Distressed to see all this talk of Obama’s imperial presidency wanting to “punish Assad.” Don’t read this wrongly; I think what happened in Syria was EVIL on every level and Assad should/will ultimately be held accountable. But wars, especially world wars, begin by unprovoked attacks that cross international borders. The whole world (except France, so really the whole world) is against US intervention at this point! Russia and China are Syrian allies. China holds most of U.S. debt. Tick them off and they can break our economy permanently.
Dare I say, “Duh?”
There is only one word (IMHO) that would characterize a US attack: “flashpoint.” Moreover, the high profile partisan Democrats who chided Bush for going into Afghanistan after going into Iraq—which both, unlike this case, were justified as a retaliation for an attack on American soil—are now a chorus of undying support/justification/defense of a single man’s decision to ignore the very Constitution he swore to uphold. They would support his order for an attack in retaliation for something that happened half way around the world involving no Americans…simply because “he’s not Republican” and “he’s not Bush.”
Did we not just last month learn that US weapons in Benghazi most likely fell into hands of Syrian rebels? Rebels trained by Al Qaeda—a/k/a that organization that we supposedly “got” in Pakistan, after a seemingly never-ending “war” in Afghanistan that’s been going on a decade plus?
I detest wars and talks about threats of war. But not so much as I detest narcissistic partisan leaders on both sides of the aisle and the ignorant hypocrites who support their unquenchable thirst “to punish” in the name of self-righteousness. My position was quite similar when Bush decided to add Afghanistan to our never-ending war machine.
How many innocent people died by the swords our leaders have ordered drawn? More innocent people have died worldwide from “targeted drone attacks” ordered by our current President, than died in Syria this last week from chemical attacks. Moreover, our economy sucks. More jobless people than ever. More people on government assistance than ever.
Washington is desperate for more war—history has proven that’s pretty much the federal government’s favorite trek to try to reverse economic depressions. And sadly, I think the decision’s already been made…to circumvent the Constitution. AGAIN.
The song lyric that keeps going thru my mind??
“There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can’t go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somehow
Will soon make a change
We are all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know,
Love is all we need
We are the world,
We are the children
We are the ones
Who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me”
(And that doesn’t happen by dropping more bombs on a country already ravaged from the inside.) I keep humming to myself, “We bomb the world…we bomb the children…”