Plan B Forum

We will be bombing Syria soon.

He made it sound as though all we're going to do is launch a few missiles and get out of there and then everything will go back to normal in the Middle East and for us.

Does anyone believe that?

Kerry just ejaculated a mouthful.

President Obama is going to speak soon... but not live. It's a video.

Weird...

Chances are we've already launched the missiles.

Did Kerry's nose grow?

Great timing.
Holiday weekend, everyone is leavign early to get a jump on traffic. No one cares as they are headed to the beach, the hamptons, out of town. Congress is on vacation. Only Obama and the button oh and maybe the French.
My guess is tonight somewhere around 8pm EDT.

And what is this going to do anyway? Why are we doing this? to spank the syrian leader? Because Obama drew a red line? I didn't see any red line.
i thought with congress away Obama would go on a "speaking tour" (aka campaign) to drum up some support for Obama care or something else, or maybe he would go play golf while they were out. PSSSST Barak, your foursome is waiting, forget the missles, go hit a bucket of balls instead, you know you want too. Pretend the golf balls are cruise missles and see what you can hit with them.

oldr_n_wsr wrote: And what is this going to do anyway? Why are we doing this? to spank the syrian leader? Because Obama drew a red line? I didn't see any red line.

That's the problem. It seems we are going to bomb Syria because the world cannot stand by while a country uses chemical weapons against its own people.

But it looks like the world is going to stand by while we send the bombs. And it appears that we are being told to believe that no long term battle will be caused by this action.

So, Syria will get bombed and not respond?

Is that what we're supposed to believe?

An open letter to the President

Mr. President
It's Labor Day weekend, go to a bar-b-que, go golfing, spend some time with the family. It's a weekend for all us hard working Americans to take it easy. I know you have a tough job and you earned some down time. So go take it. Don't get all caught up in this middle eastern scuffles right now. Take the extended weekend off. The mid east will still be there next week (well I think it will be). Take the time off to reflect and think about what you want to do. Call the UK guy (I forgot his name) and have a nice chat. He listens well.

Relax.

From your number one fan
oldr_n_wsr.

Presidents appear to love going to war; the power must be intoxicating and it also directs attention away from problems they should be addressing. Obama is no different; it beats golf, barbecues, or horseshoes.

We should do what we can to annihilate the Assad regime. Not regime change; regime obliteration.

We should not do that because it will advance some material interest of ours. We should do it to give teeth to a straightforward proposition: If you use chemical weapons against civilians, you die.

Why half measures? In that case, simply flatten Damascus with b-52's carrying FAE. IF we do end up getting involved in this goat fuck, that is how it should be done.

The civilian population of Damascus did not use chemical weapons against civilians. The Assad regime did. A pretty basic distinction ....

There is no positive outcome possible in Syria. It is, unfortunately, really that simple!

I believe that whatever we do in Syria will accomplish nothing positive for the U.S. If we drop bombs, afterward we will be told about innocent civilians and children dying because of us.

There is Absolutely nothing we can do in Syria that will help the situation in the Middle East.

It's all about trying to make us look like we're still tough, despite wasting money on useless wars for the last 10 or so years.

Our enemies will probably eventually destroy us by driving us bankrupt. They will keep giving us reasons to attack countries for the good of humankind and we will do it until we run out of money and weapons and until nobody wants to join the service anymore.

Eventually the people of Mexico will walk across the southern border and take over the U.S. and fix the immigration laws once and for all.

Canada won't notice what's going on and will continue to live a peaceful existence. Mexico won't try to take over Canada because they're too lazy to actually fight for anything and Canadians don't produce enough pinto beans, a staple of the Mexican diet that is the only thing they'd actually think about fighting for...

So, Syria will get bombed and not respond?

They're used to that...

The Israeli's took out their nuclear program a couple of years ago, and they didn't even make public mention of it...

More recently the Israeli's struck from the air to take out some missile caches that were going to be sent to Assad's Hezbolah buddies in Lebanon...

So far the mighty Syrian air force has not responded...

At the moment Dr. Assad has his hands full just trying to keep his country enslaved...

What happens in Syria is of only secondary importance. It's a Middle-East problem; let the Middle East clean it up.

Of primary importance is the maintenance of globally applicable standards of behavior. Those standards are admittedly weak -- far fewer things are prohibited than ought to be -- but that is all the more reason to insist upon the weak standards we do have.

The message should be simple: Except in extraordinary circumstances, we are not going to intervene in your civil wars; we don't understand most of them anyway. But there are limits, and the use of chemical weapons against civilians goes beyond those limits. And if you do that, the world's only real superpower will crush you like an irate janitor stomping on a cockroach.

Meanwhile Russian warships are in the area and Iran threatened to attack Israel if we get involved.

The U.S. might get in & out of Syria quickly but they also could be drawn back into a war if Iran retaliates against Israel or other allies in the area. It seems that Iran has just been waiting for an excuse to do something like that.

But regardless of the danger before us we'll go there and drop bombs because we're America, the home of the brave.

Iran has also threatened to shut down shipping in the Persian Gulf. An increased presence of the world's most powerful navy took care of that.

Iran v. Israel? I know where my betting money's going.

Putin is going to have his warships interfere with a US military operation only if he wants his warships to rest peacefully at the bottom of the ocean.

Andrew D wrote:The civilian population of Damascus did not use chemical weapons against civilians. The Assad regime did. A pretty basic distinction ....

There is no proof of that, and we've heard it all before; "We know where the WMDs are; they're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad."

“We assess with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack against opposition elements in the Damascus suburbs on August 21,” said the document, titled “U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government’s Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013”.

The assessment was intended to address growing concerns about the nature of intelligence in the possession of the administration, which has looked ready to launch a military action any day now.

Kerry said this assessment was shared with congressional leaders, who, also know a little more -- most of it classified information, which won’t be released for now.

The usual bullshit and bluster from Team America World Police then?

The evidentiary position is quite different. We have third-party evidence which we conspicuously lacked with respect to Iraq. But if the evidence is seriously in doubt, I have nothing against the US's waiting for the resolution of whatever evidentiary doubts may exist.

I am taking a position about what the US should do to a regime that has used chemical weapons against civilians. Our conduct with respect to a regime that has not used chemical weapons against civilians is, of course, an entirely different matter.