C’mon, Doyle McManus, you can warhawk better than this. All you’re giving me is that we need to get embroiled in Syria’s civil war because all other possibilities are worse? We need to do more? But you don’t know what “more” is?
You acknowledge that “Syria’s opposition is a mess,” and that “the radical Islamist Al Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, has won a reputation as the most effective fighting force on the rebel side.” You acknowledge that the opposition is split between Qatari-sponsored and Saudi-sponsored factions, without adding that the Kurds are fractured between anti-Turkish and anti-Iraqi factions and anti- and pro-Assad factions, or that Iraq and Turkey have their own proxies. And, despite all of that, “We need to be doing more.” The president is “peevish” and “reluctant.”
Thank God he’s peevish and reluctant when he’s getting advice from the likes of you.
I wonder what would happen if the President went to Congress asking for an AUMF and a war spending bill financed by a war tax. Would the teabaggers shoot it down?
The U.S. military is divided into regional commands and each of these commands is constantly creating plans for every scenario they can imagine. Gasbags like McManus either don’t know anything about military planning or they pretend not to.
U.S. military power can’t solve all problems. Our military brass knows this and the plans they prepare and present to the president reflect this.
Too bad we don’t have a commentariat that knows this as well.
Most exact and concise post about the sad events in Syria under the watch of Barack/Hillary. Not sad to see her go, John Kerry has to sort out the mess. You forget Qatar is undercutting the influence of the US in any new power broker to succeed Assad and the Baath party. Money has been flowing to al-Nusra front from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The UAE has banned the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi King Abdullah wants the Salafists to reign Al-Sham (Greater Syria) as I have written.
Oh c’mon now, Martin. What could possibly go wrong if the US military was employed in combat in Syria. I mean, everything went so well in Iraq and Afghanistan, after all. That Vietnam thing doesn’t count.
The fruits of declaring the ME oil supply a US “national interest”. Thus even oil-poor Mid-East countries are within our bailiwick.
Under the current international legal regime, there is no basis for military intervention in Syria because the UN Security Council won’t approve it. Russia and China say no. Non-sanctioned US intervention in the Middle East has (at the very least) a bad odor these days, particularly in the Middle East. Seriously, as bad as the Syria situation may be, what possible basis exists for OUR intervention? Only rightwing militarism, ala Dimwit McStooge and Lindsey the military lawyer, thinks there’s some “basis” for US bombing the shit out of Assad’s boyz.
You know, there’s a lotta attack aircraft out there. Piloted by highly expert European majors and colonels in Britain, France and Italy. If some of these gub’mints want to intervene in their old colonies and the citizens seem to want their help, be our guest. Take the lead, ala Libya. We won’t say a word against it. Maybe we’ll even flout the Security Council and supply the operations.
But this only-America-can-bomb shit really should be comin’ to an end, even in the Land of Oil. THAT should be Cheney’s Legacy.
But I feel that its good he got identified.
canon ink replacement