Mr. Kerry, Is THAT Really You?

[MADem]

86. The problem with tipping your hand is the motor-mouths in Congress.

You get your Rand Pauls up there waving their hands and giving Hafez's little boy the "hit list," as it were.

There are people in the Pentagon who do nothing but make lists of targets all the live-long day. It's not that they want to hit anything, it's just contingency planning. Sometimes, they're pulled out and applied to fictional countries when doing table top "war games."

I don't know if Wes has stopped by the ME desk lately, and actually asked if anyone's doing work along those lines--just because people aren't telling him doesn't mean it ain't happening. He may have pissed a few folks off (he was not universally beloved when he was in Europe, BTW) -- not that many remain, really, from back in the day when he was active -- and people just aren't reaching out to him or cluing him in. He does get paid a nice appearance fee to opine on TV, with or without real, actual data--I think that's probably the most accurate thing anyone can say.

I don't think Obama, or Hagel's crew, want to advertise their targets. I do think they'll be, as they promised, very limited, very precise, and designed to not just hurt al Assad physically, but to hurt him personally--hurt his FEELINGS. Knock out some precious asset, some "baby" he's just loving to have, like say, a prized pier on the Med, for example. Or maybe, say, one of those submarines he has (that he isn't using)--turn that thing into a hazard to navigation.

The idea is to get him shaking his fist like a bad actor playing Hitler in a WW2 movie; then, perhaps, his own crew will push him into exile with a false promise that they'll bring him back "later, when things settle down;" and then, once he boards the plane and waves goodbye, they can throw him under the bus...!