A steady hand on foreign policy

Re “On Islamic State, Obama’s in denial,” Opinion, Nov. 17

Who’s in denial? Jonah Goldberg disingenuously dropped in only the “pop off ” that President Obama used in one of his speeches after the Paris attack by Islamic State. He owes honesty and an apology to his readers.

Obama said this: “Folks [who] pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisors are better than the chairman of my chiefs of staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them.”

That’s the reality of a great, nonpartisan president striving to keep our nation calm, focused and united to do what’s best all around, while a Republican like Goldberg is just stirring that stinking pot of unfocused, war-mongering frenzy among already frenzied Republicans.

When has that ever worked out well?

Julie-Beth Adele

Long Beach

Two pieces in Tuesday’s Times present a fascinating juxtaposition regarding Islamic State.

A piece in the news pages reviews the ideas of the Republican presidential candidates and finds them almost identical with what Obama has been pursuing. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the one clear exception, wants to deploy 10,000 American combat troops.

In contrast, Goldberg criticizes Obama’s recent remarks on Islamic State as insufficiently bellicose and summarizes the president’s foreign policy as a “mess.” One reads on, hoping for a suggestion from Goldberg, but all he has to say on this matter is to discount Donald Trump and Ben Carson as “lacking foreign policy chops” before pivoting to blast Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The absence of any mention of Republican alternative proposals indirectly confirms the premise of the first piece.

Goldberg’s polemic is another example of the reflexive condemnation by Republicans of anything the president says or does.

Cyril Barnert

Los Angeles