Monday, September 16, 2013

The drums pound on for war on Syria

Roland Van Deusen writes a letter to the editors of the Watertown Daily Times which opens:

 Do we stand on the brink of our fourth war in a decade?
Ben Franklin defined insanity as repeating the same action and expecting different results. Almost four years after we gave up on Iraq, it’s a civil war with thousands dying.
Almost nine years in Iraq cost us victory in Afghanistan and allies for attacking Syria. Libya’s regime change left chaos that made our Benghazi outpost unsafe. Our troops’ only victory is their survival.


The push for war on Syria continues despite the public sentiment against it.  At times, it seems as if the officials supporting it offer the weakest of bromides while We The People are the ones acknowledging the real potential costs.  Patty Kleban (State College) notes:

 As I listen to the ranting on TV and radio and hear the President's attempt to convince us of the need for military strikes in Syria, I'm reminded of the voices of the many wounded warriors that I have met in the last several years. I have been fortunate to have worked on a variety of military bases across the United States and abroad.
How many American families will be damaged by an attack that is not supported by our allies? The resolve and dedication of those who serve cannot ward off the ravages of war.
Advancements in medical care, design and materials used in protective body armor, and in the ability to rapidly evacuate injured personnel from the war zone to acute care facilities have resulted in a 90% survival rate in the recent conflicts In Iraq and Afghanistan. Higher survival rates are associated with greater numbers of disabilities. It is reported that 1 in 4 US troops returns from deployment with health problems that require either medical or mental health treatment.


As people explore and contemplate what a war might mean, politicians seem more comfortable with fictions.  Becky Bowers and Julie Kliegman (PolitiFact) rate the lies of US House Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz ("pants on fire") and Secretary of State John Kerry ("mostly false").  Con Coughlin (Telegraph of London) reflects on the similarities of Kerry's statements on Syria and Bully Boy Bush's statements in the lead up to war on Iraq:

 I am sure I'm not the only one who experienced a sense of déjà vu over the weekend when John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, issued a stark warning to the Assad regime of the consequences it would face if it did not comply fully with the decommissioning of its chemical weapons arsenal.
After Mr Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, reached their historic agreement in Geneva on placing Syria's chemical weapons under international control, Mr Kerry responded by sending an uncompromising warning to President Bashar al-Assad that "the threat of force is real" if he does not fulfil his part of  the deal.
"We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs,"  said Mr Kerry.


Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) notes the analysts at IHS Janes has found approximately 50% of the so-called rebels are jihadists and that "Al-Qaeda directly commands the loyalty of around 10,000 of those fighters."  These are the groups that the White House has been arming and supporting.  These are the groups a US military strike would most likely benefit.  Justin Raimondo (Antiwar.com) reminds:


Anyone who thinks the US regime change operation in Syria is finished hasn’t been keeping up with the news.
Yes, the President and his interventionist advisors – notably Secretary of State John Kerry and US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power – have been rebuked by Congress and the American people: there will be no "shock and awe" over Damascus any time soon. The US military, for its part, has also signaled its displeasure at being asked to fight yet another futile Middle East war. Yet that hardly means the War Party has given up: far from it.

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