39 Comments
· 6 years ago
I am waiting to hear President Obama describe what vital national interest for the U.S. or one of its allies is at stake in Syria and I am waiting to hear him articulate our political objectives in using military force in Syria. I don't need to hear our (probably classified) military objectives that support those political objectives, but I would love to know that CJCS & SECDEF have briefed the President on them.
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· 6 years agoLot of Brouhaha in this post. Here's a link to a video of Obama clearly laying out the rational for limited military action - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23916637. He basically states that the purpose of a strike against Syria is to send a message to countries such as Syria, Iran, North Korea that use of WMDs would not be tolerated. He makes a good case.-
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· 6 years agoAs Michael argues in this dispatch, "pardon me for not jumping on the bandwagon and arguing in the affirmative." I would have loved to see even a fraction of this much resistance to boots on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan; and here we are only talking about cruise missiles.
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· 6 years agoSorry, Toaster, but "sending a message" that something will "not be tolerated" is about as rational as a mother telling her son that she will tell his father of his misbehavior when he returns home from work. It is as if the President has forgotten that the Boston Bomber and his brother had prepared to kill hundreds if not thousands in Boston a year ago. As if he has forgotten than nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives from terrorists at the New York Twin Towers. Serin gas is odorless and lethal and can kills thousands within moments. For any President to respond with such arrogant puffery to protect his own ego rather than the lives and safety of his fellow Americans is a disgrace.It fails to take into account that for any action, there is a reaction-which will likely open the doors for yet another global war and most definitely for dire consequences for all of us who live stateside.
Guns, missiles, and serin gas are all lifetime commitments with deadly impact and consequence. The US has no business interjecting itself in any civil war-especially when no fewer than 5 neighboring countries have far greater vested interest to protect their own interests in the matter.-
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· 6 years agoOK, I am glad, at least, to see a reason behind the no-go argument. However, nonproliferation is a solid and self-interested reason for a limited strike.
btw - Telling the kids that you tell father when he gets home actually works. :-)-
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· 6 years agoThe big problem with the limited response plan, is that it directly involves the US in a civil war while simultaneously promising to not actually affect the war in any real way. What is the point of "punishing" a war crime with a couple million dollars in damage to a government that has been fighting a civil war for two years? If you are going to seek retribution for war crimes, it should be targeted and severe.
***Entering a war without intending to defeat your announced enemy is stupid.***-
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· 6 years agoQuestion how do you help one enemy in Syria without helping another enemy just as bad or worse then the one you are helping?
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· 6 years agoTelling the kids about father only works if there is an actual father around.
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· 6 years agoIf you want to send a message, use Western Union (yes they are still around). It will cost less than $100 and guaranteed delivery. You could probably even get Assad on the telephone.
The military is not a message delivery service. People die when the military gets involved. Bad people, good people, indifferent people. Just as you don't flash a firearm without the intent to use it, you don't toss in a few missles and then stand back to see what happened.
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· 6 years agoHeadline: "Obama declares National Emergency, then goes golfing"
Journalist Taranto:
Andy Borowitz, resident satirist at The New Yorker, summed it up with the headline “Obama Promises Syria Strike Will Have No Objective.” Here’s his pretend Obama quote: “Let me be clear. Our goal will not be to effect régime change, or alter the balance of power in Syria, or bring the civil war there to an end. We will simply do something random there for one or two days and then leave.”
I've seen all I need to see.-
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· 6 years agoAnd sticking around, flushing flushing hundreds of millions of US dollars into nations building has worked so well :-)
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· 6 years agoOur country is led by President "the buck doesn't stop here"
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· 6 years agoWhat John Kerry would have stated regarding Syrian intervention were he not himself, the epitome of hypocrisy:
In our opinion, and from our experience, there is nothing in Syria, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Syria, Egypt, or Libya by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.
Original Statement: VIETNAM WAR VETERAN JOHN KERRY'S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE, APRIL 22, 1971
In our opinion, and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.-
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· 6 years agoBingo sir. You hit the nail on the head regarding Kerry.
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