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It was fun watching how badly Obama wants to go to war. It was fun watching how mad he was the American people weren't blindly behind him.
My takeaway - we will be striking Syria at some point in the near future. We're just going to need that convenient "nudge" from the Syrian government that will give us the excuse to go in.
I find it be quite contradictory when he states that this is a matter of national security, yet at the same time he says that retaliation from Syria is not a real threat to the US or its allies.
I also don't believe a word he says.
Remember, we are always the force for good...
Except when we're not.
http://theweek.com/article/index/248...s-against-iran
I didn't watch. Completely sick of bull****.
But yet you still visit the chopcountry political forum.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalyn
:Alone:
I should've said, "Completely sick of relevant bull****."Quote:
Originally Posted by weso1
President Obama’s confused logic on Syria
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...s2Mauw.twitter
Didn't see the speech (I routinely avoid watching political speech having been subjected to them for so many years), but read a couple of the wrap-ups.
It ain't easy sittin' in the big chair, especially the big chair in the arguably the world's only superpower in the post-Cold War era. The President is catching it from both ends. Caught a little on Fox and their big complaint is that the President is too lax in letting events dictate his reaction. Their commentators go beyond Syria in this critique because they seem more worried about this setting a precedent for the US to be inconsistent (as if we aren't already) and reluctant to take our "rightful (my projection)" place in world affairs. They also seem worried about what our allies would think.
The other side still worries about Obama's obvious belligerence in this matter and it appears that even with the false start in Egypt, Obama supports a continuance of the Arab Spring and sees the situation in Syria in that vein. I don't know if I agree with him, but I've never been anyone's Middle East expert.
As for the consistency argument, every President is consistent until he isn't.
What I find amusing about this is how the parties' arguments have reversed according to who's in charge. And of course, the democrats' continued practice of either deflecting blame or just saying "Well, the president's job is hard."
This. That argument didn't fly when Bush was in charge, why should it for Obama? Because we know deep down he's a warm and fuzzy liberal, not a right-wing extremist?Quote:
Originally Posted by bravesnumberone
Because Bush etal knew there were no "weapons of mass destruction"
Becasue Bush did not wait for UN inspectors to finish.
We could go on for pages
Some of you need to read up on topics before typing. The above statement is absurd bordering on ignorant of history and current events
Lol.
Obama says Assad used chemical weapons. Has he shown any evidence of this? Or should we just take his word for it?Quote:
Originally Posted by 57Brave
It's basically the same as the Iraq situation
Few facts first.
1) no bombs have been dropped
2) Obama called for a delay in Congressional vote
3) Obama sought Congressional approval
4) no bombs have been dropped
5) no missles launched
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Exclusive: U.N. Report Will Point to Assad Regime in Massive Chemical Attack
Posted By Colum Lynch Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - 8:41 PM Share
U.N. inspectors have collected a "wealth" of evidence on the use of nerve agents that points to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against his own people, according to a senior Western official.
The inspection team, which is expected on Monday to present U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with a highly anticipated report on a suspected Aug. 21 nerve agent attack in the suburbs of Damascus, will not directly accuse the Syrian regime of gassing its own people, according to three U.N.-based diplomats familiar with the investigation. But it will provide a strong circumstantial case -- based on an examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and laboratory tests of soil, blood, and urine samples -- that points strongly in the direction of Syrian government culpability.
"I know they have gotten very rich samples -- biomedical and environmental -- and they have interviewed victims, doctors and nurses," said the Western official. "It seems they are very happy with the wealth of evidence they got." The official, who declined to speak on the record because of the secrecy surrounding the U.N. investigation, could not identify the specific agents detected by the inspector team, but said, "You can conclude from the type of evidence the [identity of the] author."
The U.N. team, which is led by the Swedish scientist Ake Sellström, traveled to Damascus last month to begin an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons. During that trip, according to the United States and other Western powers, Syrian forces launched a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people in the al Ghouta suburb of Damascus.
A montage of video clips posted by Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on her Twitter page depicted horrific scenes of purported victims writhing in agony, and gasping for breath. Rows of dead children, their faces blue from apparent suffocation, were lined up in morbid rows, white sheets covering their tiny bodies.
Syria and Russia have denied that the government in Damascus carried out the attack, saying it was the work of Syrian rebels seeking to persuade the West to intervene militarily on their behalf. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Assad denied his government used chemical weapons -- and compared the U.S. case against Syria to former Secretary of State Colin Powell's flawed presentation against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In Syria, Assad said, "the Russians have completely opposite evidence: that missiles [were] thrown from areas that the rebels controlled."
Syria and Russia, meanwhile, have highlighted several other alleged chemical weapons attacks that wound up hitting Syrian forces. The Syrian government initially invited U.N. inspectors to Syria to investigate an alleged March 19 sarin attack in the town of Khan al Assal, near Aleppo. While the inspectors were in Damascus, Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar al Jaafari, requested that investigators look at three other cases of alleged chemical weapons use in late August against Syrian forces. On their final day in Damascus, the U.N. inspection team visited a military hospital in Damascus to examine alleged chemical weapons victims.
Diplomats say that Sellström's inspection team is only planning to report next week on the al Ghouta attacks. The team plans to return to Damascus at a later date to complete its investigations into the other incidents, including the March incident at Khan al Assal.
Under the terms of its mandate, however, the U.N. inspectors are only authorized to conclude whether chemical weapons have been used in Syria, not assign responsibility for their use.
While Western diplomats say they are confident that U.N. report would strengthen the case against the Syrian government, they said they expected the case would not fundamentally alter the course of diplomatic efforts to contain the chemical weapons threat in Syria. "It's not a game changer," said one diplomat.
On Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, admitted his country operated a clandestine chemical weapons program, and vowed to open them up to international scrutiny as part of a Russian-brokered deal to place Syria's chemical agents under international control. "We are ready to reveal the locations of the chemical weapon sites and to stop producing chemical weapons and make these sites available for inspection by representatives of Russia, other countries and the United Nations," Moallem said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, headed to Geneva to see if they could reach agreement on a plan to control and ultimately destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Secretary-General Ban, for his part, appeared to be moving beyond the Sellström investigation. "I have not yet received the report from Dr. Sellström, nor do I know what it will contain," Ban told reporters Monday. But "I'm considering urging the Security Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria's chemical weapons and chemical precursor stocks to places inside Syria where they can be safely stored and destroyed."