As most informed Americans know, in the summer of 2012, President Obama warned the Syrian government not to use poison gas on the opposition rebel force involved in the civil war in that country. He explicitly stated that using poison gas would “cross a red line” and result in dire consequences for the government of Syria.
Unfortunately, the President left the threat at that, “you had better not do it.” He did not go to Congress and get Constitutional authorization to engage the Syrian government with U.S. armed forces if that line was crossed.
He did not explain his rationale and reasoning for his threat to the American people to get their support for yet another military conflict in the Middle East.
He did not go to the United Nations to get the international community behind his threat.
He did not rally America’s allies to support him in any military operation against the Syrian government.
He did not use diplomacy with Syrian allies such as Russia and China to leverage their pull with the Syrian government to prevent the use of poison gas.
Bottom line is he made the red line threat and did NOTHING to back it up. He played a lot of golf, he had a lot of lavish vacations, etc. but he did not do the necessary detailed work to provide the back up to what is turning out to be an idle threat.
As a result, he is now faced with making good on the red line threat without Congressional support so far, without the American people supporting his threat, without the legal backing of the United Nations, with virtually no support from our allies to support a military operation, and getting no support from Syria’s allies.
He has put himself and the country out on a very thin limb in the eyes of the world. If he does not back up the threat, he looks weak. If he does back up the threat, he risks making the U.S. look like the neighborhood bully, more people will likely die, more American taxpayer wealth will be wasted, and his lack of planning will result in another useless and expensive U.S. military excursion into the Middle East. None of the previous excursions did any good and there is no reason to believe that this one will do any good either.
We will explore the many, many reasons why this Obama adventure makes no sense from a bunch of different perspectives and reasons from various sources and experts over at least the next two days. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail in Congress and no authorization for military use is approved for the President, for the myriad of reasons listed below.
1) A September 5, 2013 article from Newsmax, summarized the latest public opinion findings relative to our use of our military in Syria to punish the Syrian government for the alleged use of poison gas on its citizens:
- According to an ABC News/ Washington Post poll from August 28-September 1, 59% of Americans oppose U.S. missile strikes, even when told of the administration's belief that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to kill an estimated 1,429 civilians.
- Only 36% of those surveyed support retaliatory strikes.
- Another 70% oppose the United States and its allies supplying weapons to the Syrian rebels.
- The findings in the poll of 1,012 adults are consistent across party lines.
- The poll also determined that people are less opposed to action in Syria if the U.S. is joined by allies. 46% of those surveyed would support allied air strikes, while 51% would still oppose them. Great Britain, however, has already voted against air strikes.
It looks like no matter you cut the feeling in America, the majority of the country does not want to get stuck in another no win military situation in Syria. When Bush foolishly invaded Iraq, he had a large majority of the country supporting him at the beginning and it was still a failure. Going into the Syria problem without the backing of most of America is not a good position for the President to be in.
2) Let’s stay with what the American public is saying about U.S. military intervention in Syria but look at it through the eyes of the twitter and social media accounts of Washington politicians, not just an opinion survey:
- Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, tweeted, “Calls and emails from my constituents is 100 to 1 AGAINST getting involved in Syria. The American people are speaking.”
- Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said 99 percent of the calls his office oppose an attack.
- Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said, “Constituents who have contacted my office by phone or mail oppose action in Syria 523-4 so far.”
- Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted, “My phones are blowing up, and an overwhelming amount of constituents oppose U.S. military intervention in Syria.”
- Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., tweeted, “Syria constituent calls 489-2 against.”
- Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.V., said of “about 1,000 calls to my office, maybe 5 are for.”
- Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said calls and emails to his offices are 600 to 9 against striking Syria.
- Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., tweeted, “I received 225 emails via www.griffin.house.gov website over the weekend regarding Syria, and out of the 225 only 3 support U.S. military action against Syria.”
- Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, said he is getting swamped with phone calls and on-the-street comments from constituents telling him to oppose a strike on Syria.
- Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, “I’m told the phone calls are 9 out of 10 against a strike in Syria, from my constituents in Kentucky.”
- Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas: “I have received hundreds of calls and letters from constituents expressing strong opposition.”
- Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tweeted, “My office has been inundated with constituent phone calls and emails about Syria. Virtually unanimous opposition to military intervention.”
- Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, tweeted, “So far about 500 emails regarding Syria. 499 say NO and 1 say YES go to war” and “Hundreds of calls to our Provo and Washington, D.C., office. So far not a single call in favor of bombing Syria.”
- Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted, “The phones in my office are ringing off the hook and mail is flowing in. Almost all of the people are opposed to intervention in Syria.”
- Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, tells WND his office is hearing the same overwhelming opposition to intervention.
- Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said, “I don’t know a member of Congress whose e-mails and phone calls are in favor of [bombing Syria.]”
- Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., said 96 percent of his emails and phone calls are from constituents who want to express their opposition to military action. He said, “Overwhelmingly, we are hearing pushback from our citizens against military intervention in Syria.”
- Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said he’s heard no support from his constituents for striking Syria: “I have not had a single person, not a single person, in over 92 Facebook posts just a little while ago in a question we posed, having a single constituent or a South Carolinian saying let’s go to war in Syria.”
- Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said “a very high percentage” of the constituents contacting his office have been against U.S. involvement in Syria. He estimated that 90 percent of more than 1,000 calls and emails from Americans have been urging him not to support intervention.
- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said, “I can tell you that in my office, the phones are bopping off the hook there. And almost unanimously people are opposed to what the president is talking about.”
- Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., told the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing he and his constituents say “not just no, but heck no!” to Syria intervention.
- Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted, “I’ve been hearing a lot from members of our armed forces. The message I consistently hear: Please vote no on military action against Syria.”
Democrats and Republicans, House of Representatives people and Senators, from Florida to Washington state, the message is brutally clear of those citizens taking the time to weigh in on this very serious matter: Americans do not support military intervention in Syria. Period.
At least Americans understand that this effort is fruitless and will make a bad situation worse. It will be interesting to see if the members of Congress take this mandate to heart and deny the President Constitutional authority to launch an ill advised, just plain stupid and useless, military attack.
3) One of the sad things about just about anything the American political class does is to take action without understanding what unintended consequences may occur. Syria and Obama’s idle threat are no different. In an interview on September 4, 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated the potential for two unintended consequences if Obama attacks Syria.
First, he indicated that if we do attack Syria, Russia would provide missile defense hardware to Syria and other near by countries to protect them from subsequent U.S. military attacks. Second, he also indicated that Russia would replace any military equipment destroyed by a U.S. attack.
Great planning, Mr. President. Looks like you could be starting another Cold War environment with Russia for no military, security, or international gain. Given that Obama has made it clear that any attack would be short and small and he has given the Syrians twelve months warning to secure their military apparatus, any damage our missiles do will likely be minimal and not anything close to a knock out punch.
We will leave the Syrian government intact and likely stronger and more belligerent, with any damaged military hardware replaced by Russia, with a new missile shield to protect against any future attack, and make the U.S. look like a fool. You cannot make up this insanity.
4) Staying with the Russians for a moment, they have compiled a 100-page report detailing what it says is evidence that Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, were behind a deadly sarin gas attack in an Aleppo suburb earlier this year. They also claim that the United Nations is also leaning the same way, that the rebels and not the government released the gas.
Now, Russia is not an uninterested bystander in this affair. Syria buys a lot of stuff from Russia and Russia’s only Mediterranean port is in Syria. It has a lot to lose if the regime changes in Syria. But given how many lies the Obama administration has told us relative to Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Obama Care, etc., it makes you almost wonder if Russia is actually telling the truth as opposed to the Obama administration telling the truth, for once.
And the Russians are not the only parties making this allegation, although these other parties also have irons in the fire. The most persistent story is that Saudi Arabia provided the poison gas to the rebels, who they side with. And that the rebel forces, who had no experience in dealing with poison gas canisters, accidentally release the gas when handling the canisters.
And consider the logic in the Russians’ position and assertion. The Syrian government was starting to turn the tide against the rebels. With support from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, the rebels were back on their heels. Why would the Syrian government risk U.S. military intervention when they were wining? Makes no sense from a logic perspective unless 1) the Syrian leaders are idiots or 2) the Russians and others are telling the truth as opposed to Obama, Kerry, and others in the administration.
This gets us started down the political class insanity trail as it relates to Syria. More insanity to come, at least for one or two more days, but it may take longer as Congress gets off its five week vacation next week. The bottom line so far is that the American public does not want this military action and the unintended consequences for so very little upside is truly lunacy.
If you are so inclined to agree with this conclusion, please contact your Congressional representatives in Washington as soon as possible and make your voice heard. U.S. military intervention in the Middle East has never worked out and this is no exception. These folks in the Middle East have been fighting amongst themselves for centuries, anything we do militarily will have no positive effects whatsoever.
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