The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151984 Message #3556455
Posted By: Ron Davies
05-Sep-13 - 07:37 PM
Thread Name: BS: chemical weapons in Syria
Subject: RE: BS: chemical weapons in Syria
I believe I heard that Senator McCain said there are weapons in the pipeline (no pun intended, believe it or not) now which will reach the Syrian opposition soon. He is certainly correct that the Syrians would be better off without Assad. It is not warmongering on his part, contrary to the comfortable stereotypes of some Mudcatters who can't conceive of anything beyond cardboard heroes and villains. But he is in the distinct minority in the US now on this. The overwhelming majority of the US public does not think regime change should be our goal now in Syria. A good number think we should stay out for good, and more--including many in the military--think there are too many unanswered questions right now to get in.
Even if weapons are in fact on the way to the Syrian opposition, it doesn't seem likely they willl be getting any more support beyond this any time soon.
The response to Assad has been bollixed up good and proper.
And by this Obama may have killed his own effectiveness on other issues for the rest of his second term.--as I noted earlier, earning the status of an--early--lame duck.
If the resolution passes in the Senate but not in the House, he may be able to beat this rap, since he can then at least claim it was Republicans who stopped his attempt to respond to the chemical attacks.
It's time to get past this tragic farce and return to issues Obama can actually do some good on--like immigration reform. Before he squanders the rest of the political capital he might have had.