C: RANT REDUX - The Dangers of Uncertain Trumpets

Well, we're at about a week and a half since Secretary of State Kerry all but declared an operation of "limited" intervention against Syria, only to have the President publicly do a trajectory change...it's only gotten worse in my view.

I awake this morning to this "crawl" across the bottom of the screen: "Russian and Chinese warships being moved to the Syria coast."  No one's talking about it on the news shows, but the crawl got my attention and raised my hackles.  You can do an internet search on this, or go right to this CBS source or to this  page.  Yep, the Russian and Chinese are beefing up their presence in the long wait between the President's first signal and while he weakly vacillates in his resolve.

I also saw this morning his chief of staff saying that the reason the President went to Congress for approval (a bit late the day), was that he cannot honestly say that there is "imminent" danger to the US from the Syrian situation.  Well, knock his arguments for intervention down another notch, then.  Why is he talking about this PUBLICLY?  Why wasn't this discussion done before he made intentions to bomb Syria known?  Why announce the decision and THEN go back and ask Congressional permissions.  Weak, weak, weak; and, I'm afraid, internationally laughable.

This amid reports that our only "ally," France, has done an about-face, too, announcing that it will await a full UN report before joining any move against Syria.  Who can blame them?  If our President is unsure, why should they throw their hat into that wobbly ring?  Here is a report on the French.

Why is this happening?  I'm no foreign relations expert, but here's my feeling:  Our President has blown an uncertain trumpet.  When you blow the battle trumpet, you need to be ready to roll.


1 Corinthians 14:8 says: Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?  (NIV).

Who, indeed?

I have been flipping all around my cable television channels, watching both cable reports and the network shows.  Pundits and "experts" are debating the pros and cons of striking Syria (notably, not mentioning the Chinese and Russian ships).  For me the issue is much larger: Can we follow this leader into war? 

All this debating should have been behind them by the time Kerry went to the podium on this.  Our President has shown himself weak, and he has embarrassed us.  I can almost see the Chinese and Russians scheming to further humiliate him by moving their ships to Syria. 

Here's the thing:  Are we willing to go to WWIII over this?  I submit that the answer is "no."  China knows that; Russia knows that.  In the end I predict we will tuck our tail and sit back.  The President has put us in that

kind of position.

So, the issue for me is not whether we should intervene in this horrendous Syrian situation.  The issue is whether we have a leader who could lead us in that endeavor.

These are trying, fearful times for our country that do not bespeak our greatness.  C