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11259. Wombat - 9/10/2013 3:23:27 AM Perhaps it can be explained to Thoughtful how the threat of strikes on Syria may have created the opportunity to cause Syria to give up its chemical weapons (which, until now, it claims it didn't have). 11260. judithathome - 9/10/2013 5:14:54 AM Has anyone seen the tape of Michelle Bachman, Louie Gohmert, and Steve King in Egypt this weekend?
I thought it was a SNL skit at first. Bachman blames the Muslim Brotherhood for, as she put it, "the nine one one attack on America".
Has To Be Seen To Be Believed 11261. thoughtful - 9/10/2013 9:54:56 PM Different question, wombat...the threat vs. the actual bombing... 11262. thoughtful - 9/10/2013 10:10:27 PM If Bachman's IQ were any lower, they'd have to water her once a week... 11263. Wombat - 9/11/2013 12:33:32 PM You can't make the threat without the willingness to follow through. What we know of the proposed strikes is that precision weapons would be used on military targets. Civilians will die, because no system works perfectly, but it won't be indiscriminate, as opposed to--say--gassing an entire neighborhood, at night, when everyone was asleep and unable to flee. Do you still see no difference?
Agreed on Bachman. 11264. thoughtful - 9/12/2013 1:32:53 PM Well perhaps we have found our own weapon of mass destruction...John Kerry. He is so dull that people will do anything to get him to stop talking....if we turn him toward Israel and Palestine, perhaps we can get him to finally solve that one. "Anything, anything he wants...just make him stop talking already!" Now where's my on-line poker game...
Wombat, if your family is killed, do you really care whether or not it was done intentionally, indiscriminately or to prove a point or back up a threat? Does it really matter who's running Abu Ghraib if you're the one being water boarded? We may want to play being the Organians, but we don't have that capability yet.
And who are we supporting? AFAIK, there are no good guys there.
And a point of curiosity, if you blow up a chemical weapons depot, don't you actually set them off? 11265. judithathome - 9/12/2013 3:37:47 PM Maybe we should set Kerry loose on immigration, gun control, and the debt ceiling. 11266. Trillium - 9/12/2013 9:09:55 PM This email came through a social circle, addressed to the each individual in the group:
"In case you did not get word, I received this email from XXX...Please share it.
Say NO to US military intervention in Syria!
Join me for a peaceful protest on Thursday, Sept. 12, from 5-5:30 pm on the sidewalk in front of (local courthouse).
Signs will be provided or bring your own.
President Obama says the US must intervene in the horror in Syria to send a “signal” to the Assad regime. US military intervention in a sovereign nation that poses no threat to us continues a dangerous policy that has cost hundreds of thousands of US, Afghan and Iraqi lives. No matter how noble our intent, we cannot control unintended consequences, assure our action will be effective, or reassure the rest of the world we would never do it to them.
I hope to see you there!
XXX"
I can't be there, and I know that I am in disagreement with many of the people who will be participants (over other issues). However, I'm glad they are out demonstrating, and I hope the thunderstorms will be over by then... 11267. Wombat - 9/12/2013 11:15:59 PM So far the principle "unintended" consequence of Obama's THREAT to carry out missile strikes on Syria has been the reinsertion of Russia into the process. Some folks here and around the country need to take a really deep breath and calm the heck down. If the last four-plus years have shown us anything, it is that Barak Obama is no George W. Bush.
The spectacle of many Republicans suddenly finding their inner peace-freak is particularly nauseating; if Romney had been elected, we'd probably already be in Syria, and they'd be cheering him on. 11268. judithathome - 9/13/2013 1:17:40 AM Exactly!! 11269. alistairconnor - 9/13/2013 2:45:16 PM One French elder statesman has likened the Syrian civil war to that of Spain in the 1930s. If the democracies -- and particularly France, which was on the front line (and had a government of the left) had helped the Republicans early on, the war might have been quickly over. Instead, they were forced into the arms of their only ally, the Russians/Comintern, who liquidated all the non-Communists and then lost anyway.
He sees the same thing in Syria. The progressives and democrats of the Syrian spring of two years ago might have made it with our help; now, they have been sidelined or eliminated by ruthless jihadists in the pay of Saudi and the Gulf states. It is far too late for any acceptable outcome. 11270. Wombat - 9/13/2013 7:19:57 PM Alistair, the analogy is a good one (a civil war resulting from a failed revolt), as far as it goes (although it should be pointed out that the Blum government in France did initially help the Republic, until the neutrality agreement, which the Soviets, Germans, and Italians ignored, came into force--thanks, League of Nations)!
On the other hand, in Spain, the rebel forces comprised the bulk of the Spanish military leadership, and some of its best units. In Syria, the opposite is true. 11271. Trillium - 9/14/2013 12:16:17 AM Hm. And what about the Spanish Civil war as a testing ground for different weaponry? A few days ago i listened to a young man with military experience who suggested that there are leaders pushing an attack because they want to use old weapons up, and also want to see what weapons the Russians have sold to Syria.
Yuck. 11272. Trillium - 9/14/2013 12:30:08 AM An atrocity by the Republican side in winter 1936 that is seldom mentioned in movies, and which would have caused some foreign (or moderate) reluctance to support the Republicans:
Paracuellos 11273. thoughtful - 9/14/2013 1:16:01 AM " If the last four-plus years have shown us anything, it is that Barak Obama is no George W. Bush. "
Oh, you must mean the way he retained the power to use drones on US citizens...or perhaps the warrantless searches and wiretaps of all our digital communication and phone calls...or perhaps the moves he's taken that ensure Guantanamo remains open...or perhaps how he renewed the Patriot Act. AFAICT, he's taken Bush's lead and has extended his powers further. In fact, the key difference seems to be that Bush was indifferent and relied on his second to enact policy whereas Obama just does it himself.
And, regardless of who sits in the white house, the other powers that be, the money makers and the purchasers of the policy makers are still very much in power.
11274. Wombat - 9/14/2013 4:14:20 PM And now it looks like the US and the Russians have worked out a formula for inspecting and removing Syria's chemical weapons (which they claimed they didn't have). Still think there's no difference? 11275. Trillium - 9/14/2013 8:33:17 PM The Youtube linked below makes references to chemical weapons. They are chemical weapons found in Turkey and in Banias, Syria -- and these weapons had belonged to the rebels before they were seized.
This upcoming inspection and inventory may include weapons now in the custody of the Syrian government -- that they seized from the rebels? (and we have been arming the rebels?) This stinks, in a deadly way.
Syrian chemical weapons
11276. Wombat - 9/15/2013 12:06:55 AM Syria has had a chemical weapons program and stockpiles since the 1970s. But hey, if it's on YouTube.... 11277. judithathome - 9/17/2013 2:51:16 AM Shooter at Naval Yard in DC was staioned at the Naval Air Base 5 blocks from my house...worked at a Thai restaurant less than 5 miles away. 11278. robertjayb - 9/17/2013 3:51:37 PM How about we treat crazy people rather than screwing with the constitution...
WASHINGTON -- Investigators still don't know why Aaron Alexis went on a bloody shooting spree Monday that left 12 people dead but clues are emerging that the military veteran had suffered from serious mental illness and could act quickly -- and violently -- when angered.
U.S. law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that Alexis, who died in a shootout with law enforcement officers, had paranoia and a sleep disorder and was "hearing voices" in his head.
(USA Today)
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