No, You Don't Just "Do Something"

Fox News military analyst Ralph Peters, who is a retired lieutenant colonel, called President Obama a "pussy" the other night. No, really:

“Look, Mr. President, we’re not afraid,” Peters responded, apparently recounting his stream of consciousness during Obama’s address. “We’re angry. We’re pissed off. We’re furious. We want to see you react. We want you to do something. You’re afraid. I mean, this guy is such a total pussy it’s stunning.”

Now of course the culturally angry Republicans on the internet cheered this, because he called him a "pussy." You know, tough, or something. That's vile and disgusting, and God forbid I had called Dick Cheney or George W. Bush a "pussy" while they were in office, but you know, President Obama's not American, or some other nonsense like that.

That's not really what I wanted to write about though. If you want to use vulgarity at me, fine, I am a big boy. If you want to say stupid things though, I'll call you out on that. Lieutenant Colonel Peters is talking like an absolute caveman. His statement shows why he shouldn't be on television. It's ignorant.

No, the President of the United States should not just "do something." He should not "react" because it feels good to you. Children do what feels good, responsible adults take into account evidence and briefings, and look for the right decision to be made. The kind of machismo being suggested by Lieutenant Colonel Peters is the same kind of machismo shown by the Bush/Cheney White House, the administration who drug us into the generational disaster known as the Iraq War. That kind of reacting, bombing the hell out of some random place just to say you reacted, does not make things better. President Obama is not bowing to the pressures of angry, ignorant right-wingers who just want to see him kill some Muslims somewhere as a reaction to ISIS. The reason we are now dealing with ISIS was that the last President "reacted" and went into war in a place that had nothing to do with 9/11, and we ended up occupying the nation for the next ten plus years, spending millions of dollars and radicalizing people who weren't previously radicalized.

The right-wing in America wants to be tough, even if that means being stupid. Being tough is not a virtue. Being tough and stupid is a bad thing. I, for one, am glad the President is not taking this guy's advice. Don't be tough. Be smart. Be right. If idiots like this want to call you a "pussy," so be it. In the adult world, insults like that have no meaning.