One supposes that elected officials would at least part of the time show a degree of intelligence that would qualify them for the jobs. However, it seems to be endemic to democracies that they must suffer through IQ downtimes, with no particular reference to political parties. There’s enough ignorance to go around. Nor are the voters who elect their representatives free from ignorance, though they may just be guilty of apathy, i.e., voting without attempting to vet the wannabe reps.
Take the case of State Secretary Clinton, who is rambling around – as she does 99% of the time, it seems – over in the Middle East at present, though she might take a swing through most any area later this week, if not today. Try as she might – as would be the case with most any U.S. official – she’s simply the “Ugly American.” She sounds strident, looks anything but official and makes it to the TV screen every evening mouthing platitudes or empty threats and yucking it up with foreign officials who, one surmises, laugh behind her back since nothing she says or does seems to change anything, even if it should.
In early 2011, she praised Syrian President Bashir Assad but abruptly changed her tune when he began putting down what to him was an insurrection but to her was an attack upon his own people. Right about then, Libyan strongman Qaddafi engaged in the same stuff – nothing unusual about that in the Middle East. After all, the “Arab Spring” was on, having started in Tunisia with a self-immolation and continued in Egypt’s Tahrir Square in a humongous campout.
President Obama at the time was facing terrible economic figures, and still is, maybe even worse now. So, what would anyone expect him to say to the State Secretary other than, “Do something to get the people’s minds off U.S. problems?” And, what better way to play the usual “Ugly American” thing than to publicly call for some political lynchings, in this case Assad, Qaddafi and Egypt’s Mubarak, the latter the best Arab friend in the Middle East, bought fair and square after Carter’s Camp David clambake with Israel’s Begin and Egypt’s Sadat in 1978.
Obama/Clinton wheedled a resolution out of the UN Security Council (key members abstained) for an actual attack on Libya, somehow involving NATO, which one supposes had better things to do or had nothing to do. Congress was not consulted, naturally, since Obama, the Constitutional scholar (just ask him), knew that his glorious attack on a country of 6 million citizens (2 million less than New York City) would get deep-sixed there, though senators McCain, Graham, and Lieberman would probably have been gung-ho for it.
This represented a Congressional IQ well below 50, as the solons held their collective nose and looked the other way. Impeachment is such an ordeal! Why argue about Qaddafi – bad guy anyway? After all, isn’t every president entitled to his own war, especially since Obama said it would be only a little war, over in days, not weeks?
It took seven months (Libya’s troop-strength a humongous 76,000 boots), which connoted the military IQ of both Obama and Clinton, even though it started out as a “no-fly-zone” thing (accomplished by the fourth day) and ended up with this country and NATO massacring Libyans on the ground with bombs and missiles for months, just as O&C said Qaddafi would do.
Libya is in chaos, having just elected a parliament of 200 members to represent 6 million citizens. If the same ratio obtained in this country, the Senate would have the usual 100 cowards but the House would have 10,133 representatives. How does that bode for the Libyans, the usual Arab tribal society? It most likely will be “choose up sides and fight it out” time.
The drumbeat goes on for Syria’s Assad to agree to be lynched, but, whereas Libya had no help, Syria has Russia, Iran-next-door and China for friends. Just as before, as long as Obama/Clinton keeps screaming about sanctions, genocide and whatever else, she gives aid and comfort to militants, who mistakenly believe O&C are substance (actual weapons) and not blather. The insurrectionists, as usual, are fighting among themselves and no one has a clue about even to whom humanitarian aid should go.
The “Ugly (IQ-challenged) Americans” usually suffer from hoof ’n’ mouth disease, especially in the Middle East. There’s no way to measure the harm that’s been done by their constant blathering about democracy where such is not remotely possible and where they have no intention of “getting into it.” Clinton needs to come home, stay home, shut up and, best of all – go on vacation. Otherwise, she’ll continue to be an embarrassment.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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