Lowry and Cohen each had an editorial published in the New Orleans Advocate of 10/15/14 and both continued the ditto head negative comments that conservative journalists and the republican party have joined together to find fault with any thing coming out of the Obama administration. Its the same old negative drum beat since the Newt Gingrich era.
Lowry's editorial concerns the study by the Department of Defense that bans the sale of cigaretts, cigars and chewing tobacco on bases and ships. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel has spoken favorable of the idea, citing health care costs according to Lowry. The conservative columnist then goes off the deep end and suggest that the study would lead to a ban on smoking by the military in combat and in off base situations.
Lowry points out correctly that military life lends itself to smoking but gets one of the reasons wrong why military people smoke when he cites :mind numbing boredom." As a Marine who smoked while on active duty I can say two things for sure. (1) There is no such thing as "boredom" in the Marine Corps and (2) the Department of Defense will never ban smoking for our GI's especially those in combat and or those who are off base and serving their country. Lowry seems to know very little about the military but that does not stop him from taking a huge leap from a study in progress to his own warped conclusions.
Cohen's editorial accused President Obama of lacking menace" which is the conservative code work for "lacking toughness" concerning those events taking place around the world today and especially in the middle east. He tries to relate the President's lack of "menace" to Iran having a fully functional nuclear weapons program and if he would join Israel and striking Iran's facilities and bombing it to smithereins. He then answers his stupid question by saying Obama would not and would stall and equivocate.
When it comes to Iran's nuclear activities we know the following. Most of their progress had been made on the watch of President George W. Bush, the tough talking President. On Obama's watch, international inspectors have inspected Iran's nuclear facilities and are still on their property now while talks are moving forward and the U.S. and the world know more now than they ever did about Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Cohen then really gets into fairy tale mode when he tries to compare how President Gerald Ford handled Viet Nam to how Obama is handling the ISIS matter. And of course, like a good conservative ditto head he does not thinkPresident Obama is enough of a "menace" to ISIS. History has already told us that President Bush's tough talk on Iraq, created Al Queda in Iraq and paved the way for ISIS and their followers. Bush's tough talk also had no affect on the terriorists who carried out the attacks on America on 9/11. I guess they did not think Bush was much of a "menace."
Conservative journalists like the conservatives in congress will never let up on their attacks on the President or give him any credit for his accomplishments. People who are small of character never do. They want to see the President fail in the middle east just like they want to see him fail domestically. They also want to see American combat troops in Iraq fighting a ground war once again. Bush told the people it was Saddam and his military that was a threat to America. But it was Al Queda in Iraq and other terrorist groups that entered Iraq after the invasion that was responsible for inflicting most of the casualties on our men and women in uniform
Now Cohen thinks the U.S. can control events in the middle east if only Obama was a "menace." The President has dealt with the many fires left to him and has done a pretty good job. The country's best course of action is political understanding and wisdom, not some precieved "menace." Rich Lowry and Richard Cohen would do better if they would write an editorial of the positive accomplishments of the Obama administration but don't hold your breath, their conservative ideology will not allow that to happen.
This commentary written by John Lucia
