The Washington cliche of the day is "boots on the ground." The question of the day is, "should we (the United Statese) put them (boots) on the ground in Syria because the embattled government there used chemical weapons against the insurgents?"
Wait. Do we have it on any authority other than our own government and its intelligence services that Syria actually did this? Are those chemical weapons any more substantive than Sadam Hussein's WMDs or Iran's nukes? Just asking.
A batch of The Usual Suspects were rounded up on the Sunday telly talkabouts to kick around Pressing Matters, of which the pressingest seemed to be Syria and those boots.
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina's gift of enlightenment to the U.S. Senate, opined that if somebody doesn't do something, ”the whole region’s gonna fall into chaos.” Gonna? Gonna?
There was Old Standby John McCain, untarnished by his brilliant selection of Sarah Palin for Veep, saying "no" to boots on the ground. "The American people are weary," he said, demonstrating that he's been awake a bit longer than his Carolina colleague. "They don't want boots on the ground."
Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the Democratic party's contribution to this font of wisdom, sang her president's song, a firm, fearless, "maybe, maybe not." Responding to Graham and McCain, she said, "I don't think you ever want to rule it (boots on the ground) out. But obviously we don't want to do it unless it's absolutely necessary." Obviously.
The Georgia sage of the Senate, Saxby Chambliss, declared: "We don't need to put boots on the ground, but we need to enable their neighbors, the neighbors of Syria, to bring some sort of peaceful resolution to this."
Aha! There it is! We need a peaceful resolution to this!
Alors! Why didn't we think of this before! A peaceful resolution.
And to think that these people hold office for six, long years! Well, we elected George W. Bush to two terms as President, didn't we? Now even Grandma Barbara thinks "we've had enough Bushes."
We've had enough of Obama, too -- but that's another essay.
