Well…here comes the new meme of the day from the right wing wingnuts…that because Obama got Syria to give up it’s chemical weapons without firing a shot, it makes him look weak and because he is weak (in their minds), he now will go along with defunding Obamacare. What the hell planet are these nuts living on? In any rational mind (which means none on the right), getting what you want through talking and diplomacy is much preferable to using military force and killing a bunch of innocent civilians…but the right thinks that there is only one response to any crisis…bomb them! But, the funny thing here that exposes the pure, unadulterated hatred the right has for Obama is that they were for bombing Syria until Obama came out for it…then, they immediately changed to be opposed to it….I, for one, feel that diplomacy was and is the right choice in this situation, that there is nuance and subtlety that can work wonders if you have an administration that understands it. That does not describe ole Gw’s time in office…they had an outcome they wanted and then faked the info until they had a reason to attack….something that still should subject those folks to the law….I can’t wait to see how this one plays out…geez…
Tag Archives: Syria
I was right….
Well…if you look back a few days, you will see my take on what should be done on Syria…basically to use diplomacy to twist some arms and throw around a few rewards to get this problem solved without using the military…and, guess what? That’s just what Obama and Kerry have been doing getting Russia to put some pressure on Syria to give up their chemical weapons to international supervision without a shot being fired…but I do think the idea of the war talk and Obama twisting some arms in congress to get the authorization really did put Assad on notice that the game was up and that there was going to be change…maybe this is the eleventy dimension chess that some on the left think Obama is capable of…I’m not sure if that is what happened here, but it appears we are farther from attacking than we were a week ago and that is progress in my book….geez…
What’s wrong with diplomacy?
Well…have been thinking about cleaning my bathroom but this looked easier so I’ll give this a try…one of the questions that I have with this whole Syria nonsense is “what’s wrong with diplomacy?” When did our entire foreign policy devolve into using military force for everything? What is wrong with talking to the world about it and trying to find a diplomatic solution? We used to do a good bit of “horse trading” to get what we want with the use of the military being the last resort…I think it would be a good idea to try that for a while and not be in such a hurry to bomb everything in sight…it’s like the old saying ” when you are a hammer, everything you see is a nail”…..so, let’s talk for a while…Syria isn’t going anywhere….geez…
No on Syria…
Well…with all of the wrangling that is being done on whether or not to attack Syria, I think we need to remember the results of our interventions over the past 20 years or so…in no particular order, just as I think of them…starting with Iraq…after a trillion dollars and thousands of Americans dead, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis…we still have half failed state with hundreds of people dying every day and little prospects for it to be better…then we have Libya….one of the places that seem to have fallen off the media’s map lately…a completely failed state with gangs of terrorists killing and maiming at will since the central government doesn’t have the power to do anything about it…Afghanistan…outside of the American controlled areas, the Taliban and other warlords are still in control and are just waiting for us to leave so they can re-impose their crazy brand of Islam on the country and continue to murder women and children….do I need to go on? I think sometimes we just need to let things play out and not play world police…these folks have been killing each other for thousands of years before the US even existed and there is nothing anyone has ever been able to do to make them stop….geez…
Not sure what to do…
Well…as you can probably tell…I have been struggling with a case of writers block or whatever it is when the ideas just don’t come…but, with over 2500 of these done, that just doesn’t make sense. I did want to comment on Syria a little bit…I do like the idea that there are some deliberations going on instead of just the knee-jerk use force reaction that has passed for foreign policy lately…not sure where it is going, though, when the WH says that they are not bound by any decision of congress…weird…why do it then?
The true nature of the repubs in Texas was clarified over the weekend when they refused to sign their LGBT National Guard up for the benefits that the Pentagon has said they qualify for after the demise of DOMA….basically saying that the bigoted hatred of gays trumps the service that these soldiers have done…so, the next time anyone on the right says they support the troops, think “they support the troops if they are heterosexual” and tell them to go to hell…okay…not feeling it right now so I am going to go and then come back later for more…I am one down already for the month…
Good move on Syria…
Well…finally got to the last one for the month…wanted to get it done before the Michigan game comes on in a half hour…I find the president finally doing the right thing on Syria…going to congress for approval even though this congress hates him…this move will do a couple of things that I like..first, it takes away the right’s ability to criticize him for any decision he makes…either getting them on board to agree with any attack…or, Obama will be able to use their refusal for cover and not attack…either way the politics works well for him since the left really wants the government to work like it’s supposed to with the branches doing their jobs…and, if refused, he can blame the right for being wimps and not supporting the necessary use of force…whichever, it is a win/win…but I really do hope there is no attack without the UN being involved…we need to stop all this world policing to repair our standing in the world…
It’s Europe’s turn…
Well…after listening to the increasing drumbeat for war in Syria, one thing came to me that has not been mentioned much, other than on Kos…why are we so hot on attacking Syria and footing the bill for the whole thing? If you look at it with a non-neocon eye, you can see that Europe has at least as large of a GDP as the US does but even more to the point is that the conflict in Syria and the effects of the refugee crisis to come is going to affect Europe much more that it will us. I know that this has been a humanitarian crisis long before the use of chemical weapons and they are being used as an excuse for a bombing campaign, but there are many, many humanitarian crises across the globe…what makes this different? This is a question that no one has answered yet…what about the Arab league? Why can’t these folks do something? All I can say is that there are many other actors who should be involved before the US and I think it is time for them to step up and take some responsibility for their own region…let’s give our military the rest it has earned….12 years of constant war is just too much for our soldiers to bear.
No more war…
Well…here we go again….more and more and more war and now here we go into Syria…haven’t we had enough of this crap? When did it become our responsibility to police every country in the world? And, what benefit is it to the world or to us? Governments have been killing their own citizens since there were countries, even before, so why now? What is the difference between Syria and Rwanda where almost a million people were killed? We did nothing in Rwanda, what makes Syria different? The sick thing here is that we have the same people who advocated going into Iraq cheerleading attacking Syria; the same old group of chicken hawks who think that it an affront to the US if every country in the world doesn’t do what we say…and then spout “democracy” out of the other side of their mouths. I have had enough of spending trillions for this nonsense while people go hungry here and the country crumbles as we spend more, and more, and more on the military. One last thing, what made chemical weapons the bright line trigger point? The Syrian government has killed almost 40,000 of it’s citizens in this civil war and many, many thousands more in its secret prisons and we continued to give them aid until last year…how do you justify this hypocrisy? I am tired…just so tired of this continual war and the war profiteers that fan the flames with their lobbyists…when does it end?