Senators demand Obama's Syria strategy (Tom Cotton joins Fiorina on no-fly zones)

The Hill ^ | 10/2/15 | Kristina Wong

[jimbo123]

Senators are calling on President Obama to clarify his strategy on Syria, after Russia ignored repeated U.S. warnings and began bombing rebel groups there this week to shore up the Assad regime.

-snip-

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the administration's biggest foreign policy critics, called on the administration to take stronger measures.

"We should establish no-fly zones in Syria and make it clear that any aircraft that enters those zones will be shot down,” he said.

[lodi90]

It would be easy to say that their aren’t any “good guys” in this conflict, but I would say Assad is better than ISIS and the hodgepodge of other factions that oppose him.

---

Problem with your calculation is it’s not just Assad we’re dealing with here. It’s Assad + Iran ($100 billion from Obama & soon to be nuked up) + Russia (mass murdering fascist state). Aside from the nukes, Iran & Russia controlling the middle east will be an economic attack on the US economy. We’ll pay for it big time.

[Sequoyah101]

The Russians have already said NO.

What the hell do Cotton and the rest of this idiot gang think they are doing?

[Sequoyah101]

Same here. Resign and go enforce a no fly zone himself.

FOOL.

[csvset]

True, leftists usually wail about the use of “superior weapons”, usually in the context of Israeli/Gaza. Then again, the jihadists don’t have any qualms about beheading Assad’s forces. Beheading is pretty low tech, old school.

[duckln]

Assad has been murdering Syrians with barrel bombs for quiet some time.

We are all being duped. Propaganda coming out from the MSM uses general terms like "Syrians" and "moderate Muslims" and "allies".

Trump and I would like them to be more specific. Seems to me they all have one thing in common, they want to establish a caliphate and kill off all the Christians.

[odawg]

“Senators are calling on President Obama to clarify his strategy on Syria”

His strategy is in place — chaos.

[nathanbedford]

I think our rookie senator, Tom Cotton, has come in for some unfair shots on this thread. He is after all a bona fide conservative, a veteran with a stellar war record and the only senator to have voted against Sen. Corker's betrayal of the treaty provisions of the Constitution.

That said, it is quite legitimate to ask Sen. Corker and all the other people who are now rushing to microphones to line up with Carly Fiorina to establish no-fly zones, what is the strategy? What are we trying to gain in Syria?

No-fly zones are tactics and tactics are in service of strategies and strategies are in service of policy. It is clear beyond any question that we have no policy and no strategy in the Middle East, much less in Syria. There is no one who knows this better than Vladimir Putin whose Navy in the area will soon be joined by the Chinese, who also are aware of this deficiency.

Winston Churchill in one of his most famous wartime speeches asked a question which was not rhetorical but which was vitally pertinent and which he proceeded explicitly to answer, "what is our strategy, you ask?"

[jwalsh07]

Cotton is a RINO, a chickenhawk, a GOPe guy. Oh wait, he is none of that. Damn.

[csvset]

So, what’s your plan? War with Russia?

[jwalsh07]

Well hell, if the commie bastards have said no then we take our balls and bats and slink home.

[odawg]

A no-fly zone would also rule out American planes. Who is left to bomb ISIS?

With Obama’s dithering, dealing with the Middle East now is like opening a can of grasshoppers.

[jwalsh07]

You sound just like a lefty speaking to Reagan in the 80’s. And I mean exactly.

[iontheball]

Here is the question of the hour: Who (Russia or US) is more legitimately in the sovereign country of Syria? The one who has been asked or invited to be there by the head of the country or an invading country operating under the guise of a cobbled together bunch of so called “rebels.”l

[lodi90]

Barrel bomba are IEDs. They are the only ordnance this LEGAL country had left to defend itself till outside help arrived.

Oh, and these weapons were being dropped on muslim insurgents (the true terrorists in the country) bent on ridding the country of its secular leader and murdering all the Christians they could find.

---

Dropping ordnance from slow helicopters onto defended targets does not happen for obvious reasons. Barrel bombs are terror weapons aimed at civilians in areas the Syrian government does not control. I’m sorry to see a FReeper condoning such murder.

[Sequoyah101]

The commie bastards have been there a long time.

Not every fight is a good fight and not every fight is worth the price. This one isn’t.

You send your son.

[Dartman]

We’re on the wrong side in Syria. Same mistake we made with the Shah, Saddam, Kadaffi, Mubarak. Where else? These dudes were bad, the alternatives much worse.

Exactly. Mubarek and Col. Kadaffi were both opposed to the muslim brotherhood. Yeah, they were bad, but not half as bad as the dudes who rode in behind them.

[kelly4c]

I clicked on the site to read the full article and while doing so the page kept like ever so slightly moving up and down and the whole time that little whirly thing was going on the tab as if it were still trying to load but wasn’t, then all of a sudden this ad took over half of the page only there was no X to close it and it didn’t look like any ad I’ve ever seen. So I googled it, Northrop Grumman, and Wikipedia has it..An American global aerospace and defense technology company... The company was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2015...

Aerospace Systems, headquartered in Redondo Beach, California produce aircraft, spacecraft, high-energy laser systems and microelectronics for the US and other nations. This includes surveillance and reconnaissance, protected communications, intelligence, battle management, strike operations, electronic warfare, and missile defense to Earth observation, space science and space exploration...

Why would a company like that “advertise” on a news/commentary website?

[jwalsh07]

Every male member of my family has served since World War 1. My nephew is a Recon Marine officer currently. I have no sons but I do have son in law who was a marine for 6 years. Me? Army. Wife? Army. So take your left wing bs and stick it.

[Sequoyah101]

How far up your arms do your knuckles drag?

I guess they only taught you how to fight and not how to think.

Good, we do need cannon fodder from time to time.

[wrench]

Terror weapons? Really? Where in the ISIS or Al-Qaeda training manuals is this stated?

Pakistan also says US drones are terror weapons.

Did you know guns are terror weapons? Maybe you can get those banned too.