US Intervention in Syria ????

No we cannot afford it.

 

Totally opposed for any reason. No more conflicts without a declaration of war by Congress.

 

No. Unless there is a declared war, a clear plan to pay for it, clear goals, and a determination to succeed. The failure to meet this standard is why we have not had a clear victory since WWII.

 

My answer isn't a choice in the poll.

I would supply arms, intelligence and humanitarian aid. I would not conduct military actions, either on land, sea, or air. No U.S. soldiers should be put in harms way.

 

I voted for the second choice but the truth is we are already involved. The real issue is not should we get involved, but how much? With that understanding I am against any intervention that includes anything that will give either side of the conflict support in what they are seeking.

 

I don't think we should. Our record for picking and choosing our conflicts is pretty paltry.

Though if we did it would be interesting to watch our Nobel Peace Prize winning President explain how he has started yet another armed, violent conflict since receiving his prize.

What is this, four...five?

 

Neither should we be supplying anything. We do not have the money. we should not be borrowing money from China to supply arms to anyone. This country needs to stop acting as if we have any money to put anywhere. We do not. We are broke.

 

To all the above I would only add that there be a clearly defined exit strategy as well.

 

There is no reason to be involved. But ,with congressional approval, at least it would be legal. Unlike Libya. But there is no reason for Congress to approve such action. To my knowledge , no American lives are at risk.

Backing the rebels in Syria, like Libya, would be aiding al qaeda and other other radical islamic groups dedicated to the destruction of our country.

 

What is it with Lindsey Graham and his unabashed support for every possible war effort proposed by anyone for any reason?! I have yet to see him oppose any proposed conflict.

Of course he is also a big government style Republican. He will gladly support more government involvement in domestic affairs if he also supports more government involvement in international affairs.

In other words, he is nothing but a rabid statist through and through. This is the danger of the so-called "national security conservatives." They are allowed to get away with being statists in many respects as long as they are statists in certain other respects, feeding the fears and fanning the "patriotic" flames of misled Republican loyalists.

It is time conservatives start reclaiming their ideology as inherently a core commitment to limited government rather than primarily a nationalistic commitment to military involvement around the world.

 

Who are these "rebels" McCain would like us to support?


Timeline

1991: Paul Wolfowitz, then Undersecretary of Defense, tells US Army General Wesley Clark that the US has 5-10 years to "clean up those old Soviet client regimes, Syria, Iran, Iraq, before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." Fora.TV: Wesley Clark at the Commonwealth Club of California, October 3, 2007.

2001: A classified plot is revealed to US Army General Wesley Clark that the US plans to attack and destroy the governments of 7 nations: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Fora.TV: Wesley Clark at the Commonwealth Club of California, October 3, 2007.

2002: US Under Secretary of State John Bolton declares Syria a member of the "Axis of Evil" and warned that "the US would take action." BBC: "US Expands 'Axis of Evil'" May 6, 2002.

2005: US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy organizes and implements the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon directly aimed at undermining Syrian-Iranian influence in Lebanon in favor of Western-backed proxies, most notably Saad Hariri's political faction. Counterpunch: "Faking the Case Against Syria," by Trish Schuh November 19-20, 2005.

2005: Ziad Abdel Nour, an associate of Bush Administration advisers, policy makers, and media including Neo-Conservatives Paula Dobriansky, James Woolsey, Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, Joseph Farah (World Net Daily), Clifford May, and Daniel Nassif of US State Department-funded Al Hurra and Radio Sawa, admits: "Both the Syrian and Lebanese regimes will be changed- whether they like it or not- whether it’s going to be a military coup or something else… and we are working on it. We know already exactly who’s going to be the replacements. We’re working on it with the Bush administration." Counterpunch: "Faking the Case Against Syria," by Trish Schuh November 19-20, 2005.

2006: Israel attempts, and fails, to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon after a prolonged aerial bombard that resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. CNN: "UN: Hezbollah and Israel agree on Monday cease-fire," August 13, 2006.

2007: Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker reveals that US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Hariri in Lebanon as well as the Syrian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood were assembling, arming, training, and heavily funding a sectarian extremists front, many of whom had direct ties to Al Qaeda, to unleash in both Lebanon and Syria. The goal was to create and exploit a sectarian divide between Sunni and Shi'ia Muslims. Hersh interviewed intelligence officers who expressed concerns over the "cataclysmic conflict" that would result, and the need to protect ethnic minorities from sectarian atrocities. The report indicated that extremists would be logistically staged in northern Lebanon where they would be able to cross back and forth into Syria. New Yorker: "The Redirection," by Seymour Hersh, March 5, 2007.

2008: The US State Department begins training, funding, networking, and equipping "activists" through its "Alliance for Youth Movements" where the future protest leaders of the "Arab Spring," including Egypt's "April 6 Movement" were brought to New York, London, and Mexico, before being trained by US-funded CANVAS in Serbia, and then returning home to begin preparations for 2011. Land Destroyer: "2011 - Year of the Dupe," December 24, 2011.

2009: The Brookings Institution published a report titled, "Which Path to Persia?" (.pdf), which admits that the Bush Administration "evicted" Syria from Lebanon without building up a strong Lebanese government to replace it (p. 34), that Israel struck a "nascent" Syrian nuclear program, and states the importance of neutralizing Syrian influence before any attack on Iran can be carried out (p. 109). The report then goes on to describe in detail the use of listed terrorist organizations against the government of Iran, in particular the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) (p. 126) and Baluch insurgents in Pakistan (p.132). Brookings Institution: "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran," June 2009.

2009-2010: In an April 2011 AFP report, Michael Posner, the assistant US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, admitted that the "US government has budgeted $50 million in the last two years to develop new technologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments." The report went on to admit that the US (emphasis added) "organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there." Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect." AFP: "US Trains Activists to Evade Security Forces," April 8, 2011.

2011: Posner's US trained, funded, and equipped activists return to their respective countries across the Arab World to begin their "ripple effect." Protests, vandalism , and arson sweep across Syria and "rooftop snipers" begin attacking both protesters and Syrian security forces, just as Western-backed movements were documented doing in Bangkok, Thailand one year earlier. With a similar gambit already unfolding in Libya, US senators begin threatening Syria with long planned and sought after military intervention. Land Destroyer: "Syria: Intervention Inevitable," April 29, 2011.

2012: With NATO's Libyan intervention resulting in a weak US-backed Tripoli client-regime, perpetual infighting, nationwide genocide, and the succession of Benghazi in the east, the NATO-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), listed by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (listed #27) begins mobilizing weapons, cash, and fighters to begin destabilizing Syria. Headed by LIFG's Abdul Hakim Belhaj, this would be the first confirmed presence of Al Qaeda in Syria, flush with NATO weapons and cash. The Washington Post would confirm, just as stated by Hersh in 2007, that the US and Saudi Arabia were arming the sectarian extremists, now labeled the "Free Syrian Army." The Post also admits that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, as stated in Hersh's 2007 report, was also involved in arming and backing extremist fighters. Land Destroyer: "US Officially Arming Extremists in Syria," May 16, 2012.

CONTINUE . . .