Posted on 03/25/2013 6:14:38 AM PDT by SkyPilot
The Democratic chairman and a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee called on President Barack Obama today to conduct air strikes in Syria and help establish a “safe haven” for opposition groups.
Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan and Senator John McCain of Arizona cited reports of chemical weapons used in Syria in urging Obama to take military action.
“We write to express our strong belief that it is in our national security interest to take more active steps, together with our friends and allies in the Middle East and Europe, to stop the killing in Syria and force Bashar al-Assad to give up power,” the senators wrote in a letter to Obama.
The United Nations today said it will investigate Syrian government claims that rebels used a chemical weapon.
“The potential use of chemical weapons only makes the case for greater action more compelling and urgent,” Levin and McCain said...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Just wow.
Congress and the President just cut $46 Billion from the military, in the middle of a fiscal year. Most of that money has to come from Operations and Maintenance accounts, that even with the appropirations bill passed is still bleeding profusely.
The US Navy is over 50% short of current Operations and Maintenance funds.
The Pentagon cannot even make payroll.
DoD furloughs to begin April 26, with almost no exceptions
The furlough announcements have been delayed for about another week, but they are a 100% certainty.
Congress, however, continues to call on the US military to perform all of its current worldwide missions, including stepping up efforts on the volatile Korean border and the on-going war in Afghanistan. Now they are calling for military intervention in Syria.
Congress has gone insane, and that includes Republicans. They bragged about how they "saved" Tuition Assistance for our warriors in the latest budget bill. It turns out Congress have zero extra money to continue this benefit for our troops - they were embarrassed it was cut by Sequestration so they simply insisted it not be cut!
Note to Congress and Obama: either end Sequestration for the DoD, or stop asking the US military to save your bacon. Pick a color.
Let Russia have Syria.
Stay out of Syria unless you want to lead the way...
If that were concerned about that then they would ask the US and NATO to stop arming and financing the Al Qaeda foreign mercenaries that are beheading Christians and blowing up Churches in Syria.
No wars. They have been a waste of time and lives. Everywhere we have been in the last 15 years has ended up as a loss due to bad policy.
Not to mention that you cannot have a president who would abandon his people and leave them to die, like in Benghazi, as a CIC in wartime.
Another very poor Muslim craphole where they will hate us for ‘helping’ them?
Over and over?
If these clowns were investment advisors they would call for buying up a toxic waste-dump to build housing developments on.
Before the present war and after the Israelis struck the Syrian nuclear facility, Russia installed a first-rate anti-aircraft system. That system is run by Russian ships in the Persian Gulf. This system is probably still in place. So, bombing Syria would send American jets into the teeth of a first-rate anti-aircraft defense. The alternative would be to strike or electronically disable Russian manned ships. If this is done electronically, assuming we can, then it allows the Russians to develop a defense against the jamming without gaining anything worth the technology loss.
The US needs to stay far away from the Middle East. We have no coherent policy that’s worth investing American lives or treasury in.
I absolutely despise Assad. He is an anti-Christian, anti-Jewish thuggish tyrant with no redeeming features. However, I have been unable to identify even one opposition figure who is not even worse. Exactly what would we be attempting to accomplish by bombing whomever Levin and McCain want bombed, beyond allowing our enemies to take power and more easily blame all the dead on Americans and Zionists?
# 1 - John McCain is a maniac.
# 2 - John McCain is a maniac.
# 3 - Levin is an idiot.
LEAVE IT ALONE. ITS NOT OUR FIGHT! Hleping one bunch of sun-baked Islamic Fanatics wipe out another bunch of sun-baked fanatics DOESN’T help US!!!
Look at Iraaq, Iran and Libya!!! Also Serbia - except in THAT case we helping MUSLIMS wipe out CHRISTIANS!!!!
ARE WE ALL NUTS???
The more Muslims wipe out EACH OTHER, the better off the world is!
I’m still trying to find out the difference between “fiscal cliff” and “sequester.” Can any freeper explain this nonsense in 25 words or less?
Exactly.
Nor can you nation build with a bunch of savages. There is no good side in Syria.
No matter the country, McCain and Levin support al Qaeda
against anyone.
WHY WILL THEY NEVER LEARN?
WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY REALLY ON?
We need to stay out of it.Remember we need to save all our money so the moron and the other free loaders in his family can stay on vacation..They have more places they can spend our money..
This administration is taking all of Americas resources, sending them to the middle east in the form of aid, and building a muslim caliphate to surround Israel. In order for oboma to destroy Israel, he has to take the restrainer, the U.S., out of the way so it cannot protect Israel militarily.
Remember, oboma was born a muslim, raised a muslim, went to a Wahhabist school (home of Al Quita) in Indonesia, and sat on writes anti-white, anti-Jew church for 20 years. THIS is a look into the mind of oboma. This is what oboma has been taught all his life. It's all he knows.
According the the muslims, oboma is the man they've been waiting for.
Never mind what he says he's doing. LOOK at what he's doing.
I think it’s all theater - and third rate one at that.
"My ears went up when I read this one – not since WWII have the U.S. and British senior military staffs met en masse like they will Monday, March 25th. Let the speculation begin as to what the real purpose of this session might be and what anticipated event might have necessitated it...."
How about we intervene and save every persecuted Christian first.
Then we can go save the Iranian Mullah’s friends in Syria.
Perhaps the rumors of Assad’s assassination were meant to create chaos in Syria to the point where intervention could be presented as a logical solution.
Shaking my head.
Like most sane people, I have no love for Assad or his thugs. But also like most sane people, I know what McCain and Levin are proposing is madness. Leaving aside what a successful rebellion might bring down the pike, the sheer logistics of what these two are proposing is daunting.
Syria isn’t Libya. The Syrian military is far larger and far better equipped than Qadaffi’s boys were. Moscow has also sold the Syrians some of the very best air defense systems they are willing to export. While Syrian air defenses have been successfully penetrated before, the task has never been an easy one, and it would almost surely require an air campaign on the scope of Desert Storm to grind down the current Syrian military.
Where are we going to get the money, the manpower, and the allies to do all of that? And if the air campaign fails to stop Assad, what next? A land war? Syria probably has at least 300-400 thousand loyal troops still under arms. More might flock to Assad’s side if westerners intervene (the Iraqis didn’t love us much as we thought they would in 2003, after all). No thanks.
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