THAT IS THE
QUESTION
THE SHADOW
OF CHENEY & BUSH LOOMS LARGE
Syria
President Bashar al-Assad: The Chinless
tyrant
purported to
have deployed chemical weapons against
opposition forces
and innocent civilians.
TAGS: ASSAD
CHEMICAL WEAPONS, SYRIA, UN INSPECTORS,
OBAMA
MILITARY ACTION, CHENEY/BUSH LEGACY, US CREDIBILITY,
INTERNATIONAL
SKEPTICISM, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAND CUFFED
(UPDATED Friday,
August 30, 2013)
(Wednesday August 28, 2013,
United Nations, NYC) It was just a
matter of time; it has been for several years now. First we sit idly by and watch a profound grassroots
surge towards democracy in Egypt and now we stand as silent witnesses to the
atrocities committed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The United Nations teams sent to Syria last
week to ascertain if chemical weapons had been deployed there have come to a
conclusion that amounts to an indictment of the Syria government. Yes, the forensic and medical evidence are
consistent with the use of a toxic chemical weapon such as sarin gas. By all “standards” of modern warfare and
international treaties the use of such weaponry is prohibited. That the Syrian regime chose to utilize the
most vicious element of their armament primarily against innocent,
non-combative civilians including children violates every written and unwritten
code of military conduct.
Despite the strength of the
evidence collected by the United Nations inspectors and hundreds of first-hand
accounts the United States should not intervene in this confusing Syrian civil
conflict. But, even if the Obama
Administration was so inclined they will never be able to assemble a “coalition
of the willing” because everyone has heard this song before; indeed the entire
world has heard this song and the very credibility of the United States as a
world force for good has forever been tarnished. It was tarnished, stretched and frayed to the
point of breaking by the outright lies and cherry-picking of uncorroborated
intelligence by the Cheney & Bush neo-con Administration in their ill-fated
build up to their unwarranted invasion of Iraq in 2003. As the former New York Times columnist Frank
Rich has called it, the ever changing rationale put forth by the Cheney &
Bush team was indeed “The Greatest Story Ever Sold”.
Over the past ten years the
machinations of the Messianic Cheney & Bush apparatus in The White House,
Pentagon and CIA have been voluminously documented. We need not revisit those facts now but we
cannot turn from the facts regarding the irreparable damage they left in their
wake in Afghanistan, Iraq, in the United Nations, among traditional allies and
the wider world specifically among the 1.5 billion Muslims. The irony of this circumstance is as profound
as it is potentially crippling. The “word”
of the United States is no longer represents a valid and valued compact of
honesty and trust.
Since the founding of this
great Nation we have always maintained a largely conservative foreign policy
regarding military intervention. The
prime component of our policy was a defensive posture not, as Cheney & Bush
bastardized it as one of “pre-emption”. While
the war in Afghanistan began as a righteous cause it lost its legitimacy as it
slowly morphed into a half-assed occupation with a US installed puppet
government propped up by United States troops, support and a huge flow of
billions of our tax dollars. The war in
Iraq was purely one of choice and never enjoyed the briefest period of
legitimacy since the deceitful, deceptive tactics of the neo-cons were laid
bare for all to see shortly after the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the lack
of any evidence, let alone actual weapons of mass destruction, once touted as
the most existential threat to the United States.
Saddam Hussein posed no imminent
threat to the United States, had absolutely no connection with Osama bin Laden,
al Qaeda or anyone else. The majority of the “evidence” put forth by The Administration,
particularly by Dick Cheney’s operatives in The Pentagon was contrived, bogus,
and patently false. Bush & Cheney’s
foray into Iraq not only forever altered our military history, was contrary to
our long observed military philosophy, it made any future collation building efforts,
any call for military action by the United States not grossly obvious for the
entire world to see, a virtual impossibility. This is just one plank of the
tragically awful and strategically handcuffing legacy of 8 years of
neo-conservative doctrine as exercise by Cheney & Bush.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAMSTRUNG BY THE
CHENEY / BUSH LEGACY
(Updated Friday, August 30,
2013) President Barack Obama received a
harsh lesson rooted in recent history today when he learned that our long time
reliable and historically steadfast Allies, The United Kingdom would not stand
with us shoulder to shoulder during whatever course of action Obama decides on
in Syria. While Obama has repeatedly
emphasized his call for a “narrow limited action” after the use of chemical
weapons by the Assad regime in Syria, the United States will have to go it
alone.
The international community,
especially countries in the Middle East and Asian Subcontinent are more than a
little skeptical about the United Nations inspectors claims that chemical
weapons were used and even more skeptical about the intentions of the United
States militarily. They can still hear
the self-righteous echoes and single-minded saber rattling of the previous
Administration; they remember the Cheney / Bush “war of choice” in Iraq waged
under an umbrella of extrapolations, fabrications, and outright lies.
President Obama faces
challenges to the legitimacy and credibility of the United States and our
military and intelligence infrastructure as a direct result of the reckless
actions of his immediate predecessor and that Administrations disregard for the
truth. This is just one of the several
laws of unintended consequences that will surely impede United States foreign
and military policy and initiatives for years to come.
LINKS:
Updated Friday August 30, 2013
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