The latest issue of The Economist has taken the 2003 image of former President George Bush in a flight suit and swapped in President Obama’s head for its cover.
Shortly after Bush’s fixed-wing aircraft landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003, the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner marking the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime was displayed. Now The Economist charges that Mr. Obama is the “Mission Relaunched” president.
The magazine asserts that Mr. Obama’s “studious inaction” during the course of Syria’s civil war contributed to the need to send U.S. military personnel back to the region.
“When Syrians rose up against the regime of Bashar Assad, the president stood back in the hope that things would sort themselves out — leaving Mr. Assad free to commit atrocities against his own people. Even when Mr. Assad crossed ’the red line’ of using chemical weapons, the superpower did not punish him. About 200,000 Syrians have died and 10 [million] have been driven from their homes. Denied early American support, the moderate Syrian opposition has fragmented, leaving the field to the ruthless and well-organised IS,” the magazine wrote.
Regardless, The Economist then comes down in support of the president’s military efforts to destroy the Islamic State group.
“Although the mission to stop IS will be long and hard, it is one that no other nation could even contemplate,” The Economist said. “Mr. Obama is right to relaunch it. Now he must see it through. “
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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