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WHY SO SYRIA?
Aug. 30th, 2013 07:21 pmOr, “Yr New Favorite War (Exclusive Preview!)”
This is the post I was hoping never to have to write. But …
There is trouble in Syria.
You knew that.
And as an American citizen, I am required under the Patriot Act to post my opinion about it so that the NSA has something to put in its file on me.
So … here’s a few talking points, since everyone communicates in talking points these days.
1. I get that a lot of people want to avenge the poor kids in that horrific video and put a stop to it (because that’s what Batman or Arnold Schwarzenegger would do). The problem is, that kind of thing works out a lot better in Hollywood blockbusters than real life.
I don’t mean that to sound snide. The point is that the situation is a lot more complicated than television news and Republicans are making it look. So much so that I’d advise anyone with an open mind to look at this map and read this hypothetical conversation to get an idea of just how complex the situation really is before they finalize their opinion about it.
Suffice to say, there’s a lot more to it than just stopping Assad’s forces from using chemical weapons; military involvement come with serious consequences; and there’s no real upside for anyone – especially if Obama decides to act unilaterally (and at this rate he may actually have no choice – no one else in NATO wants to have anything to do with a military strike, and that right there should be telling Obama to consider his next move very carefully).
2. Consequently, I’m not that critical of the way Obama has handled it up to now, if only because he knows full well what happened the last time we invaded a Middle Eastern country on flimsy evidence of chemical weapons usage/ownership.
3. I’m also generally not impressed with Republicans – especially John McCain and Lindsay Graham – who have been complaining for monthsthat Obama has been dragging his feet and being a pussy about this, because c’mon, they complain about EVERYTHING Obama does as required by the GOP’s official “Obama is the absolute worst POTUS in the history of EVER” meme. If Obama had unleashed the Shock’n’Awe Kraken on Syria back in May, McCain and Graham would probably be the first to say, “Why is Obama shunning diplomacy and unilaterally dragging us into an unnecessary war?”
Meanwhile, everyone at Fox News would be saying, “This is just like when Obama invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Well, maybe not. But they will at the very least say, “Yr doing it wrong.” McCain is saying that now. Because from what I can tell, what the GOP really wants is not so much to bomb Syria as bomb Iran, and if we’re not going to do that, we need to at least bomb Syria back to the Stone Age to show Iran that we give the orders here, and if you get out of line we will fuck you up. So they’re going to complain no matter what Obama does, even if he does what they want him to do.
4. Case in point: even Donald Rumsfeld is saying, “Now wait just a minute, Mr President.”
No, really:
Which is a funny thing for him to say, given the justifications he used to help Bush dish out for invading Iraq, just about all of which turned out to be bogus.
It could be Rumsfeld doesn’t think using illegal chemical weapons on yr own people should be taken as a bad thing. After all, back in his day, America used to be BFFs with guys like that.
So possibly he’s waiting for a reason that includes words like “overthrow”, “Iran”, “business model” and “Halliburton”. It’s hard to know. There are known knowns, unknown knowns, known unknowns, etc and so on.
So, yeah. Anyway. The bombing begins in five minutes, and whether it does or not, a whole lot of people are going to die – most if not all of them Syrians.
That's what I think about all this.
War all the time,
This is dF
This is the post I was hoping never to have to write. But …
There is trouble in Syria.
You knew that.
And as an American citizen, I am required under the Patriot Act to post my opinion about it so that the NSA has something to put in its file on me.
So … here’s a few talking points, since everyone communicates in talking points these days.
1. I get that a lot of people want to avenge the poor kids in that horrific video and put a stop to it (because that’s what Batman or Arnold Schwarzenegger would do). The problem is, that kind of thing works out a lot better in Hollywood blockbusters than real life.
I don’t mean that to sound snide. The point is that the situation is a lot more complicated than television news and Republicans are making it look. So much so that I’d advise anyone with an open mind to look at this map and read this hypothetical conversation to get an idea of just how complex the situation really is before they finalize their opinion about it.
Suffice to say, there’s a lot more to it than just stopping Assad’s forces from using chemical weapons; military involvement come with serious consequences; and there’s no real upside for anyone – especially if Obama decides to act unilaterally (and at this rate he may actually have no choice – no one else in NATO wants to have anything to do with a military strike, and that right there should be telling Obama to consider his next move very carefully).
2. Consequently, I’m not that critical of the way Obama has handled it up to now, if only because he knows full well what happened the last time we invaded a Middle Eastern country on flimsy evidence of chemical weapons usage/ownership.
3. I’m also generally not impressed with Republicans – especially John McCain and Lindsay Graham – who have been complaining for monthsthat Obama has been dragging his feet and being a pussy about this, because c’mon, they complain about EVERYTHING Obama does as required by the GOP’s official “Obama is the absolute worst POTUS in the history of EVER” meme. If Obama had unleashed the Shock’n’Awe Kraken on Syria back in May, McCain and Graham would probably be the first to say, “Why is Obama shunning diplomacy and unilaterally dragging us into an unnecessary war?”
Meanwhile, everyone at Fox News would be saying, “This is just like when Obama invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Well, maybe not. But they will at the very least say, “Yr doing it wrong.” McCain is saying that now. Because from what I can tell, what the GOP really wants is not so much to bomb Syria as bomb Iran, and if we’re not going to do that, we need to at least bomb Syria back to the Stone Age to show Iran that we give the orders here, and if you get out of line we will fuck you up. So they’re going to complain no matter what Obama does, even if he does what they want him to do.
4. Case in point: even Donald Rumsfeld is saying, “Now wait just a minute, Mr President.”
No, really:
“There really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation,” Rumsfeld told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Wednesday.
Which is a funny thing for him to say, given the justifications he used to help Bush dish out for invading Iraq, just about all of which turned out to be bogus.
It could be Rumsfeld doesn’t think using illegal chemical weapons on yr own people should be taken as a bad thing. After all, back in his day, America used to be BFFs with guys like that.
So possibly he’s waiting for a reason that includes words like “overthrow”, “Iran”, “business model” and “Halliburton”. It’s hard to know. There are known knowns, unknown knowns, known unknowns, etc and so on.
So, yeah. Anyway. The bombing begins in five minutes, and whether it does or not, a whole lot of people are going to die – most if not all of them Syrians.
That's what I think about all this.
War all the time,
This is dF
