- We are not absolutely sure that the Syrian government actually used the poison gas, there are very good reasons and news sources to believe that the rebel forces used the gas, either intentionally or unintentionally.
- A limited and narrow military attack, as proposed by the administration, will not remove Assad from the head of the Syrian government and will not deter him or other tyrants from considering the use of poison gas in the future.
- Over 100,000 Syrians have already been killed as a result of the civil war, the time to act was years ago prior to 100,000 people being needlessly killed. To act now when a relative handful have been killed is way too late to have any positive impact on the ground in Syria.
- Russia has already pledged to replace any military hardware destroyed by a U.S. attack and is considering giving the Syrians an advanced missile defense system. So again, how is a limited U.S. military strike going to do anything to impede the ability of the Syrian government to wage war on its citizens?
The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum and across the country do not want to go to war against Syria, no matter how limited that war is promised to be. Most sensible Americans realize that historical U.S. military activity in the Middle East has NEVER ended well so what makes Obama and others think this will be any different.
Other reasons were put forth for not acting militarily starting at the following post:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/09/political-class-insanity-special.html
Today let’s focus on what people are saying about this disaster waiting to happen, both those in Washington and others outside of Washington who seem to have a better grasp of reality, integrity, and truth telling than those within the Federal government.
1) This fiasco started when President Obama issued a dare/ultimatum to the government of Syria in August, 2012, the now infamous “red line” proclamation: “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”
But just this week the President retreated from this ultimatum, actually claiming that the red line concept was not his, even though he stated it clearly last August: “First of all, I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98% of the world’s population said the use of chemical weapons are [sic] abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use, even when countries are engaged in war.”
Of course you set the red line, Mr. President, you stated it clearly and publicly last year. But we probably should not expect anything different from this President, this individual who would blame anyone else for his shortcomings and the shortcomings of his administration. It was Bush’s fault. It was Congress’ fault. It was the fault of the Japanese tsunami. It was the fault of ATM machines. All of these excuses have been tried by him in the past. This is just another example of him trying to shed blame, impinging his integrity in the process.
So if you are lying about something we are sure you are lying about, how can we trust you and your justifications for going to war when you have lied so many times in the past?
2) Senator John McCain, a big proponent of launching the missiles into Syria, had the following to say relative to the Congressional discussions going on about whether to authorize the President to militarily act: “Now that a resolution is going to be before the Congress of the United States, we want to work to make that resolution something that majorities of the members of both houses could support. A rejection of that, a vote against the resolution by Congress, I think would be catastrophic, because it would undermine the credibility of the United States of America and of the President of the United States. None of us want that.”
Senator, the credibility of the United States is pretty much shot already, given the fact that Obama throw out a dare and then never backed it up with an operational plan.
He did not go to the United Nations to get the world behind his bluff and bluster.
He is trying to get Congress to support him in the eleventh hour, he should have been working the halls of Congress the same day he issued the red line threat a year ago.
Given the opposition by Americans to military action as measured by opinion polls, he certainly did not make his case to the American people.
He did not put diplomatic or economic pressure on Russia, a main Syrian ally, to get the use of chemical weapons made more emphatic to Assad.
He did not make his case to our allies, most of whom understand that military action of the type proposed and the timing are not the right thing to do.
Obama has already done a complete job of killing our credibility as a world leader already, Mr. McCain. Nothing Congress does will make that situation any better. Or have you been too busy playing online poker to notice?
3) No post on quotes would be complete without some factually wrong words out of Nancy Pelosi. Consider her response to a reporters question a few days ago:
Question: If Congress does reject this, can the president proceed if Congress rejects?
Pelosi: I don’t think Congress will reject. But I do want to remind you because the – I’ve been reading some of what some of you have written and say the president has never gone forward if Congress has not approved, when it has taken up the issue. I remind you that in 1999, President Clinton brought us all together, similar to this meeting here, but over a period of time to talk about going into the Balkans and the vote was 213-213, 187 Republicans voted ‘no,’ 180 Democrats voted ‘yes,’ about 30 on each side, something like that, went in a different way than the majority of their party. And that was when the planes were really ready to go into Bosnia [sic]. He went. And you know what happened there. So, I don’t – I don’t think that the congressional authorization is necessary. I do think it’s a good thing. And I hope that we can achieve it.
Pelosi is correct about the House vote, but it occurred five weeks after the military air campaign had already started. Missed the truth on that statement by five weeks, which is pretty good when it comes to the accuracy of her assertions in the past. I bring this up in that it is another case of how and why would we should not trust these people. The President blatantly denies saying something that the we know he said and Pelosi supports her position by just plain saying incorrect things.
4) John Kerry had an interesting time in front of Congress recently when he tried to explain that sending cruise missiles and other military ordinance into Syria is not “war” per se: “We don’t want to go to war in Syria either. It is not what we are here to ask. The President it is not asking you to go to war. He is not asking you to declare war. He is not asking you to send one American troop to war… He is simply saying we need to take an action that can degrade the capacity of a man who has been willing to kill his own people by breaking a nearly 100-year-old prohibition, and will we stand up and be counted to say we won’t do that.”
Sorry, I do not buy it. You cannot declare that blowing up people and things in Syria is not war. If the Syrian government launched a handful of cruise missiles into the United States, you can bet we would call it war. Abraham Lincoln once said:
Question: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?
Answer: Four, just because you call a tail a leg does not make it a leg.
This is not an “action” that the President is proposing, cruise missiles are not used in an action, they are only used in war. Again, the credibility of these people to deny reality or lie about reality knows no bounds.
5) By far, the most elegant, most insightful, and most accurate description and advice for the Syrian situation has come from someone outside of political office. Whether liberals and Democrats want to admit it, Sarah Palin had the best advice for not militarily intervening in the Syrian civil war. Her advice: “Let Allah sort it out.”
These people, Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, and other religious sects have been attacking and killing each other for centuries. Ms. Palin correctly points out that a few cruise missiles fired from a few U.S. warships is not going to change anything within this centuries old quagmire.
6) Finally, let’s close with the views and opinions of Charlie Daniels, long time musician and current Internet blogger. He quite accurately and simply points out why the United States should stay out of the Syrian situation, and does it much more eloquently than the way Obama, Kerry, and others illogically try to justify a military strike.
Best of all, he correctly points out that a slip of a tongue from the President of the United States is the reason we are in this situation and is also a reason not to go forward as Obama would like.
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A Citizen's Take on Syria
Charlie Daniels | September 03, 2013 | 11:27
In my soon to be 77 years as a citizen of the United States of America, having lived through Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the dark days of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Watergate, 9/11 and all the other serious and profound events our beloved nation has been involved in over the last three quarters of a century, I have to say with all sincerity that I have never seen a president as confused, befuddled, impotent, insincere and as out of his depth as Barack Obama has become in dealing with the Syrian issue.
When you're the leader of the free world, you don't make statements you can't back up and you don't draw lines in the sand, watch your enemies cross them with impunity and go off and play a round of golf.
Obama painted himself and the nation into a corner with his “red line” statement and I truly believe he thought he would have unilateral international and domestic support only to find himself standing alone in the spotlight with egg on his face and a ticking political time bomb in his hand.
I don't believe he ever had any intention of going through Congress and only decided to do so when he was left without the support of traditional allies and the disdain of a war weary American public who have begun to feel that America cannot be the international police force who has to bear the brunt of every catastrophe.
I think Obama is taking the vote for military authorization to Congress to bail himself out, to buy some time, somebody to share the blame if all goes wrong. Obama had already positioned war ships. All that was left to do was give the order to fire the missiles and at the 11th hour, after being rejected by the British parliament and put off by the French, he started having second thoughts and reached for the life preserver.
I, for one, am glad that Obama - for whatever reason - political expediency notwithstanding, did not facilitate the missile attack as it would have been largely symbolic and cosmetic and as he had given Assad enough warning to move the weapons out of harms way would have done little if anything to rid the world of chemical weapons.
It's not that I think nothing should be done about weapons of mass destruction no matter where they're used in the world, but I believe it's not just the responsibility of the United States to enforce international law. If the civilized nations of the world shirk this duty, why should they think America should take on the job by itself?
America has done enough "sending signals", symbolic gestures, getting involved in situations that don't threaten our national interests or that of our allies.
America's leaders should guard their tongues well and not issue spur of the moment reactions and empty threats. Our bite should be a lot worse than our bark and a presidential warning should be a dire and solemn caution, issued only once and followed up with swift and decisive action, not some half-baked puff of bravado that nobody really takes seriously.
What little bit of credibility America had in the Middle East just went out the window Friday afternoon, as a president who let his ego overload his common sense backed down from a tin horned dictator of a third world country, or at least that's how it's viewed in that part of the world.
The mettle of a president and the people he surrounds himself with is not proven until push comes to shove. This nation has entered a new phase in the war on terror and our relativity in the rest of the world and the road is going to be long, rocky and dangerous.
It remains to be seen how this embarrassing situation will play out. Will the president seek the council of the more experienced advice available to him in Congress? Or, will he remain defiant and continue to go it alone.
You've cost America a great deal this past week, Mr. President.
How much more can we take?
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Very well said. This has been a very expensive President when it comes to spending and wasting our nation’s credibility on the world stage. All for very little n return.
Although things might change, this will do it for the current review and analysis of the Syrian situation. If you agree with the points we have made over the past four days, please call your Congressional representatives to vote against any authorization to use military force to intervene in a far away civil war that has no national security impacts on our country, despite what many in the Washington political class will try to sell you.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
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http://www.reason.com
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http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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