The Vanquished Powers Were Glad

As the Obama Administration muddles through one more vacation, they take some military action which is completely representative of the entire regime and it’s mindset.

In a story posted to Stars And Stripes Lt. General William Mayville says the following:

“We assess that U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have slowed ISIL’s operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of Irbil. However, these strikes are unlikely to affect ISIL’s overall capabilities or its operation in other areas of Iraq and Syria,”

So, we will send our military to make lots of noise and flash, but the administration knows, in advance that is all for appearance, and no long term effect. They seem to believe that there are no real enemies which require engagement and long term attention.

Time and again this regime ‘pivots’ and applies a ‘laser like focus’ to a new issue, a new geopolitical crisis, only to move on once the headlines shrink away and the network cameras are pointed into another direction.

They believe their own hype, and are confident that we are in a ‘post-modern’ world. The US secretary of state blusters that the Russian leadership simply will stop, because ‘One simply does not do that in the twenty first century’. 

You see, they just know more, they are better, they are undeniably more moral than any previous administration, or the hoi polloi over which they must rule.

Obama and his team simply imagine  because they think it, because they want it, the world will bend to conform to their statements and judgments. ISIS is ‘The JV team’ and not worth attention.

Syria will comply with Obama’s demands, because they simply must.

This regime believes their own hype and acts as if all the evil in the world will stop merely because they will it. They act as if there are no bad actors on the world state, and if only John Kerry can get a ‘sit down’ then every tyrant and dictator will see the inherent wisdom of his words and follow the lead of Obama the Great and Powerful. 

Recently I came across something written by WH Auden, which I think poetically reflects my thoughts better than my ramblings above.

So an age ended, and its last deliverer died
In bed, grown idle and unhappy; they were safe:
The sudden shadow of a giant’s enormous calf
Would fall no more at dusk across their lawns outside.

They slept in peace: in marshes here and there no doubt
A sterile dragon lingered to a natural death,
But in a year the slot had vanished from the heath;
A kobold’s knocking in the mountain petered out.

Only the sculptors and the poets were half-sad,
And the pert retinue from the magician’s house
Grumbled and went elsewhere. The vanquished powers were glad

To be invisible and free; without remorse
Struck down the silly sons who strayed into their course,
And ravished the daughters, and drove the fathers mad.

We cannot simply ignore evil, it will not vanish simply because we ‘don’t believe in it anymore’.

Another shorter quote which I also believe is appropriate  may be more familiar. 

In the words of Louis XV:

Après moi, le déluge

Keep the Faith!

The Rev