The Common Ills: Barack re-writes rules of war

NINA notes that already today Nouri's bombing of Falluja -- his continued bombing -- has killed 3 civilians and left twelve more injured.

Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports:

Amid conflicting congressional demands, impatient Arab allies, and public concern that he will do too much or too little, President Obama made bluntly clear Thursday why he has not yet implemented a comprehensive U.S. response to the Islamist insurgency that is rapidly spreading across the Middle East.

“We don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama said, in response to questions about when he is prepared to begin military action in Syria, and, if not, why not?

Or apparently about Iraq, despite White House spokesperson Josh Earnest just saying on Morning Joe (MSNBC) that while there's no strategy for Syria, Barack does have a strategy for Iraq.

If the hosts of Morning Joe had any brains they would have asked what sort of strategy allows Nouri to kill civilians daily?

Regardless of Earnest's assertions this morning, what we do know, if we listened closely to Barack yesterday, is that US embassies are a threat to every country they are in.

Zeke J. Miller (Time magazine) notes:

The President defended his decision not to seek authorization from Congress before beginning strikes on ISIS targets in Iraq three weeks ago, saying the urgency of the threat to the U.S. consulate in Erbil required immediate action. “I can’t afford to wait in order to make sure that those folks are protected,” Obama said. Since Aug. 8, the military has conducted 106 air strikes in Iraq, according to U.S. Central Command.

Neither the consulate in Erbil nor the Embassy in Baghdad had been attacked.

They were not even under impending threat.

But Barack's rewriting the rules of engagement.

And, in doing this, he is claiming a 'right' to bomb anywhere in the world if he just suspects there's a chance an embassy might be attacked.

For all the countries with US embassies, this should be a very scary argument he's putting forward.

Maybe the hosts of Morning Joe should have asked about that?

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