This illustrates once again the poor judgement and advice Obama has received from his National Security Council the past years. He is dumbfounded by what is happening, the Middle East is unraveling before our eyes. As you remember, I was extremely upset by Obama’s intent to punish the Assad regime for unproven guilt of the gas attack on a Damascus suburb one year ago.
○ UK Terror Threat Level Raised To Severe
Europe has gone mad today … TERROR THREAT level has gone a notch higher in Great Britain and PM Cameron has extended Big Brother surveillance, revoke citizenships of Muslims fighting in the Middle East [not meant for dual citizens of Israel] and monitoring mosques, speeches, the Internet, etc. Just now in The Netherlands identical measures are proposed. Both Britain and the Dutch refuse to consider the present terror threats from Al Qaeda groups in Syria and Iraq as “blow-back” from recent policy to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad. The first question in the following press conference from a Sky News reporter about the planned bombing of Assad’s forces one year ago, Cameron failed to answer.
○ It Stinks A Mile In the Wind
It would have opened a corridor for the Al Qaeda extremists to enter Damascus and destroy the city in a similar manner it has done in Northern Syria, Syrian-Kurds at the Turkey boder, and conquering Anbar province plus the city of Mosul near Kurdish Iraq. The beheading of Tim Foley was bad, but these acts were already happening in Syria over a period of two years. The execution of over 200 young men in Raqqa this week is a war crime, inhumane and should be acted upon by the global community.
Great Britain has increased the THREAT LEVEL one notch and I just heard the statement by PM Cameron. Filled with half-truths and outright lies, Cameron tries to dodge any blame by the US/UK foreign policy decision to strike at Saddam Hussein in March 2003. “Terror has been present in various forms and is caused by a poisenous ideology which we will defeat.” Britain is already a total surveillance state in compliance with “1984” but more measures will be taken.
A short review how well the U.S. leadership got it all wrong on Syria [and Libya and Iraq too].
Continued below the fold …
Samantha Powers after Ghouta Gas Attacks plus video
Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, gave a strong defense of President Obama’s call to strike back at the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC.
Neocons Push Obama to Go Beyond a Punitive Strike in Syria
By David Corn | Wed Aug. 28, 2013 3:02 PM EDT |The drums of war are beating, as various news reports state that President Barack Obama and his European allies are close to launching some sort of military attack against Syria. But one question is how big the bang will be. The White House has signaled that whatever comes will be strictly a punitive strike in retaliation for the Assad regime’s presumed use of chemical weapons against civilians.
…
But the band of neocons that led the United States into the Iraq War have quickly moved to seize on the administration’s inclination to mount a punitive strike in order to draw the nation further into the conflict in Syria.On Wednesday, the Foreign Policy Initiative–which was started by Bill Kristol, Dan Senor, Robert Kagan, and other hawkish-minded policy wonks–sent a letter to Obama, urging him to slam Assad in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria: “At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons.”
But the letter–which was signed by Elliott Abrams, Fouad Ajami, Max Boot, Ellen Bork, Eliot Cohen, Douglas Feith, Joseph Lieberman, Clifford May, Joshua Muravchik, Danielle Pletka, Karl Rove, Randy Scheunemann, Kristol, Kagan, Senor, and dozens of others–demands that Obama go further. It calls on the president to provide “vetted moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition” with the military support necessary to strike regime units armed with chemical weapons. That is, the neocons and their allies have CW-ized their pre-existing demand for the United States to arm the rebels.
It remains to be seen how Obama can thread the needle with a punitive strike that achieves its punitive goal but that does not lead to deeper US involvement in the war. But for the neocons and others–also signing the letter were Leon Wieseltier, Bernard-Henri Levy, and Tim Pawlenty–this is a moment to exploit. They want to turn a punitive strike into a commitment for war, and they have redeployed an argument from a decade ago: “The world–including Iran, North Korea, and other potential aggressors who seek or possess weapons of mass of destruction–is now watching to see how you respond.” Here’s the full letter.
The following is a full list of signatories:
Ammar Abdulhamid, Dr. Robert Kagan, Elliott Abrams, Lawrence F. Kaplan, Dr. Fouad Ajami, James Kirchick, Michael Allen, Irina Krasovskaya, Dr. Michael Auslin, Dr. William Kristol, Gary Bauer, Bernard-Henri Levy, Paul Berman, Dr. Robert J. Lieber, Max Boot, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Ellen Bork, Tod Lindberg, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, Mary Beth Long, Matthew R. J. Brodsky, Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken, Dr. Eliot A. Cohen, Dr. Michael Makovsky, Senator Norm Coleman, Ann Marlowe, Ambassador William Courtney, Clifford D. May, Seth Cropsey, Dr. Alan Mendoza, James S. Denton, Dr. Joshua Muravchik, Paula A. DeSutter, Andrew Natsios, Dr. Larry Diamond, Governor Tim Pawlenty, Dr. Paula J. Dobriansky, Martin Peretz, Thomas Donnelly, Danielle Pletka, Dr. Michael Doran, Dr. David Pollock, Mark Dubowitz, Arch Puddington, Dr. Colin Dueck, Karl Rove, Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, Randy Scheunemann, Ambassador Eric S. Edelman, Dan Senor, Douglas J. Feith, Ambassador John Shattuck, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Lee Smith, Abe Greenwald, Henry D. Sokolski, Christopher J. Griffin, James Traub, John P. Hannah, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, Dr. William Inboden, Michael Weiss, Bruce Pitcairn Jackson, Leon Wieseltier, Ash Jain, Khawla Yusuf, Dr. Kenneth Jensen, Robert Zarate, Allison Johnson, Dr. Radwan Ziadeh, Ambassador Robert G. Joseph.
A no-fly zone for Libya by Senator John Kerry on March 11, 2011
Leaders around the world are vigorously debating the advisability of a no-fly zone to stop the violence unfolding in Libya. Some cite Bosnia, where NATO took too long to protect civilian populations in the mid-1990s. Others remember Rwanda, where President Bill Clinton expressed regret for not acting to save innocent lives. But the stakes in Libya today are more appropriately underscored by the tragedy that took place in southern Iraq in the waning days of the Persian Gulf War.
The situation in Libya today is not identical. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, the Libyan people rose up spontaneously [I suppose the spontaneous uprising is even continuing today! – Oui] against four decades of repression by Col. Moammar Gaddafi. Still, the specter that haunts me is the same – ordinary people facing off against an autocrat’s airpower and well-armed soldiers, counting on the free world to protect them against massacre after we’ve applauded and bolstered their bravery with our words.
Diplomacy is urgently needed to build broad support for a no-fly zone. The most important imprimatur should come from the United Nations, where debate should begin immediately over a resolution authorizing a no-fly zone. China and Russia have expressed reservations. If the Security Council fails to authorize action, those of us determined to protect Libyan civilians will face a more difficult choice should the violence escalate.
So our diplomatic efforts must extend beyond the United Nations. The support of NATO and the African Union are important. To avoid the perception of NATO or the United States attacking another Muslim country, we need the backing of the Arab world.
NATO Agrees to Take Command of No-Fly Zone in Libya
By Elisabeth Bumiller and David D. Kirkpatrick | New York Times | March 24, 2011 |After a day of confusion and conflicting reports out of NATO headquarters in Brussels, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced in Washington that NATO had agreed to lead the allies in maintaining the no-fly zone. Effectively, that means that planes from NATO countries will fly missions over Libya with little fear of being shot down since Tomahawk missiles, most of them American, largely destroyed Colonel Qaddafi’s air defenses and air force last weekend.
A NATO official said that two member nations, Germany and Turkey, objected to NATO participating in strikes that they consider beyond the mandate of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized the military action in Libya.
Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton on the Operation to target Libya
The six years of the Obama administration has pushed the neocon doctrine through enforcement by economic sanctions and a R2P military response. The US is the global unipolar military power, is belligerent in its policy, arrogant in dealing with China, Germany and Russia and refrains fron compromise and dialogue. I don’t recognize the person holding the office of President of the United States and Leader of Democracy and the Free World. U.S. exceptionalism is dead and will not recover in my lifetime.
The narrative and terms used by Obama’s advisors in foreign affairs are becoming more fascist by the month.
PNAC Letter to George Bush – 20 Sept. 2001 plus all signatories [BooMan archives]
Thanks for link, read this PNAC letter [cached version] once again ::
Terrorist groups to be eliminated —
- Osama Bin Laden and Taliban
- Iraq and Saddam Hussein
- Hezbollah and supporting nations Syria and Iran
- Palestinian terror
- Increase U.S. defense budget
Read on …
I have come to the conclusion the Obama administration has been following an Middle East Policy based on the agenda of Israel, PM Netanyahu and the neocon lobby in Washington DC. There are way too many markers indicating the powerful lobby in Washington DC and representations in the media. This is just a beginning …
