Can We Decide?

It was in the heat of the campaign last year. Joe Biden was still viable (in his own mind) for the nomination, and he was trash-talking about the front-runner. It didn't take much effort for even someone of Biden's questionable reasoning power to suggest that if we put a totally inexperienced face in the Oval Office, the enemies of the country would quickly test his capabilities.

This was what happened when a similar young senator with a youthful message got elected in 1960. Things happened a bit slower during those days, but in short order after JFK took office we had rising Communist insurgency in Laos about to spill into Vietnam, a Cuban freedom fighter invasion of the home island, and then a Soviet installation of nuclear missiles just a few miles off our shores. Challenges that plunged us into a decade of war and brought us as close to nuclear holocaust as we've ever been.

In those days we had LeMay at Chief of Staff, McNamara at Defense, Bundy at National Security Advisor, Rusk at State and some very experienced folks in the White House who well remembered World War II. The brain trust didn't totally succeed, but they walked the fine line and avoided total failure.

Now we've got 45 days into this disaster. The Russians have finagled us out of forward basing for our airhead and tankers in Kyrgystan. The Iranians are flaunting their nuclear progress. Hamas is claiming victory out of defeat, in a manner reminiscent of the spinning of the Tet Offensive in 1968. And, we've got this coming up:

Pressure of the Job

I'll acknowledge great respect for the admiral who is clearly on a very hot seat. He's saying the right thing to let Kim Jung-Il know that we are ready and this is not going to work out well for him.

But, I've got to think that he is being quite naive if he truly believes he will get a decision out of the White House should this sort of response be required. It will be a split second window-of-opportunity to act. Is it likely that Obama will take the call and respond within a minute with "Do it!"