Posted on 08/26/2013 5:01:56 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
US President Barack Obama has the authority to launch air strikes against Syria. But he has to notify lawmakers in Congress -- a process which has begun, according to both sides.
"The administration is actively consulting with members of Congress, and we will continue to have these conversations in the days ahead," Kerry said Monday in a strongly-worded statement on Syria.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Why Liberals Kill
President Obama to exit Afghanistan. But their heroes—from FDR to JFK—promoted U.S. involvement in more wars than all modern GOP presidents combined.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/10/17/why-liberals-kill.html
It is WAY past time to impeach the entire District of Columbia.
I hope when Syria shoots back, they realize that there are only 9% of us that want war. Please adjust the counterattack towards them.
Another unpaid for war? Over fake WMD’s?
Just wait until Iran and Russia start defending Syria. This is going to get ugly real fast. Do you really trust Bathouse Barry’s Rainbow warriors to succeed?
Wait tell it comes out that syria’s WMD used to be saddam’s WMD ... But the Iraqis snuck ‘em over the border while the French dry humped us in the security council.
Craziness.
We don't know who brought in Chemicals and until we do, we should do nothing.
Let them kill each other off until only the peaceful ones are left standing,
only because there are no peaceful Muslims in the world. And the ones hiding who are
in silence are the fifth column of Islam who will step up when the time is right to
Kill us again. BAH!
I may be alone here, but I am backing this approach. We cannot allow WMDs to be used against the innocent. I don’t care what the left said about W and Iraq. Bush was right, and this is right.
History will call out Obama as a hypocrite over his infamous condemnation of the Iraq invasion.
Assad isn’t using WMDs.
But who used them?
That is the question.
President Obama to exit Afghanistan. But their heroes — from FDR to JFK — promoted U.S. involvement in more wars than all modern GOP presidents combined.
From a very long, very flattering to Obama (yet very stinging) article, from a very liberal Esquire magazine:
The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama - Esquire, by Tom Junod, 2013 May 23
..... You love two things, your family and the law, and you have surrounded yourself with those who are similarly inclined. To make sure that you obey the law, you have hired lawyers prominent for accusing your predecessor of flouting it; to make sure that you don't fall prey to the inevitable corruption of secrecy, you have hired lawyers on record for being committed to transparency. Unlike George W. Bush, you have never held yourself above the law by virtue of being commander in chief; indeed, you have spent part of your political capital trying to prove civilian justice adequate to our security needs. You prize both discipline and deliberation; you insist that those around you possess a personal integrity that matches their political ideals and your own; and it is out of these unlikely ingredients that you have created the Lethal Presidency. You are a historic figure, Mr. President. You are not only the first African-American president; you are the first who has made use of your power to target and kill individuals identified as a threat to the United States throughout your entire term. You are the first president to make the killing of targeted individuals the focus of our military operations, of our intelligence, of our national-security strategy, and, some argue, of our foreign policy. You have authorized kill teams comprised of both soldiers from Special Forces and civilians from the CIA, and you have coordinated their efforts through the Departments of Justice and State. You have gradually withdrawn from the nation building required by "counterinsurgency" and poured resources into the covert operations that form the basis of "counter-terrorism." More than any other president you have made the killing rather than the capture of individuals the option of first resort, and have killed them both from the sky, with drones, and on the ground, with "nighttime" raids not dissimilar to the one that killed Osama bin Laden. You have killed individuals in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, and are making provisions to expand the presence of American Special Forces in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In Pakistan and other places where the United States has not committed troops, you are estimated to have killed at least two thousand by drone. You have formalized what is known as "the program," and at the height of its activity it was reported to be launching drone strikes in Pakistan every three days. Your lethality is expansive in both practice and principle; you are fighting terrorism with a policy of preemptive execution, and claiming not just the legal right to do so but the legal right to do so in secret. The American people, for the most part, have no idea who has been killed, and why; the American people — and for that matter, most of their representatives in Congress — have no idea what crimes those killed in their name are supposed to have committed, and have been told that they are not entitled to know. This is not to say that the American people don't know about the Lethal Presidency, and that they don't support its aims. They do. They know about the killing because you have celebrated — with appropriate sobriety — the most notable kills, specifically those of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki; they support it because you have asked for their trust as a good and honorable man surrounded by good and honorable men and women and they have given it to you. In so doing, you have changed a technological capability into a moral imperative and have convinced your countrymen to see the necessity without seeing the downside. Politically, there is no downside. Historically, there is only the irony of the upside — that you, of all presidents, have become the lethal one; that you, of all people, have turned out to be a man of proven integrity whose foreign and domestic policies are less popular than your proven willingness to kill, in defense of your country, even your own countrymen ... indeed, to kill even a sixteen-year-old American boy accused of no crime at all. ..... < snip > ..... The Lethal Presidency — and the Lethal President — wants us to know that killing is hard. It has spent months telling us this story because there is another story, a counterstory voiced off the record by administration members and confirmed by everything human beings have learned about killing in their bloody history: That killing individuals identified as our enemies isn't hard at all. That it's the easiest thing humans — particularly humans in power — can do. ..... < snip > ..... But here's something simpler, and more human. You have made sure that you will not be the only Lethal President. You have made sure that your successor in the White House will also be a Lethal President, as well as someone somewhere else in the world. What if the next Lethal President is not as good and as honorable as you? What if he is actually cruel or bloodthirsty? What if he turns out to be — like you, Mr. President — just a man? ..... < snip > Sure, we as a nation have always killed people. A lot of people. But no president has ever waged war by killing enemies one by one, targeting them individually for execution, wherever they are. The Obama administration has taken pains to tell us, over and over again, that they are careful, scrupulous of our laws, and determined to avoid the loss of collateral, innocent lives. They're careful because when it comes to waging war on individuals, the distinction between war and murder becomes a fine one. Especially when, on occasion, the individuals we target are Americans and when, in one instance, the collateral damage was an American boy. ..... < snip >
Oh, and it's also so nice to know that the NSA, IRS and who knows who else in the Obama administration are not "spying on Americans", unlike what the "evil" George W. Bush did.
I have seen "Obama 2008" and "Obama 2012" stickers and signs gone from the cars and yards after IRS and NSA scandals broke. I guess that's an informal "poll" I can trust about the cumulative disenchantment of former "true believers".
It is a question. Not a relevant one if the targets of U.S. intervention are known. In my opinion, there are no “good guys” at this point. There are women and children being killed with CW, and I cannot stomach that. If Obama is resolute in this, and attacks who he thinks is responsible, I will support him. Damn lot better than he deserves though given his criticisms of W and the surge. But our soldiers carrying out the mission and the U.S. standing in the world is far more important than him. Be
sides, how badass will it be to say “In America, our peace prize winners will blow you away!!!”
in a fashion reminiscent of "Ghengis Kahn"
Of course, it's relevant. We've no business intervening on the side of the rebels if they are the ones who used the CW.
There are women and children being killed with CW, and I cannot stomach that.
Can you stomach women and children being killed with rifles and machetes?
The jihadi rebels seem particularly prone to massacres -- especially the Aliwite and Christian minorities.
I get you. Rifles/machetes=use of WMD. Moving along.
“We cannot allow WMDs to be used against the innocent”
And -IF- WMDs were actually used, how are you so sure WHO used them? Ask yourself, who benefits? The Syrian government was winning, and the Al Qeida Christian murdering rebels were told “a gas attack will bring the USA in on their side. And presto, we get a gas attack!
This “gas attack” is propaganda right up there with Germans bayoneting Belgian babies in WWI, and Iraqis throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait. All fake, designed to get us into the war.
And remember, Benghazi was a CIA weapons running operation to give weapons to the Syrian rebels. The Libyans had a huge chemical stockpile. There are too many lies here to simply say “people were gassed”, and wade into a senseless Islamic civil war.
“how badass will it be to say “In America, our peace prize winners will blow you away!!!””
One side is busily murdering Christians and is flying the flag of Al Qeida, the same people who blew up the world trade center on 9/11.
On the other side is an authoritarian Israel hating moslem dictator aligned with Hezbollah and the Iranians.
Which side should the US Navy help out so you can feel macho? Which side will be the new friend of America?
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