Washington’s statements threatening to use military force against Syria unilaterally are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
Given the lack of evidence, any unilateral military action bypassing the UN Security Council – “no matter how limited it is” – would be a direct violation of international law and would undermine the prospects for a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria and will lead to a new round of confrontation and victims, Lukashevich concludes.
“Instead of executing the decisions of G8’s summit in Lough Erne and subsequent agreements to submit comprehensive report from experts investigating possible cases of use of chemical weapons in Syria to the UN Security Council, in the absence of any evidence, we hear threats of a strike on Syria,” the statement reads.
Lukashevich emphasizes that even “US allies” are calling to wait for the completion of the UN chemical expert group “in order to get an unbiased picture of what really happened and decide on further steps in terms of the Syrian crisis.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council may have to wait as long as two weeks before reviewing the final results of an analysis of samples taken from where chemical weapons were used in Syria, diplomats told Reuters on Friday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told representatives from China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France, warning them of the time period on the eve of a possible US missile strike on the Syrian regime.
Even Obama Administration officials admit that evidence linking Assad regime not a "slam dunk"
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter. Al-Qaeda needs our help. "AP sources: Intelligence on weapons no 'slam dunk,'" by Kimberly Dozier and Matt Apuzzo for the Associated Press, August 29:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack is no "slam dunk," with questions remaining about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike, U.S. intelligence officials say.
President Barack Obama declared unequivocally Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible, while laying the groundwork for an expected U.S. military strike.
"We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," Obama said in an interview with "NewsHour" on PBS. "And if that's so, then there need to be international consequences."
However, multiple U.S. officials used the phrase "not a slam dunk" to describe the intelligence picture - a reference to then-CIA Director George Tenet's insistence in 2002 that U.S. intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk" - intelligence that turned out to be wrong.
A report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence outlining that evidence against Syria includes a few key caveats - including acknowledging that the U.S. intelligence community no longer has the certainty it did six months ago of where the regime's chemical weapons are stored, nor does it have proof Assad ordered chemical weapons use, according to two intelligence officials and two more U.S. officials.
DeleteThe humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has said an Aug. 21 rock strike killed 355 people.
A three-page report released Thursday by the British government said there was "a limited but growing body of intelligence" blaming the Syrian government for the attacks. And though the British were not sure why Assad would have carried out such an attack, the report said there was "no credible intelligence" that the rebels had obtained or used chemical weapons.
Like the British report, the yet-to-be-released U.S. report assesses with "high confidence" that the Syrian government was responsible for the attacks that hit suburbs east and west of Damascus, filled with a chemical weapon, according to a senior U.S. official who read the report.
The official conceded there are caveats in the report and there is no proof saying Assad personally ordered the attack. There was no mention in the report of the possibility that a rogue element inside Assad's government or military could have been responsible, the senior official said.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intelligence report publicly.
Relevant congressional committees were to be briefed on that evidence by teleconference call on Thursday, U.S. officials and congressional aides said.
Administration officials said Wednesday that neither the U.N. Security Council, which is deciding whether to weigh in, nor allies' concerns would affect their plans. But the complicated intelligence picture raises questions about the White House's full-steam-ahead approach to the Aug. 21 attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb, with worries that the attack could be tied to al-Qaida-backed rebels later.
Intelligence officials say they could not pinpoint the exact locations of Assad's supplies of chemical weapons, and Assad could have moved them in recent days as the U.S. rhetoric increased. But that lack of certainty means a possible series of U.S. cruise missile strikes aimed at crippling Assad's military infrastructure could hit newly hidden supplies of chemical weapons, accidentally triggering a deadly chemical attack.
DeleteOver the past six months, with shifting front lines in the 2 1/2-year-old civil war and sketchy satellite and human intelligence coming out of Syria, U.S. and allied spies have lost track of who controls some of the country's chemical weapons supplies, according to the two intelligence officials and two other U.S. officials.
U.S. satellites have captured images of Syrian troops moving trucks into weapons storage areas and removing materials, but U.S. analysts have not been able to track what was moved or, in some cases, where it was relocated. They are also not certain that when they saw what looked like Assad's forces moving chemical supplies, those forces were able to remove everything before rebels took over an area where weapons had been stored.
In addition, an intercept of Syrian military officials discussing the strike was among low-level staff, with no direct evidence tying the attack back to an Assad insider or even a senior Syrian commander, the officials said.
So while Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that it was "undeniable," a chemical weapons attack had occurred, and that it was carried out by the Syrian military, U.S. intelligence officials are not so certain that the suspected chemical attack was carried out on Assad's orders. Some have even talked about the possibility that rebels could have carried out the attack in a callous and calculated attempt to draw the West into the war. That suspicion was not included in the official intelligence report, according to the official who described the report....
Posted by Robert on August 29, 2013 2:10 PM
Heads al-Qaeda wins, tails we lose.
DeleteThe madness of Barack Obama and the deeply flawed US system of governance, where we find ourselves with the most lethal military of all time, a military that is mindless, bereft of conscience, a remotely controlled killing machine that without question or thought, will react to the one word of one man. The only control built into the system, congress has been progressively reduced to a parody of a legislative body.
ReplyDeleteWatching a real parliament, engaging in a learned and brilliant debate, stopping one man’s foolishness with the power of reason, argument and persuasion was both uplifting and brutally depressing.
.
DeleteI don't see it.
Sure, the military has its dummies. Sure they are ruled by a bunch of PC career officers. Sure you have guys like Petreaus drawing up strategies like COIN and implementing them. However, the military seems to me to be the last that want to go to war.
It was not the military that took us to war in Libya or who are pushing for it in Syria. It was politically appointed hacks like Clinton, and Rice, and Powers (of R2I fame) who persuaded a reluctant Obama.
.
The military may no want to go to war, but on the word of one man they will. Who ever envisioned that? Certainly not the authors of the US Constitution.
DeleteThe authors watched G Washington march on PA.
DeleteNot much complaint was recorded, Washington was not impeached.
John Boner will refuse to allow House Republicans to provide cover for Obama. The President owns this strike.
ReplyDeleteI called this shit fest 30 months ago.
ReplyDeleteIslamic Nazis verses Nazis who are Moslems.
And for that? 30 months of Rat telling me that Israel was a shit country for not allowing the so called "christians" of Syria refugee status.
Both sides of the Syrian fight are (for the most part) Anti-American, Anti-Israel, Anti-western, Anti-Jewish...
So now? Deuce is on a roll claiming it's the "neocons" (ie jewish-Americans and Americans that support Israel) that are beating the war drums.
Yawn...
So kindergarden....
Fact the facts.
Syria is a pimple filled with hezbollah, Iranians, syrians, jihadists, safaists, russians and all sorts of islamists nut jobs. ON BOTH SIDES.. However the game is much larger than syria.
Iran's progress towards plutonium and uranium enrichment goes on without delay or question.
You think Syria is a clusterfuck?
JUST wait, Iran is working on a crackerjack surprise that will make you pee your pants....
Well, since Israel is not 'Western', Judaism is not 'Western' andthe Syrians are anti 'Western', what is their beef with a Jewish Israel another Middle East country occuppied by Middle Easterners?
ReplyDeleteHow did those Syrians come to see Judaism and Israel as representing the 'West' when niether are'Western', at all.
quot continues to use false and faulty reasoning in an attempt to draw US into a Middle Easstern conflict
Rat? Shut the fuck up.
DeleteYou see Rat, we have learned what you are about. Smoking pot, shooting guns and stirring up things since you have no life.
DeleteDiscussing anything with you is a waste of time. As you are a waste of time.
The Syrians are anti US because the US is so staunchly anti Syrian.
DeleteThe US funds the Middle Eastern war machine that is Israel.
The US topples legitimate governments and installs tyrants in their place.
The US has a long policy of animosity towards Syria, the US abandoning the foreign policy precepts of George Washington and now reaping what's been sown over the last sixty years.
Should have had the 4th ID roll to Baghdad from Haifa, when the opportunity presented itself. Instead incrementalism ruled the day.
The lack of US resolve, evident in 2003.
And Eisenhower attacked WWI veterans for demanding what they were promised.
DeleteIke, led by MacArthur with Patton on his flank.
DeleteAll the hero Generals of WWII were there.
Some say MacArthur exceeded his orders. Others note the incident did not harm his career.
What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 30, 09:21:00 AM EDT
DeleteRat? Shut the fuck up.
ditto
Anoni, fuck off and die
Deletedesert ratFri Aug 30, 11:11:00 AM EDT
DeleteAnoni, fuck off and die
Wow did somebody not get their morning bong hit?
Or maybe Rat's just not "regular"?
Now read this line of insight by our resident stoner...
Deletedesert ratFri Aug 30, 09:28:00 AM EDT
The Syrians are anti US because the US is so staunchly anti Syrian.
Wow....
Deep thoughts
We are reduced from FUKUS to FUS
ReplyDeleteFrench President François Hollande said Friday that the UK parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria would not affect France’s will to act alongside the United States in “punishing“ Syria for an alleged chemical weapons attack.
So now we change Freedom Fries back to French Fries and eat Freedom Muffins.
DeleteWe're depending on the word of a French politician?
ReplyDeleteI think it's more like "fuck us."
Juet order up some Freedom Fries, rufus
DeleteActually, I'm sitting here thinking, "it must be happy hour somewhere in the world, right now."
DeleteAfter Turkey refused to allow the 4th Infantry Division to open a second front in Iraq in 2003 we now celebrate Thanksgiving with Liberty Birds.
DeleteSo let's count the fun..
Delete100 thousand dead in Syria. 2 million homeless.
Iraq? explosions every day.
the question of the day?
When will Jordan explode and have an uprising?
When will the fake nationalistic peoples called "palestinians" have their crips verses the bloods fight and slaughter each other?
When will the Lebanese let loose and cleanse the shia arabs from the south?
No answers, just heating up popcorn and making sure my gas mask is at the ready
The Obama administration’s plan to launch a military strike against Syria is being received with serious reservations by many in the U.S. military, which is coping with the scars of two lengthy wars and a rapidly contracting budget, according to current and former officers.
ReplyDeleteHaving assumed for months that the United States was unlikely to intervene militarily in Syria, the Defense Department has been thrust onto a war footing that has made many in the armed services uneasy, according to interviews with more than a dozen military officers ranging from captains to a four-star general.
Former and current officers, many with the painful lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan on their minds, said the main reservations concern the potential unintended consequences of launching cruise missiles against Syria.
Some questioned the use of military force as a punitive measure and suggested that the White House lacks a coherent strategy. If the administration is ambivalent about the wisdom of defeating or crippling the Syrian leader, possibly setting the stage for Damascus to fall to fundamentalist rebels, they said, the military objective of strikes on Assad’s military targets is at best ambiguous.
“There’s a broad naivete in the political class about America’s obligations in foreign policy issues, and scary simplicity about the effects that employing American military power can achieve,” said retired Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold, who served as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the run-up to the Iraq war, noting that many of his contemporaries are alarmed by the plan.
New cycle of attacks?
Marine Lt. Col. Gordon Miller, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, warned this week of “potentially devastating consequences, including a fresh round of chemical weapons attacks and a military response by Israel.”
We only killed 500 civilians in Kosovo, a pittance by US standards. It will be exciting to see how many Syrians we slaughter because someone else slaughtered 355 innocents. Minor compared to the potential bruised honor of our own Nobel Peace Laureate.
ReplyDeleteMore about Kosovo:
ReplyDeleteThe UN’s much-lauded “Responsibility to Protect” initiative claimed to be about preventing mass atrocities, but should it really be interpreted as “Responsibility to Attack”?
The difference seems to be in who is interpreting and applying it.
When interpreted and applied by NATO countries, “Responsibility to Protect,” or R2P, has been seen to be a sham. The case of Kosovo comes to mind (and looks to be a possible scenario for Syria). But what happened there? NATO bombed Serbia for weeks, and then put boots on the ground in Kosovo. Ethnic groups were separated and given their own separate states. And NATO troops are still there!
Then the case of Libya can be mentioned. Today Libya is a failing or even failed state. The death toll during its civil war only started to increase dramatically after NATO’s illegal expansion of its involvement in the conflict.
Thus, in both cases the result has had preciously little to do with protecting anything. When we look at Syria – a far more complicated conflict – claiming military action in the name of R2P is a sick comedy. Syria has become a proxy war with toxic sectarian divides – it needs less violence, not more.
Sadly, R2P is just a cover for the west to remove regimes it does not like. So Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria all have something in common: Washington’s self-proclaimed “Responsibility to Attack.” The expected attack on Syria by the US and its NATO allies only demonstrates yet again how the rule of international law rings hollow in western capitals.
- Peter Lavelle
Having assumed for months that the United States was unlikely to intervene militarily in Syria, the Defense Department has been thrust onto a war footing that has made many in the armed services uneasy, according to interviews with more than a dozen military officers ranging from captains to a four-star general.
ReplyDelete..
Obama wants this pretty cheap, a war DURING a sequester designed to starve the DoD.
WSJ: Kim Jong Un enjoys an approval rating among North Korean voters of more than 50%, the latest poll shows. That’s close to Shinzo Abe territory, easily above Barack Obama’s 45%.
The other 40 odd percent will be purged asap.
DeleteNorth Korean voters - nice phrase
DeleteThe North Korean voter rolls were reduced slightly recently with the machine gunning of a few government sluts over something or other and the jailing at hard labor of all those around them, men, women and children, because of guilt by association.
DeleteThe nation should have insisted that Obama is not eligible to be President as he is not a Natural Born Citizen because he does not have two citizen parents.
ReplyDeleterat is back with his usual non-sense and ill will towards life. Probably be a long sad day around here.
Israel will be - is being - blamed for Obama's Folly Flotilla by all the usual suspects, the Neo-Cons and Jews are being blamed, when Quirk has shown us it's the LIBERALS that are the real sailors here, and we are being led into a possible historical tragedy by the tragically flawed ego of one sunni sympathetic commie hyper egotistical community organizer and professional liar.
And it is true WiO called all this chaos a long long time ago....
Meanwhile the hydroplanes are running again at Coeur d'Alene this Labor Day Weekend, after an absence of many decades due to the rioting so long ago. Purely alcohol fueled non-political have a great time type riots of the first order, on the line of some European or English soccer riot.
I was witness. Them were the days! Ah, the smell of tear gas in the air, the sounds of breaking glass, the broken windshields, the whump and wham sounds of street fighting, the patrol car lights flashing, the sirens blarring....those were the days, my friends!
Life goes on.....
The nation should have insisted that Obama is not eligible to be President as he is not a Natural Born Citizen because he does not have two citizen parents.
ReplyDeleterat is back with his usual non-sense and ill will towards life. Probably be a long sad day around here.
Israel will be - is being - blamed for Obama's Folly Flotilla by all the usual suspects, the Neo-Cons and Jews are being blamed, when Quirk has shown us it's the LIBERALS that are the real sailors here, and we are being led into a possible historical tragedy by the tragically flawed ego of one sunni sympathetic commie hyper egotistical community organizer and professional liar.
And it is true WiO called all this chaos a long long time ago....
Meanwhile the hydroplanes are running again at Coeur d'Alene this Labor Day Weekend, after an absence of many decades due to the rioting so long ago. Purely alcohol fueled non-political have a great time type riots of the first order, on the line of some European or English soccer riot.
I was witness. Them were the days! Ah, the smell of tear gas in the air, the sounds of breaking glass, the broken windshields, the whump and wham sounds of street fighting, the patrol car lights flashing, the sirens blarring....those were the days, my friends!
Life goes on.....
Obama was on the ballot in Idaho, both times.
ReplyDeleteWhy were you not in the street, protesting?
We sent detectitives to Hawaii, from the Sheriff's office.
They came back empty.
They could find no cause to challenge his birth records.
Who really knows who the father was?
Has DNA testing been done?
"rat is back with his usual non-sense and ill will towards life. Probably be a long sad day around here."
DeleteDidn't take long for that prediction to come true.
Obama claims the Kenyan is his father. He has not two citizen parents by his own affirmation. All the rest is beside the point.
Go away and give this place some peace.
No one listens to you any longer, unless there are those equally f-ed up.
The sane have seen through you long ago.
"Rat, there is something really wrong with you." -- Trish
Maybe the bowling alley has a Labor Day Special?
Still hiding behind the Den Mother's skirts, aye.
DeleteYou spend a lot of time behind the skirts, don't you.
Waiting on the women to do the simple, basic tasks of life, for you.
Oh, I don't bowl.
"Why were you not in the street, protesting?"
DeleteYour memory is shot.
I was holding the sign you designed at the Tea Party event in Cd'A.
I worked for Romney in Ohio.
"There is something really wrong with you, Rat." -- Trish
Go away you nasty moron.
Anon, dont actually ENGAGE the rodent.
DeleteYou may ridicule him/her/it at will but dont try to be rational and use facts or points with it.
How about this then --
Delete"rat, you are really fucked up." -- Bob
Better?
"Still hiding behind the Den Mother's skirts, aye.
You spend a lot of time behind the skirts, don't you."
Still dissing Trish and she is not here.
And you do bowl, you said so once back in the day.
Liar.
"Anon, dont actually ENGAGE the rodent.
DeleteYou may ridicule him/her/it at will but dont try to be rational and use facts or points with it."
OK, WiO, I defer to your better judgement. Have to go to town anyway.
Lose on the issues, you two do, everytime.
DeleteBetter to ignore than engage
Happy days
desert rat Fri Aug 30, 10:55:00 AM EDT
DeleteWe sent detectitives to Hawaii, from the Sheriff's office.
They came back empty.
They could find no cause to challenge his birth records.
Actually didnt come back empty.
Your CHOOSING to ignore the results speaks volumes.
But why engage a moron like you?
You twist, delete, misdirect and change the actual MEANINGs of commonly understood words during a discussion.
To try to reason, argue, have rational discourse with someone like you is foolish.
So why bother?
Bob and I and others will try to have discussions that avoid you.
Now, go smoke your bong and play with firearms, I will eat chocolate and harvest 20 dollar bills
No, dimwit, I do not bowl.
DeleteDo not like bowling, to many people, to many drunks, to much background noise, to suit me.
I have bowled, but no longer participate.
Sounds like a paranoid, sound phobic stoner.
Deletelacks patience, stressed easy in crowds.
Longs to sit on a couch in a basement safe from the world...
Longs to be back in the womb that rejected him...
Obama should just man up. Tell the World the people have spoken, no war and go play golf.
ReplyDeleteThat would be admitting he's not The One, not in control.
DeleteUnlikely move on his part.
He doesn't care what the people say.
They are a just a community to be organized.
The US media has achieved a new low in societal depravity. We killed over 500 civilians in Kosovo including a trolley car loaded with commuters. The toll in Syria and Iraq is well into the hundreds of thousands.
ReplyDeleteThe media discussion is about polls, Obama’s political decisions and favorability ratings.
The neocons have inserted their argument that by not getting the US into another ME war, we will somehow show weakness and encourage the Iranians to get a nuclear weapon. The total absurdity is that the US would never be attacking Syria if Syria had a nuclear deterrent.
The number one priority for Iran should be to develop or acquire a nuclear deterrent. The US has demonstrated time and time again that to do otherwise is folly.
The final argument being made is how it affects Israel. An argument meant to bring a resigned assent as if that is all that really matters.
ReplyDeleteThe noted Neo-Con thinker Nancy Pelosi is urging Obama to act on Syria -
ReplyDelete>>>>Nancy Pelosi the hawk tells President Obama to act on Syria
By JONATHAN ALLEN and JAKE SHERMAN | 8/29/13 11:06 PM EDT
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pressed top administration officials Thursday night to take military action to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to reports that he used chemical weapons in his nation’s ongoing civil war.
“It is clear that the American people are weary of war. However, Assad gassing his own people is an issue of our national security, regional stability and global security,” Pelosi said in a statement after the 90-minute conference call with members of the National Security Council and 26 high-ranking lawmakers.<<<<
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/nancy-pelosi-barack-obama-syria-96065.html#ixzz2dTMlV2Fq
Damn those California Neo-Cons!
DeleteAlways sticking their noses in some one else's neighborhood.
Are you being racist? Sticking their NOSES's in someone's else's neighborhood.
DeleteAfter all, all Neo-cons are JEWS...
Bullshit, Israel is hardly a world power in the nose dept.
Deletelol
DeleteNancy Pelosi, that settles it then.
ReplyDeleteKerry mentions the magic words: Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the audacity to be the third power in the ME with nuclear weapons.
ReplyDeleteIf we hit Syria, half of the Muslim world will hate us. If we don't, the other half of the Muslim world will hate us. To hell with the whole lot.
DeleteKerry is mouthing off live. Go to Fox News
ReplyDeleteKerry got his bones shooting a fourteen year old in the back as he was running away. Kerry broke a nail in the heroic act and was awarded his fifteenth purple heart with all sorts of clusters all over the place.
ReplyDeleteThat's why Kerry is just State while Barry, who personally killed Osama bin Laden, is POTUS.
DeleteHe ends on a note that the attack will be at time and place of the community leaders choice.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between the 1st and 18th hole. Or when shooting baskets. Or between vacations. Or on vacation. In the air between D.C. and Vegas.
DeleteWho can tell? The enemy certainly can't. And probably don't much care as they've already moved their 'assets' around during these many hot days of high anxiety for our basic interests.
actually the syrians MOVING their assets around give us fresh intel of where the assets are...
DeleteWiO gets it. This time.
DeleteI get alot, I just dont share.
DeleteWhat is "Occupation"Fri Aug 30, 01:56:00 PM EDT
Deleteactually the syrians MOVING their assets around give us fresh intel of where the assets are...
They should move them into populated areas then if possible.....
Can't move airfields though....
Assad will probably sit it out on a Russian ship.
Just find Assad's palace and the palaces of all his homies and send one MOAB each. Then he can find a spider hole to live in.
DeleteI am sure the intel report will at least be up to the same impeccable standards of reliability as recent testimony by the NSA and reports on Benghazi.
ReplyDeleteI understand that they're consulting "curveball."
DeleteAnd, Debkafiles
DeleteAnd SmartsRUs, a Subsidiary of .......
DeleteO well...
Classified ...
ReplyDeleteYou have no need to know.
If it was not theater the US would have hit Syria from the air. But it is all just for show. The bringing together of the 'Fleet', steaming on to the Eastern Med, all takes time.
Q was correct, it is all about the dither.
Intentional induced noise.
How goes that prep work. In Cyprus, now that the UK stoood down?
I was heartened that Obama said he had consulted “My team and my military.”
ReplyDeleteSome years earlier he had consulted his Constitution and found this type move, where there is no emergency, needs the approval of Congress.
DeleteNow, his Constitution tells him it doesn't.
This is called living the Living Constitution.
By: Patrick J. Buchanan
ReplyDelete8/30/2013 06:00 AM
The next 72 hours will be decisive in the career of the speaker of the House. The alternatives he faces are these:
John Boehner can, after “consultation,” give his blessing to Barack Obama’s decision to launch a war on Syria, a nation that has neither attacked nor threatened us.
Or Boehner can instruct Obama that, under our Constitution, in the absence of an attack on the United States, Congress alone has the authority to decide whether the United States goes to war.
As speaker, he can call the House back on Monday to debate, and decide, whether to authorize the war Obama is about to start. In the absence of a Congressional vote for war, Boehner should remind the president that U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria, killing soldiers and civilians alike, would be the unconstitutional and impeachable acts of a rogue president.
Moreover, an attack on Syria would be an act of stupidity.
Why this rush to war? Why the hysteria? Why the panic?
Syria and Assad will still be there two weeks from now or a month from now, and we will know far more then about what happened last week.
Understandably, Obama wants to get the egg off his face from having foolishly drawn his “red line” against chemical weapons, and then watching Syria, allegedly, defy His Majesty. But saving Obama’s face does not justify plunging his country into another Mideast war.
Does Obama realize what a fool history will make of him if he is stampeded into a new war by propaganda that turns out to be yet another stew of ideological zealotry and mendacity?
As of today, we do not know exactly what gas was used around Damascus, how it was delivered, who authorized it and whether President Bashar Assad ever issued such an order.
Yet, one Wall Street Journal columnist is already calling on Obama to assassinate Assad along with his family.
Do we really want back into that game? When John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy explored the assassination option with Fidel Castro, blowback came awfully swift in Dallas.
{…}
Boner will block any debate. This train wreck is Obama's, fair and square.
Delete
ReplyDelete{…}
Again, what is the urgency of war now if we are certain we are right? What do we lose by waiting for more solid evidence, and then presenting our case to the Security Council?
Kennedy did that in the Cuban missile crisis. U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson made the case. And the world saw we were right.
If, in the face of incontrovertible proof, Russia and China veto sanctions, the world will see that. Then let John Kerry make his case to Congress and convince that body to authorize war, if he can.
But if Obama cannot convince Congress, we cannot — and ought not — go to war. The last thing America needs is an unnecessary, unconstitutional war in that God-forsaken region that both Congress and the country oppose.
Indeed, the reports about this gas attack on Syrian civilians have already begun to give off the distinct aroma of a false-flag operation.
Assad has offered U.N. inspectors secure access to where gas was allegedly used. It is the rebels who seem not to want too deep or long an investigation.
Our leaders should ask themselves. If we are stampeded into this war, whose interests are served? For it is certainly not Assad’s and certainly not America’s.
We are told Obama intends to hit Syria with cruise missiles for just a few days to punish Assad and deter any future use of gas, not to topple his regime. After a few hundred missiles and a thousand dead Syrians, presumably, we call it off.
Excuse me, but as Casey Stengel said, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Nations that start wars and attack countries, as Gen. Tojo and Adm. Yamamoto can testify, do not get to decide how wide the war gets, how long it goes on or how it ends.
If the United States attacks Damascus and Syria’s command and control, under the rules of war Syria would be within its rights to strike Washington, the Pentagon and U.S. bases all across the Middle East.
Does Obama really want to start a war, the extent and end of which he cannot see, that is likely to escalate, as its promoters intend and have long plotted, into a U.S. war on Iran? Has the election in Iran of a new president anxious to do a deal with America on Iran’s nuclear program caused this panic in the War Party?
If we think the markets reacted badly to a potential U.S. strike on Syria, just wait for that big one to start. Iran has a population the size of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq combined, and sits astride the Straits of Hormuz through which the free world’s oil flows.
And who will be our foremost fighting ally in Syria should we attack Assad’s army? The Al-Nusra Front, an arm of al-Qaida and likely successor to power, should Assad fall.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
DeleteOr so massively egotistical and vain as to be blind.
. . . sits astride the Straits of Hormuz through which the free world’s oil flows. . .
ReplyDeleteYeah, China is so free, as long as you don't need to Google anything, like "Tienanmen Square".
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
DeleteNothing, that's all that Bobby left me, yeah,
DeleteBut feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,
Hey, feeling good was good enough for me, hmm hmm,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.
Hubble telescope spots 'cosmic caterpillar' that's six TRILLION miles long, formed by harsh winds from some of our hottest stars
ReplyDeleteThe protostar is located 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus
It is currently collecting material from an envelope of gas surrounding it
The gas, however, is also being eroded by surrounding stellar radiation
Cosmic sperm cell?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2406611/Cosmic-caterpillar-spotted-Hubble-telescope-thats-6-TRILLION-miles-long.html#ixzz2dUAafnwm
(threw in that last to catch your attention and as a cosmic Rorschach Test)
DeleteSix trillion miles tain't nothing, light can cover that in a year.
DeleteMaybe so but still it's a pretty big Twinkie.
Delete....
Obama's 'most transparent administration in history' wins one in court -
POLITICS: WHITE HOUSE
Appeals court says White House visitor logs can be kept from public
BY MARK TAPSCOTT | AUGUST 30, 2013 AT 2:35 PM
TOPICS: WHITE HOUSE DC WATCHDOG PRESIDENT APPEALS COURTS JUDICIAL WATCH CORRUPTION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT CONSTITUTIONALITY CREW
Photo - President Obama and his successors in the Oval Office are not obligated to make public the names of individuals visiting the White House, according to a decision of the federal Circuit Court for the District of Columbia made public Friday. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Obama and his successors in the Oval Office are not obligated to make public the names...
President Obama and his successors in the Oval Office are not obligated to make public the names of individuals visiting the White House, according to a decision of the federal Circuit Court for the District of Columbia made public Friday.
The case was brought by Judicial Watch, the government watchdog nonprofit that has been fighting a long legal battle seeking to force release of the White House visitor logs as public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
But in a decision that is drawing intense criticism from across the ideological spectrum, the circuit court said the president has a "constitutional perogative" not to tell the American people who he or his staff meets with in the White House.
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The court said the president has such a prerogative because he is not covered by the FOIA and because of "special policy considerations" that allow exemption of visitor logs from classification as agency records subject to release under the public records law.
President Obama began making public some of the White House visitor logs in 2009, but refused a Judicial Watch request for all of the logs.
Administration spokesmen have often pointed to the partial release of the logs to support the president's claim that his is "the most transparent administration in history."
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton was extremely disappointed by the decision, saying "a president that doesn't want Americans, under law, to know who his visitors are is a president who doesn't want to be accountable. The appellate court decision punches another hole in the Freedom of Information Act, the law which allows Americans to know what their government is up to."
Fitton's group is considering filing an appeal, which would be to the Supreme Court. There is no guarantee that the high court would accept the case.
"The legal gymnastics in this unprecedented decision shows that President Obama is not only one willing rewrite laws without going through Congress. And this legal fight, in which President Obama is fighting tooth and nail full disclosure under law of his White House visitors, further exposes his big lie that his administration is the most transparent in history. The silver lining is that at least the appellate court opened up the records of tens of thousands of White House visits that Obama was trying to keep secret," Fitton said.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/appeals-court-says-white-house-visitor-logs-can-be-kept-from-public/article/2534954
While the World awaits for the imminent arrival of humanitarian US cruise missiles, the results of American know how and Neocon political architecture, better known in these parts as the “Slam-dunk mother fuckers” keep coming in:
ReplyDeleteBAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi branch of al-Qaida claimed responsibility Friday for a lethal wave of coordinated bombings in the Baghdad area earlier this week, as new attacks killed another 14 in the latest outbreak of violence to hit the country.
Friday’s deadliest attack struck after nightfall in a Kurdish neighborhood in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khormato. Insurgents there set off a non-lethal stun bomb apparently designed to attract a crowd before detonating a real bomb that killed 12 and wounded 10, said the town’s police chief, Col. Hussein Ali Rasheed.
Tuz Khormato, a frequent flashpoint for violence, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.
Iraq is facing its deadliest wave of violence since 2008. The spike in bloodshed is raising worries the country is heading back toward the brink of civil war fueled by the country’s sectarian and ethnic divisions.
Hours earlier, the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, posted a message on a militant website taking responsibility for the deadly attacks that rocked the Baghdad area on Wednesday. Coordinated car bombings and other violence that day that killed at least 82 people, mostly in Shiite areas of the capital.
The group claimed the attacks were a response to the Aug. 19 execution of 17 Sunni prisoners, all but one of them convicted on terrorism-related charges. It said tight security measures imposed by Iraqi forces failed to stop the attacks, and the group vowed to carry out more attacks against government targets.
‘‘We will avenge the blood of our brothers,’’ the group said.
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on a website commonly used by jihadists and its style was consistent with earlier al-Qaida statements.
The bombings were the latest in a wave of bloodshed that has swept Iraq since April, killing more than 4,000 people and worsening already strained ties between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shiite-led government. More than 570 people have been killed so far in August.
This is all crazy.
Delete"Secretary of state John Kerry says US could not let Assad get away with attack that killed 1,429 Syrians"
Whilst this is vile if true, 100,000 Syrians have died over the last 2 years. Not 1,400, or 10,000, but 100,000.
The Americans have already invaded 2 countries in the last 15 years and citizens of both Iraq and Afghanistan die on a daily basis because of their continuing civil wars.
Repeating this - even if Assad is killing children - seems nonsensical.
We should have an office pool on how many get killed from the Obama cruise missile AQ recruitment program.
ReplyDeleteWe have two carrier groups that will be firing cruise missiles skirting Iran.
Imagine two Chinese carrier groups off the coast of California firing cruise missiles into Mexico to send a message to the drug cartels.
O'blunder has already supplied weapons to the drug cartels through Fast & Furious.
DeleteHe would clearly not allow the Chinese to do what you suggest.
Interesting times indeed, the rejection of US hegemony by the British people could be a watershed moment.
ReplyDeleteAware of CIA instigation of the violence in Syria 2 years ago, through the likes of Eric Prince, I doubt that there is any good case to be made by any of the perpetrators – Obama, Donlin, Panetta or Clinton – for making war on Assad.
Assad is bad; having been point man on an overture in 2003 to loosen up Syrian civil society, I appreciate that more than most. In 2000, he could have been a bold leader and established a new order; instead, he let his father’s henchmen like al-Sharaa run the show.
But in these last 2 years, the USA has done more harm to the Syrian people than the al-Assad government, and they know it. The FSA, a non-Syrian Mercenary force of salafist takfiris, is our Frankenstein.
The Chem Weapons meme is as phony as that “intercepted” phone call. Obama should drop it.
If Obama wants Syrian society and culture destroyed, he should find someone else to lead the effort. Greece and Portugal might be suceptible to bribes.
As to the US stand on morality, I suspect that the UN General Assembly is more concerned about the US flouting international conventions on land mines, small arms and cluster bombs, than they are about Syria’s 40-year-old inventory of poison gases.
It would be unwise for Obama to take his shaky case to them, to the US Congress, or to any other bellwether of public sentiment, unless he wants to be reined in so he has an excuse for not acting unwisely.
Syrian society and culture is doing a pretty good job of destroying itself already and wouldn't seem to need much help from the USofA.
DeleteUPDATE:
ReplyDeleteWashington’s statements threatening to use military force against Syria unilaterally are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
Given the lack of evidence, any unilateral military action bypassing the UN Security Council – “no matter how limited it is” – would be a direct violation of international law and would undermine the prospects for a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria and will lead to a new round of confrontation and victims, Lukashevich concludes.
“Instead of executing the decisions of G8’s summit in Lough Erne and subsequent agreements to submit comprehensive report from experts investigating possible cases of use of chemical weapons in Syria to the UN Security Council, in the absence of any evidence, we hear threats of a strike on Syria,” the statement reads.
Lukashevich emphasizes that even “US allies” are calling to wait for the completion of the UN chemical expert group “in order to get an unbiased picture of what really happened and decide on further steps in terms of the Syrian crisis.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council may have to wait as long as two weeks before reviewing the final results of an analysis of samples taken from where chemical weapons were used in Syria, diplomats told Reuters on Friday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told representatives from China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France, warning them of the time period on the eve of a possible US missile strike on the Syrian regime.
What a stroke of genius to get us into this mess.
ReplyDeleteI've said again and again Obama is a genius.
DeleteBY: Bill Gertz
ReplyDeleteAugust 30, 2013 6:02 pm
The U.S. military, struggling after defense cuts of tens of billions of dollars, will be unable to pay for attacks on Syria from current operating funds and must seek additional money from Congress, according to congressional aides.
President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said on Friday he has not made a final decision on a military strike against Syria. He sought to play down both the scope and duration of the anticipated punitive missile and bombing campaign.
“As you’ve seen, today we’ve released our unclassified assessment detailing with high confidence that the Syrian regime carried out a chemical weapons attack that killed well over a thousand people, including hundreds of children,” Obama said.
The president said the use of the deadly weapons had violated international “norms” and that action was needed to prevent the further use of the arms.
From Obama’s statement
ReplyDeleteSo I have said before and I meant what I said, that the world has an obligation to make sure that we maintain the norm against the use of chemical weapons. Now, I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm. But as I’ve already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/barack-obama-syria-crisis-96114.html#ixzz2dUq6TPUU
Obama’ military
ReplyDeleteThose little slips of language can mean a lot.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see that. Wonder if it was Teleprompted, or not.
US Middle East policy – incoherent
ReplyDeletePOSTED AT 5:21 PM ON AUGUST 30, 2013 BY BRUCE MCQUAIN
And frankly, I think that’s a nice way of describing it. James Picht declares that Barack Obama is the worst foreign policy president ever. Rumor has it Jimmy Carter is all smiles. Picht says our Middle Eastern policy is incoherent. He lays his argument out this way:
Obama’s botched efforts in the Middle East serve to remind us that there’s no situation so bad that dedicated ineptitude can’t make it worse. His administration team has done just that. American foreign policy goals in the region are now completely unclear.
Obama’s dithering in Egypt has antagonized everyone there, has been interpreted as support of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, and has pushed Egypt directly into Russia’s embrace. No one knows whether our goal in Egypt is stability or democracy. We appear to back Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, which is backed also by Hamas, which in turn is supported by Iran, but our support appears completely irrelevant. Egypt’s new leaders have concluded they can safely ignore us.
The fiasco in Syria is worse. Is our goal there regime change? Is the goal still regime change even if that puts jihadists in charge? The Syrian rebels are supported by al-Qaeda and Hamas, and opposed by Iran, which with Russia supports Assad. Where exactly in all this do our interests lie? Are we really on the side of al-Qaeda?
Do we intend to back the monarchy in Bahrain, no matter how repressive it grows, in order to keep the base that houses our Fifth Fleet? Bahrain will eventually explode, but American support of the monarchy gives it free reign to repress the freedom movement and clamp down the pressure-cooker lid even more tightly.
The Obama Administration has dissembled its way across the Middle East, leaving enemies and allies alike uncertain of our intentions. Russia, China and Iran have been much more transparent. Saudi Arabia immediately gave Egypt’s General Sisi $12 billion in aid after the army deposed Morsi, the first democratically elected leader in Egypt’s 5,000-year history. Obama in contrast withdrew from joint military exercises but seemed uncertain whether to cut other aid.
Russia has clearly backed Syria’s Assad, while Obama has dithered over a military response to nerve gas attacks against civilians. If there is a response, it now seems designed to punish Assad without actually hurting him.
After months of tacitly supporting the rebels, the administration seems desperate to avoid hitting important military targets when it punishes Assad. And to the horror of American military leadership, the administration has planned its attack in public, all but sending Assad a map of likely targets.
As a result, Obama has come to be more disliked in the Middle East than his predecessor:
DeleteThe Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project finds that support for the United States is lower now in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan than it was in 2008. Approval for Obama’s policies was only 15 percent in Muslim countries last spring; what that rate would be now in Egypt and Syria is anyone’s guess, but a safe guess would be “lower.”
Truly amazing. It is hard to imagine the level of incompetence that is required for our foreign policy to be in such disarray. But there it is.
Charles Krauthammer calls what is going on a “complete humiliation” for Obama and the US:
“This is a complete humiliation for the Obama administration,” Krauthammer said. “Forget about the narrative of what Obama wants to do, which I think is a bad idea, but let’s assume it’s a good idea. This involves the elementary conduct of international diplomacy, trying to get some allies aboard so you don’t act unilaterally.
“And here is Obama trying to gather an ally or two for a pinprick and he gets nothing,” he added.
Krauthammer then questioned what officials were thinking this week when they leaked information about possible attacks in Syria.
“Did nobody actually think to check on the allies?” he said. “I mean, these are guys who couldn’t organize a three-car funeral.”
Basic or elementary diplomacy seems beyond this bunch. And leadership is non-existent. Instead we get an administration that seems to think that just because they decide something has to happen, it is the duty of allies to do our bidding. That premise was rudely shot down in the UK yesterday. When your coalition is you and France, you’ve failed Diplomacy 101.
But it isn’t much different than how the administration acts domestically. At every turn and in reaction to any minor roadblock or setback, the administration is likely to whip out an executive order or just ignore the law to do what it wishes. And while that may be somewhat effective here, in the international arena, they just don’t play that game.
~McQ
“Did nobody actually think to check on the allies?” he said. “I mean, these are guys who couldn’t organize a three-car funeral.”
DeleteThere's a good image.
And they wouldn't be able to find the cemetery in any case.
Marriage Proposal Goes Bad
ReplyDeleteThat's funny as hell :)!
Deleteheh
Snared again:
DeleteRemember that landing on the Pickup Truck?
(I was going to send it to a bunch of email buddies, but I figured I'd better vett it here first, just in case I missed something obvious)
DeleteThe Uke player looks pretty genuine to me.
...like the Kiddie Train Scene, too, not to mention the mop lady.
Forgot to look closely to she if she is Filipino.
T can probly be definitive on that.
Filipinas are sentimental and wouldn't react like that. So I'm thinking a moody Thai.
DeleteThe lady in Purple with all the kids looks like she's tearing up pretty badly.
DeleteI guess the answer to his question is "no"
DeleteTebow Tosses Two Touchdowns In Preseason Finale: 'I'm Blessed Because Of My Faith'...
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Ted Nugent's wife arrested with gun at airport...
Didn't know Teddy was caught
ReplyDeletePoaching in Paradise:
"In 1978, Nugent began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa.
Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa's parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian, an arrangement that Spin magazine ranked in October 2000 as #63 on their list of the "100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock".[30][31]"
Well, the first time that I got it I was just ten years old.
DeleteI got it from some kitty next door.
An' I went to see the doctor and he gave me the cure.
I think I got it some more.
They give me cat scratch fever. Cat scratch fever.
I forget how old you said you were.
DeleteYou got your orientation before you were a teen, right?
That I'm a lesbian is no longer the operative statement, Doug. Being married to a member of the opposite sex is now the operative statement. That's what's got WiO all tied up in knots, but it's people like him and Booby that justify my decision to post from behind a layer of Opdec. Our 24th Anniversary, by the way, is in a couple more days (Sept 1), and since I'm 48, that means going forward, and forever after, I will have been married to my best buddy for most of my life.
DeleteThe question we've all wanted answered -
ReplyDeleteHow long can a severed head survive? -
http://www.livescience.com/39219-can-severed-head-live.html
If anyone would know, you'd think it would be the Moslems.
Regardless of the guillotine.
DeleteRemember back in the 1860s when America was having a Civil War, and the Ottomans, Arab Nomads, and Persians came to our land to intervene?
ReplyDeleteYeah, neither do I.
I remember my neighbor got a Chevy Nomad in 1960.
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCulUDvALM
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw1MDMvqEg4
Swedish Mafia
Instead of fitting you with cement overshoes and throwing you in the East River, you're stuck in a hot tub with blondes and forced to listen to ABBA.
DeleteT, I missed your reply to my query for why 2 years ago the first download started in a matter of a few seconds, but now often take 20 seconds!
ReplyDeleteDoug, when you surf to a link, or download a file, your browser sends a name like "http:\\www.cleanposts.com" (which happens to be my web site) to a Domain Name Service which translates it to a four byte string like "75.147.177.4" (which happens to be the actual position of my website's server on the World Wide Web". Subsequent calls to a link on the same site (a second MP3 perhaps, as I indicated in my original reply) do not go to the DNS site first, because your browser is smart enough to remember that the site has already been translated, so it just uses the raw IP. That answers the question as to why there is a time difference between two hits. But the lag has increased significantly, as you also point out. This is because in just the last two or three years, tablets and phones allow people to surf the web anywhere they go, so the number of devices on the Internet has skyrocketed, putting a bigger demand on those translation sites like GoDaddy.com. There's no NSA chicanery here.
DeleteAha!
DeleteThanks a lot.
So no matter the provider it ain't like the old days, huh?
Hell, back in modem days if you were just surfing light pages with Netscape .98 things were a lot quicker than they are now.
I have Windows 98 on one of my PC's, just for shits and grins, but Firefox (descendant of Netscape) won't run on it past version 2, which can't render Facebook. Opera works okay. What's great about Windows 98 is it's so damn small, I can back the whole OS up into a corner of a USB stick. Also, it's as clean as Linux. There's only four processes running, and I know what they are. XP is bloated and chock full of crap.
Deleteor was it 0.93 ?
DeleteWin 98 Second Edition was the highpoint.
DeleteStill got it on my Micron w' 16 mb of Ram. (paid dearly for that upgrade)
Doubt if it would run if I fired it up, but I'll try sometime.
Here's Netscape 3.04 running on Windows 3.11. I don't know when 0.93 would have been.
Delete16 mb? Hell, this damn blog is more than that just loading the front page.
DeleteNow that I think about it, the Microns running 3.11, I think.
DeleteDid you right all that stuff?
Delete"BUTT REAM"
:-)
Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter has called for a peace conference.
ReplyDeleteJim's always on top of things.
He's Mr. Peacenut.
Delete"write"
ReplyDelete1994:
Delete"Netscape announced in its first press release (13 October 1994) that it would make Navigator available without charge to all non-commercial users, and beta versions of version 1.0 and 1.1 were indeed freely downloadable in November 1994 and March 1995, with the full version 1.0 available in December 1994"
Those are first drafts, Wordstar hyphenates where it wants to, I have to add a picture, caption, fix the hyphenation, etc. But sure Doug, I wrote all that stuff.
DeleteMintPress news...
ReplyDeleteHmm...
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/08/31/shia-advocacy-journalism-behind-story-claiming-saudis-gave-rebels-chemical-weapons/
propaganda?
read the article about mintpress..
Correspondents and staff writers include writers and analysts with experience contributing to Iran’s Press TV, J Street, Russia Today, Al-Jazeera, Occupy Wall Street, AlterNet, TruthOut and Electronic Intifada. The site promises to run stories through a “social justice” lens.
Deletelol I trust them as far as I can throw them.