Seven weeks into his presidency, senile Joe Biden surprised many by calling in a Syria air strike.
It was puzzling, given that there seemed to be no immediate threat. And that's just for starters.
It was billed as a strike on pro-Iran militants stationed in the region, and in retaliation for an earlier strike of theirs against a U.S. installation. That seems a little eyebrow-raising, given Biden's eagerness to make nice with the mullahs. Even that explanation has skeptics who call the whole thing laughable.
What's vivid is that questions are being raised about whether Joe really made the call.
First, note that his vice president, Kamala Harris, was kept out of the loop. According to a report citing a White House official, she's said to be steaming that nobody told her before it happened. And she's probably more steamed to learn that that news got out, advertising for everyone that her giggly round-heeled self is viewed, even in the Biden White House, as a lightweight.
But we already knew that.
What's also news is that on more than one occasion, she's publicly opposed attacking Syria. Here's her famous tweet everyone's retweeting, exposing her supposed (in this case) hypocrisy:
So,
questioned the legitimacy of US strikes on Syria.
said the legal rationale is bunk. Still waiting for my reporter colleagues to ask...
But there's reason to think that to the extent that she thinks about such things, she's against them. Here's her November statement to an Arab news outlet, the Arab American News, as reported by Middle East Memo:
Speaking about the broader Middle East, Harris said that in Syria a Biden-led administration "will once again stand with civil society and pro-democracy partners in Syria, and help advance a political settlement where the Syrian people have a voice".
Yet suddenly, he did it.
With all these factors put together, it almost sounds as if someone other than Joe actually made the call.
Who was it? It was someone inside the Biden administration, to be sure. Maybe Lloyd Austin, his defense secretary focused on white supremacy in the military? Gonna say no — he's not interested in military matters, he's into social justice warrioring, although he also has ties to Raytheon, which makes the missiles. Call that somewhat possible.
But perhaps more than that, look to the only other people who could be calling the shots. Those are the former Obama officials: Susan Rice, Ron Klain, Jake Sullivan, et al. NPR notes that in the Biden cabinet, only four of its 16 officials (all non-white people) are new faces, all apparently brought in for racial "balance"; the other 12 (nearly all white) are Obama administration retreads. Former Obama éminence grise Valerie Jarrett publicly gave Biden her approval for his Cabinet "diversity." Nice doggie, you see.
And of those Obama backwashes, nearly all of them are within the national security establishment. Susan Rice, in addition, is the domestic affairs adviser, but her expertise is national security. Could it be that in all this, Obama is calling the shots?
Obama, recall, has always had contempt for Biden. He's never invited him to his private quarters in eight years of side-by-side working, and he tried to dissuade Biden from even running. During the primaries, he withheld his endorsement for Biden and privately told aides: "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f--- things up."
Could Obama at least be seeding the decisions now flowing out of the White House? It seems like it — a strange unseen power controlling our national security while never showing his face. This is a little scary, given the kinds of consequences that can flow from overseas bombing runs on other sovereign states who also have allies. Is Obama the Mighty Integral that might be calling the shots as Biden declines mentally? He might be, because, sure enough, Biden is surrounded by his people.
The pathetic thing in all this is that Biden still thinks Obama loves him.
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