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I listened to the President's statement today about the inevitable message that will be sent to Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad in the form of Tomahawk cruise missiles that are certain to destroy a number of people not named Bashar Hafez al-Assad. I was listening out of a portion of the corner of one of my two ears, so my brain has no accurate transcription of his remarks, and I am too lazy to look them up. (Plenty of others are busy doing that right now, though, so go read their stupid blogs if you like your disingenuous political speeches to be quoted directly.)
Anyway, there came a point where President North Star asked The World if they were prepared to deal with the consequences of "doing nothing" about Assad's terrifying new way of dealing death to his citizens. I guess this was the President's way of challenging The World to justify the position that a nation should hold its fire until an achievable military objective can be defined and articulated. I suppose the President thinks his question is tantamount to The Riddle Of The Sphinx. It's not, really. One retort might be along the lines of "yeah, conducting chemical warfare violates the norms of 'civilized warfare.' And so does committing an act of war against a sovereign nation that doesn't pose one scintilla of a military risk to the citizens of the United States.
Also, does anyone remember President Peace Prize "sending a message" to the President of the University of California - Davis 2 years ago when her campus dicks waged chemical warfare against peaceful student protestors during the November 2011 Occupy sit-ins?
If the President wanted to "send a message" to Mr. Assad about using chemical warfare against his citizens, why didn't he do that 3 days before the attacks, since US intelligence agencies knew in advance that it was going to happen? Or, at least, why didn't he "send a message" to the intended victims of the gas?
Wait: do US citizens still get to ask rhetorical questions these days?
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well, asking the US Congress to vote on this proposal might have put an end to it. He might as well have dropped it down an 800' well. Now the fun part begins-- watching those assholes eat each other.
ReplyDeleteI'm certain that the Congrefs will give President Peace Prize all the cover he wants to stimulate the aerospace industry at the expense of some people who have no control over the Syrian chemical arsenal. And, anyway, the President will act without their blessing just the same.
DeleteCameron got voted down in a "symbolic" nix-on-tripping-the-quagmire-mine. Expect the same IF it even comes to the floor(s). Should the mood ever change "W" was sure to have 16-18 warnings, of sorts, before pulling the trigger. In true Uncle Sam fashion, slow to anger then allegedly reap the whirlwind -- but that was some distant "then". The risk to being re-elected is too great. As you say, the wider policy context and scenarios are still to be explored. It would appear the conventional options are slim to none and "Slim" just left town. On the asymmetric list (of one's own conjuring), one favorte is area-targetted drone based LSD dosing to weaken his hold on power but not too much. If the one lever for Mr. Become Death The Destroyer is maintaining power - then use it. In his absence no one it seems is ready to let factional battles break out (at least not until a new controllable dictator can be assured).
ReplyDeleteTim L.
I don't count it "slow to anger" when the result is preordained by neocons and AIPAC. And, apropos of the general topic, Secretary Kerry is sounding like his scripts are being written by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Somebody really really wants to rain some indiscriminate death in the general direction of Herr Assad('s hapless innocent subjects).
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