What do you like about Barack Obama?

[NanceGreggs]

33. "He listened to us."

Yeah, right.

Of all the strawmen a certain contingent erect around here - and they have been frequent and many - the "Obama wanted to rush into Syria" strawman stands as a Colossus among the rest. It is a strawman so huge, so towering, so gargantuan in its height and breadth, one cannot even grasp the volume of bullshit-laden hay that had to shoved up its posterior to attempt to get it upright.

Of course, by now we are all intimately familiar with the strawman-building pattern: Obama makes it clear he will do A. The strawman engineers insist he actually wants to do B. When Obama finally does do A, the strawmanistas insist that the only reason he didn't go with B is because THEY convinced him to do exactly what he was going to do all along.

There is nothing - nothing - that would lead any reasonable person with an iota of common sense to believe that Obama was in a rush to war, in Syria or elsewhere. He is ending/has ended the two wars he inherited. In every situation that has been a possible threat to peace, Obama's first choice is diplomacy, and a measured and reasoned call for cooler heads to prevail.

Even for those who think Obama's every move is calculated on the basis of his "legacy" recognize that after achieving the feat of reforming the US healthcare system - an accomplishment others have tried and failed at - the last thing on earth the man would want to do is UNDO his legacy of saving untold lives by getting the country involved in action that would have maimed, orphaned and killed innocent people - occurrences which, thanks to our friends in the "librul media" would have been televised in full, gory, blood-drenched detail 24/7, complete with soundtrack, dazzling special effects, and $10-off Dominoes pizza coupons for the first ten callers who can correctly identify the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president who got us into this shitstorm in the first place.

You can believe that Obama is the peace-seeking president he has invariably shown himself to be - a theory which, BTW, has a LOT of evidence to support it - or you can believe that Obama is merely an arrogant showman looking to secure his place in the history books as a man of the people - and no matter which side you come down on, the idea that Obama was in a rush to engage militarily in Syria MAKES. NO. SENSE. WHAT. SO. EVER.

Now, if it makes you feel empowered to think that a president hell bent on rushing into Syria was stopped in his tracks by people posting on DU or signing petitions - whatever - you go right ahead. But don't try to sell that BS to people who actually have a brain.