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7/29/2019 On Syria, No to Strikes
1/3
On Syria: No to strikesby Frank Kaufmann, 09/09/13
Page 1
We now begin the week in which
we will be dragged into President
Obama's, and a compliant media'spush for more US military
interventionism and adventurism.
He is opposed by every majority on
earth both internationally and at
home for this errant and politically
inept impulse, by the majority of
Americans, by the majority of
nations, by the overwhelming
majority of all official religious
statements, and by the majority of US allies.
The president should never have created this situation, and now will not even own it.
In an off the cuff, August 2012 announcement, he blurted out a self-constraining
bond of personal pride for which the US and the world now suffer. With this he
doggedly extends his mind-numbing record of military and diplomatic failure and
global destabilization in region after region -- think post Libya North Africa .
The United States of America should not be put in the position of parading a growing
weakness before the international community because the president decides to play
political tricks with US Congress, forcing a political debate without committing to the
outcome. Cameron's political embarrassment was forced on him by Obama's greatfondness for bombing sovereign states -- think Libya, Pakistan -- based on gagging
hubris and moralism.
This morning UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and US Secretary of State John Kerry
held a media briefing in London for talks on the crisis in Syria. One felt a certain
sadness or embarrassment to watch as the two men performed their contortions to
assure all, and perhaps themselves of the ongoing closeness of the two nations. In
essence Hague was hosting Kerry to present America's arguments for bombing Syria.
With such an opportunity, what was Kerry's biggest argument? His great stand wasan insistence that any US strike will be an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort."
This was the only time in the press conference that Kerry showed any emotion and
animated speech. Here he is given the world stage, in the friendliest imaginable
environment, and the one moment of passion in Kerry's speech is to say, "We are not
talking about war. We are not going to war. We will not have people at risk in that
way." No? No people at risk? Real people won't be hurt, only Syrians and whoever
7/29/2019 On Syria, No to Strikes
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On Syria: No to strikesby Frank Kaufmann, 09/09/13
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else kind of strange people exist around there, who we really don't understand
anyway. Only they will be bombed.
Here are the reasons why US led military strikes should outlawed by the worldcommunity, including by all Americans.
1. The cause is something President Obama made up on the spot, and now, in an
almost pathological way will not even own. No one on earth wants this war. Only a
few American hawks, and whoever else pulls the strings of war want these strikes.
Gary Younge of the Guardian points summarizes
The "red line" that president Barack Obama has set out as the trigger for US military
intervention in Syria, he drew unilaterally. In August 2012 in response to a question
about "whether [he envisioned] using US military" in Syria. "A red line for us is we startseeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That
would change my calculus. That would change my equation."
On 21 August, 2013 there was a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus
believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government. That changed both
Obama's calculus and his memory, says Younge. "I didn't set a red line," Obama
claimed last week. I didn't draw it, he insisted, everybody did. "The world set a red
line".
"My credibility is not on the line," he argued. "The international community's credibility
is on the line. And America and Congress's credibility is on the line ...."
No. No one's credibility is on the line except those who want ongoing US military
interventionism, namely President Obama, US hawks and war-mongers, and the
people who design war. There is near universal rejection of this interest to bomb Syria,
everywhere including in US and in America's one most obsequious military ally, the UK.
2. The intelligence on the chemical attack in question is not conclusive, and is not
settled. There are far ranging reports in alternative, and often far more trusted than
mainstream, media that the chemicals were rebel controlled, and that images and
reports were manipulated to attract increased Western military involvement in theirarmed uprising against their government.
Some mainstream media, less controlled by government and US interests also point to
conflicting intelligence on the chemical attack, such as Reuters report on German
intelligence that contradicts Obama's certitude, and his drums of war, and The
Washington Times resport on Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent
International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were strong,
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/08/us-little-credibility-syria-chemical-weaponshttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/08/us-little-credibility-syria-chemical-weapons7/29/2019 On Syria, No to Strikes
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On Syria: No to strikesby Frank Kaufmann, 09/09/13
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concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof, that rebels seeking to oust
Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.
3. Rebel forces are full of Al Qaeda, and Bin Laden quality Jihadists. There are noclear good guys and bad guys in this conflict. Any and all military action and
involvement in Syria will intensify and exacerbate destabilization, not only in the
region, but in the world, and in our homelands through the intensification of
terrorist/Jihadist sophistication and commitment.
4. The conflict in Syria is a proxy war involving Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the United
States and Russia. The consideration of strikes are more closely related to these sick,
obsessive, and globally destructive rivalries rooted in the pure evil of conflict and
hatred. It is simply impossible that a unilateral action to bomb by the United States
can be helpful in any constructive or humanitarian way. Strike would only be gas onflames, erupting into ever greater human tragedy.
5. Problems are solved by involvement, never by remote, disruptive interference in
local problems. If, as Kerry and Obama promise that there will be no US military
involvement, then the situation calls for some other kind of involvement. If the US
cares about the situation in Syria, as Obama in his hollow war rhetoric claims to do,
then he must identify a path of involvement in which he can shout, and we will
become ever more deeply involved to help the people of Syria, rather than as Kerry
just shouted in London this morning, "we promise you, we really promise you, it will be
short. We will do almost nothing."
An interesting moment came up in the Hague-Kerry, London press conference this
morning, when a reporter tried to corner Hague as not supporting the US. In
response, sticking to the "Our two countries have a "special relationship" script, Hague
delineated all the ways that Britain WAS involved in the Syrian crisis, Interestingly, this is
part of the press conference is nowhere yet reported. Hague's list was an impressive
tour de force of the enormous reach of humanitarian investment already in place by
the UK, its support for the surrounding countries struggling to weather the refugee
crisis, the medical and humanitarian investment, and much more, all non-military.
This is the news! But it is not yet reported anywhere. The British Foreign Secretary, in hisattempt to insure the world of the UK's close support for the US despite being bound --
by Parliament -- not to follow Obama's addled rush to war, revealed just what is
needed by the stable, democratic world powers, political, diplomatic, medical, and
humanitarian investment and involvement.