As the Obama administration appears to be on the verge of direct military attacks on Syria, I highly recommend the website of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Washington-based lobbying group that expresses the Quaker belief that war is never the answer to the world’s problems.
• There’s an August 28 letter from 25 non-governmental groups urging President Obama to pursue a route other than direct military intervention.
While we unequivocally condemn any use of chemical weapons along with continued indiscriminate killing of civilians and other violations of international humanitarian law, military strikes are not the answer. Rather than bringing an end to the violence that has already cost more than 100,000 lives, they threaten to widen the vicious civil war in Syria and undermine prospects to de-escalate the conflict and eventually reach a negotiated settlement.
• There’s an excellent blog post by an Iraq veteran, Matt Southworth.
I empathize with the suffering happening in Syria right now. I’ve seen firsthand the same kind of suffering. Yet there is a universal truth to war—civil, preemptive, intervention or otherwise. War does not and will never protect civilian populations. Women and children will always be most inadvertently effected. To engage militarily will only serve to exacerbate, not remedy, the crisis in Syria.
• And there are policy recommendations spelling out alternatives to the dangerous escalation of the conflict.
I also found the debate earlier this week on the PBS Newshour to be very instructive. You can view the segment or read the transcript online.
I would welcome suggestions for other current resources shedding light on the issue of U.S. foreign policy in Syria.
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A good summary of whom is applying pressure.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/how-an-insular-beltway-elite-makes-wars-of-choice-more-likely/279116/
the US should have stayed out of WWII and asked Hitler to be nicer instead of killing millions of innocent people.
even America eventually knew this was BS.
Poor analogy.
In the case of Syria, the question is: What can we accomplish? What do we expect to accomplish?
Limited air strikes?
Will those avoid civilian casualties, which is what we way we’re trying to do?
Hard to do.
Will it reduce the number of Syrian refugees by making some of them feel safe enough to return home?
No way.
Will it take out Assad?
Seems like there’s no consensus that this is a goal, since the opposition is a hodge podge of interests.
Will an expanded Syrian conflict cool off the region?
Doesn’t seem like it.
Will it strengthen the U.S. military’s position in other theaters?
The military is already dealing with the sequester, wars in Afghanistan, Yeman, Somalia, Pakistan, it’s a long list that I haven’t made it through.
The Washington Post reports doubts among the military over getting drawn directly into the Syrian conflict, another potential quagmire.
What do we do if “limited” air strikes don’t work?
Is there a battle plan?
Would landing U.S. troops make anyone in the region happy?
A few, perhaps. But how many would be needed? Syria is not Afghanistan.
We’re not dealing with a rag tag army of insurgents.
Syria is not Hitler’s Germany, nor is it Hitler’s Europe.
And the goals of any military intervention are confused and contradictory at best, undefined at worst.
But how does “convening an emergency summit” (read: more talk) or instituting an arms embargo resolve any of those issues either? This conflict has gone on for 3 years while the world has simply stood by and watched. I don’t know what military tactics we’re actually considering but I see nothing wrong with “surgical” strikes on military infrastructure of the regime in a way that is similar to Bosnia (1995) and Kosovo (1999). By the way, I think these are better analogies albeit imperfect.
Ian, I guess I don’t understand how one can honestly believe than inaction is the best policy if we limit the conversation to reducing civilian casualties. Whether or not action is in our strategic interest or whether to topple the regime are different questions, but if we are relegating ourselves simply to providing defense of unarmed civilians, why balk at standing up for those who are enduring such pain?
So was it OK for the US to enter WWII and attack Germany?
yes or no, please.
then explain “why”
Hint: Most people do not buy into absolutist approaches, no matter how strong and powerful the argument. (*most* people……..)
A voice of reason, thanks, Ian, I believe that the US has done enough harm with Israel’s urging in the Middle East. People are suffering from our interference, supplying of weapons to rebels. MP George Galloway a long time activist for peace and justice did not mense words when he spoke forcefully against British involvement in an attack on Syria. The British Gov. has played a big role in undermining peace in the Middle East as Americas side kick. Both Tony Blair and GW Bush are considered war criminals in many parts of the world. We need to focus on changing our own corrupt governments actions. Attacking Syria or proposing such an attack has taken the focus off the attack on the US Constitution and our Civil Rights by NSA etc. by the Obama Administration!
from NPR:
Secretary of State John Kerry says that tests have shown evidence of Syria’s use of the chemical agent sarin in an attack on the opposition last month that the White House has blamed on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
“I can share with you today that blood and hair samples that have come to us through an appropriate chain of custody from East Damascus, from first responders, it has tested positive for signatures of sarin,” Kerry told CNN on Sunday.
“Each day that goes by, this case is even stronger,” he said on the cable network’s State of the Union program.
Kerry said the U.S. obtained the samples “independently,” giving no indication the results came from the United Nations chemical weapons inspectors, who left Syria with samples on Saturday.
The U.N. has not said how long it would take to test its samples, but speaking on Saturday, a spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested it might be days or a week.
from the uberconservative NEW YORK TIMES:
… In recent days, as he has built a case for intervention, Mr. Kerry has called the attack a “moral obscenity” and branded President Bashar al-Assad of Syria “a thug and a murderer.” On Sunday, he likened Mr. Assad to two other dictators — Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein – who had violated the international prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Kerry issued a warning to Mr. Assad not to be “foolish enough” to take advantage of Mr. Obama’s delay. He suggested that the president would not wait for approval from lawmakers, who are on recess until Sept. 9, should another attack occur before they returned to Washington.
As I said before, if we are dangerously uncertain of the outcome and are led into war by a Commander-in-chief who can’t recognize that this conflict is pitting Islamic extremists against an authoritarian regime with both sides shouting “Allah Akbar” at each other, then let Allah sort it out.
– Sarah Palin, Aug. 30, 2013
ingenious. and thoughtful of other human beings.
and on a detailed front, please study this, if you have time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/29/9-questions-about-syria-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/?tid=pm_pop
Dear Mr. or Ms. T: This subject is of great importance, and is one on which people of good faith and principle may well disagree. You don’t advance the discussion with facile analogies or snide remarks. If you have an argument to make, please do so. It also would help if you came out from hiding. I suspect that if you identified yourself you would find it necessary to be more serious….and thus would be more likely to be taken seriously by others.
Dear Dave: Get Real. This is an Island. I am not identifying myself. Deal with it.
Back to reality, instead of whining on a blog about “snide remarks”:
“PARIS — Seeking to move beyond Britain’s blindsiding rejection of military intervention in the Syrian conflict, the Obama administration received strong support from France on Friday and released a detailed intelligence summary to buttress its contention that the Syrian government used chemical munitions in an Aug. 21 attack, asserting for the first time that it had killed 1,429 people, nearly a third of them children.
Focus on the subject please, and not whether I identify my name …… lol
Glad you identified yourself, by the way; I can see you used the following title for a book:
American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World
http://www.amazon.com/American-Holocaust-The-Conquest-World/dp/0195085574
I’m shocked, shocked, that you have problems with my comments above. Your concern about my blog comments here have less to do with my name and more to do with your ….. interesting viewpoint on the word “Holocaust”. Good luck, sir.
Bush = Congressional Approval for Iraq and Afghanistan
Obama = I’ll do Syria without Congress
Bush = UN Approval for Iraq and Afghanistan
Obama = I’ll do Syria without the UN
Bush = Major US allies participate in Iraq and Afghanistan
Obama = I’ll go it alone
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/02/george-bush-iraq-interview
“George Bush, in a moment of reflection ahead of his departure from the White House, last night admitted that the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein on the basis of flawed intelligence was the biggest regret of his presidency. The acknowledgment marks the first time that Bush has publicly expressed doubts about his rationale for going to war on Iraq.”
lol. thanks for your powerful argument in favor of Bush over Obama!!!!
According to Michael Moore “Bush is worse than bin-Laden”
According to the UK Guardian Obama “is offering to serve as al-Qaeda’s airforce.”
So if Obama is working for alQaeda does that mean that Bush is still worse than Obama?
lol. nice one. please keep posting!
United Church of Christ is asking its members to Pray and Act for Syria, contact President Obama to avoid military responses. Kerry shamed America with his recent rhetoric trying to make a case for attack. Our interference in the Middle East via Israeli influence on American policy has caused undue suffering to other human beings and families at home. Stop this insanity!
“Nerve agents can kill quickly, within 10 minutes. Initial symptoms include salivation, constriction of the pupils and a feeling of tightness in the chest. At high doses, muscles clench, twitch and spasm.
“Your muscles tense up, but they can’t release,” said Charles Blair, a senior fellow on state and non-state threats for the Federation of American Scientists. “There’s muscle twitching. Then, as the muscle twitching gets more and more spasmodic, mucus comes out of the nose and mouth and you basically go into convulsions on the ground. People don’t survive this.”
now let’s discuss this from far away, for a decade or so, as if we were watching a movie. no need to get out of our safe, comfortable recliners.
Ian’s readers should know that Anthony Lawson, the “historian” promoted by Patty above is a notorious Holocaust denier.
In another posting by Patty, she commented how Anthony Lawson has a different take on WWII and Nuremberg (the trials). So I went searching for Anthony Lawson and found a piece he wrote denying that gassings took place in Nazi extermination camps.
He is quite infamous. Holocaust deniers are always motivated by hard core anti-Semitism.
Well, folks will have to watch for themselves and decide, Alan.
Anthony Lawson is your source??????
fine: here are some more of his laughable writings!
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/911-the-unidentified-murder-weapons/
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/a-little-known-fact-about-the-911-planes/
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/treason-by-members-of-the-united-states-congress/
It must have been realised that the letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signed by nearly 300 members of the U.S. Congress, affirming their commitment to Israel, would be widely publicised and fall into the hands of that illegal Apartheid State, so the writing and signing of that letter should be considered an act of treason.
The letter has totally undermined the power of the President of the United States by virtually telling Israel: “It does not matter what you do to the Palestinians, how many illegal structures you build on the territory you stole from them; how you behave towards the Lebanese, or what you have in mind for Iran, we, the signatories on this letter are with you, all the way.”
I am not a citizen of the United States, I am a citizen of a world that is being ruined by Zionism and its practitioners’ thirst for power and greed for land that does not rightly belong to them. Having goaded the United States to attack Iraq, it is now attempting to draw it into a pre-emptive attack on Iran, while continuing to lie about the reason.