," she wrote.

Continue Reading: Obama Remembers He's Not George W. Bush

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+10 # Dust 2014-09-12 15:16

Clean water
Clean air
Clean food
Freedom of information
Freedom of communication
Freedom of education
Freedom of/from religion

One world.

-13 # arquebus 2014-09-13 00:21

By golly that is a great idea. Let's eliminate fossil fuels from the face of the earth on the 21st. But, wait....the next day--the 22nd--how are people going to get to work? How are trucks going to haul food to the cities? Oh, that's right....they are going to use electricity from the non-existent solar grid.

Somebody ought to tell these yahoos that Rome wasn't built in a day...it takes time to move from one system to another. They need to relax....we are in a transition period...fossil fuels will be phased out...already are. Just takes a bit of time...the sky isn't falling.

+4 # Dust 2014-09-13 11:44

Seems like this protest is part of the phasing. Why object? Rome wasn't built in a day, but it sounds like if you had been on one of the seven hills when the first architects sat down and said "Heus quis similis locus urbis", you would immediately have started objecting. But your objections make no sense- if I said I needed to walk down the street to get a book from the library, you'd jump up and start screaming that it takes time to walk to the library, and first I need to put on a jacket, and make sure I have my library card, and can read, and most importantly - what will I read while I am walking there???

+6 # Floe 2014-09-13 13:37

Oh you think the sky is not falling? Well what if you're wrong? We've known about the dangers of burning fossil fuels for decades and what's been done about it? Practically nothing. Just token change. Don't be ridiculous to infer that it's going to be done tomorrow. But I can tell you one thing we can do tomorrow - and that is make the commitment to be off the demon's expectoration within ten years and you just watch the money flow in from investors waiting for some bold state to give the long-term go ahead. WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A LONG-TERM ENERGY POLICY. Doing what you suggest is kicking the can down the road. NO. We go for everything and we go for it NOW. We've given enough chances for governments and corporations to do something and they failed. Miserably.

+2 # bmiluski 2014-09-15 11:28

You're absolutely right arquebus....Rom e wasn't built in a day but at least it was built.
The Climate March just want's authentic participation by ALL nations to fight this very credible danger to all our lives.

+1 # NAVYVET 2014-09-13 07:29

Thank you! I love this acronym: CONG! My British friends would say CONG has pong!

+6 # born1929 2014-09-13 11:25

There is a Chinese proverb: There are two best times to plant a tree .... the first is twenty years ago and the second is now
stan Levin

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