Obama to address nation Tuesday: Syria

[Dr Mordrid]

Here we go again....

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affa...#ixzz2eAY2mgwY

President Obama said he will make his case for a military strike on Syria in an address to the nation on Tuesday.
The president announced his intention during a press conference Friday at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he warned that "the Assad regime's brazen use of chemical weapons isn't just a Syrian tragedy."

"Failing to respond to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to rogue nations, authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations that they can develop and use weapons of mass destruction and not pay a consequence," Obama said. "And that’s not the world that we want to live in."
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[Brian Ellis]

Is the man totally deaf? He was asked by several leaders to wait until the UN Inspectors' report is published, even by his staunchest (only?) supporter, François Hollande. Whereas it seems sarin gas was probably used, no one knows for sure the origin. Certainly, the Arab mind is cynical enough to use it so that Assad becomes a scapegoat; if this were the case, any intervention would be to aid the perpetrators (and Al Qaeda)

[Umfriend]

Not only the Arabic mind cynical enough is.

[Dr Mordrid]

But, but - he says our friends the Saudi's will PAY for his Excellent Adventure

This whole "duty to protect" doctrine of Obama, Clinton, Rice and Power needs to be kicked to the kerb.

2011 article on Obama's foreign policy "Valkyries,"

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/americas-foreign-policy-valkyries-hillary-clinton-samantha-p-5047

[cjolley]

This whole "duty to protect" doctrine of Obama, Clinton, Rice and Power needs to be kicked to the kerb.

You can't bring yourself to say anything bad about a Republican president(s) can you. lolz

[UtwigMU]

It's interesting how this thread differs from Iraq threads 10 years ago.

Then Americans here were all cheering. Now it's here we go again.

[paulw]

AS this is another Arab hell hole in a Muslim country why don't the Arab nations sort it out instead of saying to the west , namely the US your sort it. ??

[Brian Ellis]

Even though I would be right in the middle of it, the Americans should flatten from Algeria to Pakistan/Afghanistan, including Israel. Only then would peace arrive in the Middle East.

Roughly all the coloured areas of this map should do it! (Insert tongue-in-cheek smilie here!)

2013-09-08_142339.png

[KRSESQ]

Israel seems to be largely irrelevant to everyone but the Israelis (and Palestinians). They're laying relatively low in this mess (except for that last attack to destroy Hezbollah-bound munitions).

This is all idle speculation, of course. There's no way Congress will give Obama the clearance to take any action. Obama couldn't get a declaration of war out of this Congress if the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This Congress cannot be seen giving Obama anything even remotely resembling a "victory."

(There is the possibility that various captains of industry will pay a little visit to various congresspeople and say "a little war is good for business and the economy is sluggish. If we lose money, we may not be able to finance your re-election campaign." In which case Congress will put on a dramatic show of "just barely" approving a resolution for Obama. It will be interesting to see which transpires.)

We could just lay low ourselves and let the middle-eastern factions bomb and gas each other to extinction (another proxy-war with Russia/China) but that could take decades, and create tens of millions of refugees that threaten to spread the conflict beyond the middle-east.

Such a conflict is probably inevitable at this point, perhaps even overdue. So the real question may be, do we try to do a "controlled burn" on specific targets, or do we just let the wildfire run out of control?

[Dr Mordrid]

You can't bring yourself to say anything bad about a Republican president(s) can you. lolz

The US "duty to protect" policy was developed by Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power - ALL Obama appointees - to justify Libya. Read the National Interest article I linked to (which referenced the Washington Post.) No Republicans involved, though the post-Rwanda UN 'Responsibility To Protect' policy should also get credit for inspiring them.

[Umfriend]

I "think" chuck, like I did, thought you were referring to Condoleeza and Powell (we are forgiving of typo's). THat may also be as the article does not mention "duty to protect", not even "duty". I was not aware the US were still in Libya and, if not, then the article sort of has become pointless and proven wrong.

[Dr Mordrid]

The "duty to protect" term has been used by State Dept. and Obama's press secretary.

USSOCOM forces have been in Libya since the beginning and only started pulling out in the last week or two. So much for Obama's "no boots on the ground" statements, there or in Syria if it blows up.

[cjolley]

Ever think we'd see Putin as Danny Glover and Obama as Mel Gibson?
Putin: "I understand your concerns Assad. But really, my partner is crazy, he's liable to kill all of us. So you just need to give in."