So: Will They Or Won't They?
"This is not a court of law. And intelligence does not work that way. The common-sense test says he is responsible for this. He should be held to account."
Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff, Washington
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| Anti-war demonstrations in Washington protest against possible U.S. action in Syria before the White House on Saturday, September 7, 2013 ... AP Photo/Charles Dharapak |
A strenuous, even strident effort mounting a major support push to win assent from a divided Congress and support from the American public for a limited military strike on Syria doesn't appear to be moving many minds in the direction sought by the U.S. administration supporting President Barack Obama. Mr. McDonough admits that "irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence" is lacking in the White House persuasive arsenal. Common sense conclusions are there aplenty.
Sarin gas was most certainly used in the August 21 attack outside Damascus. And, according to American statistics, 1,429 people died as a result of that chemical gas attack, among them 426 Syrian children of all ages. Head of the press office at the anti-Assad Syrian Coalition, Khalid Saleh, insists that those numbers are higher, that many others who had been hospitalized as a result of the chemical attack, have since died.
U.S. journalist Charlie Rose was informed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an interview that conclusive evidence is missing. But he knows and will once again attest, that it was the rebels who mounted that attack. As well as other, previous such chemical gas attacks, though killing far fewer people. Validating his claims that he has mounted for years that terrorists will stop at nothing to gain the advantage to build an Islamist Sharia country out of Syria.
As a patriot and one upon whom ultimate responsibility for the welfare of all Syrians falls, he will not permit the terrorists to prevail. It is his duty and his determination to fight them by all and any means required and surmount all difficulties that his country is now facing. His job would be far easier if it were not for the West funding and arming the terrorists, the al-Qaeda militias.
If American interviewers can give President Assad free reign to voice his point of view, the President of the United States will have his opportunity as well since six network interviews were scheduled for Monday as well as a nationally televised speech from the White House planned for Tuesday. And then, on to persuade Congress. The Senate led by the president's own party will be first to vote.
The resolution to authorize the "limited and specified use" of U.S. armed forces for no longer than 90 days, and, of course, barring American ground troops from combat is the issue. By week's end the result should be clear. In the Republican-majority House of Representatives a vote will be cast the following week. An Associated Press survey indicates a 6-1 margin against adopting the resolution.
"Lobbing a few Tomahawk missiles will not restore our credibility overseas", grumbled Representative Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat from California. "For the president to say that this is just a very quick thing and we're out of there, that's how long wars start." Perhaps she recalls former President George W. Bush declaring the war in Iraq ended a year into the occupation which ended up lasting another ten years at a cost of trillions to the U.S. Treasury.
"The world is watching, and Syrians are wondering: When is the international community going to act and intervene to protect them?" said Khalid Saleh, of the Syrian Coalition, in Washington to lobby lawmakers to back their president, even while almost half of the 433-member House of Representatives and a third of the 100-member Senate remain undecided.
Labels: Conflict, Syria, United States Intervention
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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