Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Politics

Matt Welch Opposes Syria Intervention on CNN

Matt Welch | 8.30.2013 2:47 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Earlier this afternoon, just prior to Secretary of State John Kerry's brief for limited war in Syria, I appeared on CNN to defend U.S. military inaction in the face of heartbreaking video footage and chemical-weapons claims:

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: UK Asked The New York Times To Destroy Material Leaked By Snowden

Matt Welch is an editor at large at Reason.

PoliticsPolicyWorldSyriaJohn KerryBarack ObamaWar
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (85)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    THIS IS WHY WOMEN SHOULDN'T BE ANCHORS. They can host the Today Show, but they can't do serious news stories, because their silly lady feelings come out. (Brits too, apparently.)

    "We have to do something!"

    1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

      (Good thing there are no women here at Hit & Run or that could get me into trouble.)

      1. Lady Bertrum   12 years ago

        Annnnnd, another reason there are no female libertarians. Our lady feelings are too precious.

        1. DesigNate   12 years ago

          Did somebody say something? I could have sworn the men were talking. 😛

          1. Lady Bertrum   12 years ago

            If by talking you mean grunting and chattering like a bunch of dirty monkeys.

            1. DesigNate   12 years ago

              That's exactly what I meant!

            2. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

              Lady, I've got a handful of poo with your name on it.

      2. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

        Who's going to make our sandwiches for us then?

    2. Corning   12 years ago

      You cannot get that from a CNN anchor.

      By your own measure every race gender and creed cannot be an anchor because every race gender and creed have been horrible anchors on CNN.

      1. Corning   12 years ago

        Also when the hell did CNN become the lets go to war network?

        1. wareagle   12 years ago

          when Obama gave some indication of launching a military strike.

        2. Episiarch   12 years ago

          Since the first Iraq war which made them into a national 24 hour news channel, and therefore made them. CNN loves them some war.

          1. The DerpRider   12 years ago

            This is Bernard Shaw.

        3. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

          After the Great Shaitan Bush ceased to occupy the White House.

        4. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

          When they remembered that war footage gets ratings?

    3. Hillary's Clitdong   12 years ago

      I think men emote themselves into war all the damn time. They feel a social obligation to pretend that they're just being tough, or hard-nosed, but at the end of the day it's just their testicles and adrenal glands screaming for a fight.

    4. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

      "We have to do something!"

      Where did CNN pick up that old fossil?

  2. Brandon   12 years ago

    OT: Scoop Jackson can be just as cluelessly obnoxious as Marcotte-

    http://espn.go.com/espn/story/.....s#comments

    1. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

      Would it help if we handed this white guy over to an angry mob of black people to beat to death?

      http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013.....es-county/

  3. Brandon   12 years ago

    OT: Scoop Jackson can be just as cluelessly obnoxious as Marcotte-

    http://espn.go.com/espn/story/.....s#comments

    1. Snark Plissken (erstwhile PS)   12 years ago

      3 o'clock squirrels!

      1. Lord Humungus   12 years ago

        3 o'clock? Time for (another) drink!

    2. RBS   12 years ago

      I'm sure Floridians everywhere are reeling from Scoops boycott. Speaking of which, I've been boycotting everything Four Letter (except actual game broadcasts) since about April. I finally had enough of the bullshit sportscenter catch phrases and the lame human interest pieces.

      1. hotsy totsy   12 years ago

        I wonder if Stevie Wonder will let people in Florida buy his music?

    3. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles   12 years ago

      Henry M Jackson came back from the dead to write for ESPN?

  4. Dr. Frankenstein   12 years ago

    Heartbreaking? That would require you to have a heart you cold blooded libertarian monster.

  5. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

    "Doctrine of Humane Intervention"? Did CNN guy make that up?

    Good job, Matt.

    1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

      Qaeda suspects kill 'gay' man in Yemen: Security

      Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen on Thursday shot dead a Yemeni man because they believed he was a homosexual, a security official told AFP.

      [snip]

      During their control of areas in southern Yemen, the Islamist militants imposed a strict version of Islamic law on residents, executing or lashing those they accused of various crimes. Those accused of theft had their hands severed.

      Our humanitarian impulses for the Syrian people will TOTALLY be borne out if the rebels with their links to Al Qaeda take control.

      1. Hillary's Clitdong   12 years ago

        "Why does Barack Obama want gay people to die?"

        1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

          Better question: why take a whole hand from a thief, wouldn't taking small toes and fingers be better at first? You want them to be able to work instead of steal for a living, no?

      2. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

        There are no good guys to back in Syria.

    2. The DerpRider   12 years ago

      Ugh. Can't watch due to work block on video. Did they really use that phrase?

      1. Dweebston   12 years ago

        It doesn't touch Kerry's "moral obscenity" comment. These people sound like they cobble together their nomenclature by picking from word columns. Choose one [adjectival abstraction] and one [metaphysical noun], then sprinkle into conversation and/or speech as if it carries epistemological content.

    3. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

      "Doctrine of Humane Intervention"? Did CNN guy make that up?

      No. That was brought to you be the good folks at the Military Industrial Complex. The focus groups seemed to like that more than "Perpetual war for Perpetual Peace". Same result though.

      1. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

        It actually sounds like something Samantha Power would have come up with. Would not be surprised if you start hearing that more and more from the pravda media.

  6. Irish   12 years ago

    Meanwhile, let's check in with our pals at Politico to see quality journalists hold Barack Obama accountable for his actions.

    Just how Obama, whose career sprung from the ashes of George W. Bush's Iraq policy, got to this extraordinary moment in his presidency is a tale of good intentions, seat-of-the-pants planning and, above all, how a cautious commander-in-chief became imprisoned by a promise.

    HE WAS CAUTIOUS AND HAD GOOD INTENTIONS BUT BUSH'S ASHES MADE HIM DO IT!

    Obama's hallmark as a politician has been an ability to preserve his options through a calibrated rhetorical ambiguity, a style that has infuriated opponents (John McCain likened debating him to "nailing Jell-O to a wall"), but gave him the flexibility to react quickly to changes in circumstance.

    In other words, Barack Obama never says anything and has no principles. Politico thinks this is just swell.

    The House of Commons vote had a sins-of-the-father quality, hobbling a pair of leaders all too aware of the legacies of their predecessors George W. Bush and Tony Blair, who spearheaded the deeply unpopular Iraq invasion.

    Don't you guys see? Obama is just so tired and lonely and he tries so hard but the sins of Bush keep dragging him down.

    1. Snark Plissken (erstwhile PS)   12 years ago

      Do you have any idea how fucking busy I am?

    2. BlueBook   12 years ago

      "The Sins of Bush" would have been a good name for a 1980s porno.

      1. Lord Humungus   12 years ago

        wacka-chicka-wah!

      2. Anomalous   12 years ago

        Sadly, this could never be made now, because in Pornland, bushes are extinct.

        1. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

          You just have to know where to look.

    3. Corning   12 years ago

      Why oh why did he ever draw a red line in the fucking first place?!?!

      I seriously think we are going to war because some "Shakespeare" speech writer liked how the words sounded and Obama just dumbly read them off his teleprompter.

      1. NoVAHockey   12 years ago

        I read in a George Will column that, according to staff, it was an unscripted remark.

        1. NoVAHockey   12 years ago

          "Last August, R2P reappeared when he startled his staff by offhandedly saying of Syria's poison gas: "A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized."

          http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

          1. Mainer2   12 years ago

            "..a whole bunch of chemical weapons.."

            a "whole bunch" ? Yes, Obama is so, like, you know, articulate and shit.

            1. plusafdotcom   12 years ago

              +1

            2. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

              His staff said that a "Bunch" is the correct technical term for WMD amounts. It's going to be in next years Webster dictionary.

      2. WTF   12 years ago

        It's all the fault of TOTUS!

    4. MJGreen   12 years ago

      "Seat-of-the-pants planning"? Is that not an oxymoron?

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        Don't make fun of Politico. They are serious journalists.

        Just look at how serious Dylan Byers is!

        First day again in Seattle. Took grand uncle Jim out for coffee and drilled him on everything about travel and apes and how to live and why to do what to do and the cafe and the rain...and the wondering.

        1. NoVAHockey   12 years ago

          it was better in the original ... "Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon"

      2. LarryA   12 years ago

        Oxymoron? Not at all. It's a prerequisite of "kiss your ass good-by."

    5. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

      calibrated rhetorical ambiguity, a style that has infuriated opponents (John McCain likened debating him to "nailing Jell-O to a wall"), but gave him the flexibility to react quickly to changes in circumstance.

      Precisely why he keeps coming out of events unscathed.

      1. WTF   12 years ago

        Wow, just when I think shreek can't get any stupider.

      2. Irish   12 years ago

        Just keep saying that to yourself as the upcoming dreadfully unpopular military excursion pushes his approval rating sub-40.

      3. Paul.   12 years ago

        Precisely why he keeps coming out of events unscathed.

        Some reefer to that as 'slippery'. Others refer to it as 'slimy'. Yet others refer to it as 'oily'.

        1. Dweebston   12 years ago

          It's political, and PBP respects nothing more than political posturing.

      4. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

        No, you're thinking of his pact with Satan.

    6. Paul.   12 years ago

      Obama's hallmark as a politician has been an ability to preserve his options through a calibrated rhetorical ambiguity

      I'm keeping that. Seriously.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        That's "leadership?" Holy shit. I'll tell you what, if the media and voters would just cast aside this absolutely stupid idea that politics is an end in itself, we'd go far.

        1. Paul.   12 years ago

          I remember some writer being interviewed on the local NPR station like, I think it was a couple of weeks or so after Obama had been elected in '08, so the whole thing was pretty fresh...

          Anyhoo, the subject of already broken promises came up and the writer said, "I like it when Obama breaks his promises... it shows he's presidential."

          This is why Obama won again in '12. People... good, upstanding fine people really misunderestimated (ha!) just how deep the cult runs.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            It's funny, because you expect someone truly awesome to be the center of a cult. Yet there's one around this guy for no reason I can discern except maybe that he's the first black president.

            1. Paul.   12 years ago

              If I remember my ancient Roman history correctly, he gave a good speech at one of the conventions back in the 90s or early 2000s.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                I saw that speech, and it wasn't that good. With the exception of Reagan, we haven't had a great speaker in a long while in the White House, though Clinton was at least serviceable.

                1. wareagle   12 years ago

                  isn't that what Monica said about Bill?

            2. Dweebston   12 years ago

              ProL, I think it's less his being black than his being top of the Democratic heap in 2008. He's not a Republican, and from what I can tell, that's the only qualification TEAM BLUE cared or cares about.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                It's weird, but I think there's something to that. The left in the U.S. is definitely poised to accept the F?hrerprinzip. If not totally with Obama, it'll happen soon enough if things keep trending the way they are.

                1. Paul.   12 years ago

                  F?hrerprinzip

                  Gesundheit.

              2. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

                Definitely a big part of that. The Clinton White House was Camelot after all. He got just as much oral from the msm. I do think they've piled the shit a little bit deeper because he's black though. They love to gloat about how not racist they are by being condescendingly racist.

      2. wareagle   12 years ago

        because when he says something unambiguous, like the red line comment, it does not go well. It forces him to have to do something.

    7. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      Obama's hallmark as a politician has been an ability to preserve his options through a calibrated rhetorical ambiguity, a style that has infuriated opponents (John McCain likened debating him to "nailing Jell-O to a wall"), but gave him the flexibility to react quickly to changes in circumstance.

      So, being a lying shitweasel is a virtue?

  7. Corning   12 years ago

    "How can you do nothing!?!?!?"

    Easy. I can do nothing when everything else I can do will either not help or make the situation worse.

    1. Paul.   12 years ago

      Sometimes letting a fire burn itself out is the best option.

  8. Paul.   12 years ago

    Matt Welch Opposes Syria Intervention on CNN

    Why would the Syrians want to intervene on CNN, and is Matt Welch fighting the Syrians all by himself?

    1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

      I laughed.

    2. The DerpRider   12 years ago

      Is it pay per view?

    3. LibertarianChad   12 years ago

      LOL

    4. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

      My money is on Matt.

  9. Francisco d Anconia   12 years ago

    Why does everyone "feel" the need to say how horrible this is at the beginning of every statement?

    "Yes, this is horrible, BUT..."

    Am I the only person who truly doesn't give a shit what these idiots do to each other? I don't know them. I don't know the situation. I don't care if they kill each other with gas, guns, knives, forks, spoons or tickle torture. I really do not care. It doesn't affect me, my family, my country in the slightest.

    I guess I'm just a heartless bastard.

    1. wareagle   12 years ago

      yes, you are heartless but no, you are not the only not giving a shit. Four o'clock meeting of the heartless brigade coming up .

    2. Mainer2   12 years ago

      It's just a rhetorical tic to justify what "we" need to do about the situation. And by "we", they mean someone else.

      Doug Stanhope on Nationalism :

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPDT5qHtZ4

      1. Paul.   12 years ago

        To the collectivist, "we" always means "you".

  10. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

    I would be curious to see just how this notion of "humane intervention" would have altered history if applied to other Civil Wars (namely, if the English had decided that slavery was a great moral evil and required some "humane intervention").

    And I notice that no one is in a huge fucking rush to invade Colombia, Uganda or Somalia and straighten out their civil wars for them.

    1. AlmightyJB   12 years ago

      Already did Somalia which was a huge success. I'd be surprised if we don't have at least some spec ops in Columbia. Ugandans are Black.

  11. LarryA   12 years ago

    I notice no one's even bothering to bring up the "brief and restrained" BS.

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

The App Store Freedom Act Compromises User Privacy To Punish Big Tech

Jack Nicastro | 5.8.2025 4:57 PM

Is Shiloh Hendrix Really the End of Cancel Culture?

Robby Soave | 5.8.2025 4:10 PM

Good Riddance to Ed Martin, Trump's Failed Pick for U.S. Attorney for D.C.

C.J. Ciaramella | 5.8.2025 3:55 PM

Trump's Tariffs Are Already Raising Car Prices and Hurting Automakers

Joe Lancaster | 5.8.2025 2:35 PM

Trump's Antitrust Enforcer Says 'Big Is Bad'

Jack Nicastro | 5.8.2025 2:19 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!

Notifications