**
Dr. Eowyn posted: "l to r: Kerry, Hagel, Dempsey Are you following the
Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees hearings on President
Lucifer's insistence on a war in Syria? If you did, you'd know that his
three henchmen -- Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary " Respond to
this post by replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/eowyn2/> U.S. war against
Syria: No clear goals, no good guys, will cost
millions<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/u-s-war-against-syria-no-clear-goals-no-good-guys-will-cost-millions/>
by
Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/eowyn2/>
[image: John
Kerry]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/john-kerry2.jpg>
*l to r: Kerry, Hagel, Dempsey*
Are you following the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees
hearings on President Lucifer's insistence on a war in Syria?
If you did, you'd know that his three henchmen -- Secretary of State John
Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of
Staff Martin Dempsey -- had difficulty answering questions about the
purpose and objectives of our "humanitarian intervention."
Below is extracted from Barbara Slavin's report for Global Security, "US
Congress Questions Rationale for Striking
Syria<http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/syria/2013/syria-130905-voa07.htm?_m=3n.002a.900.ts0ao054y3.tln>,"
Sept. 5, 2013. I am not reproducing verbatim her article because I do
not approve of the way she pigeonholes opponents to Obama's war against
Syria as "isolationist Tea Party Republicans and anti-war Democrats,"
versus the pro-war faction as "neoconservatives and humanitarian
interventionists."
To those labels, I say "Bovine Excrement." [image:
gift-box-with-a-piece-of-shit-smiley-emoticon]
Is Slavin psychic? Her labels presume she knows what's in the hearts and
minds of anti- and pro-war Americans, which of course she doesn't. By
slapping on those labels, she is slanting her "reporting" toward those
pushing for war, whom I choose to call *WARMONGERS**.
*The dictionary defines
<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/warmonger>warmonger as "One
who advocates or attempts to stir up war."
Slavin, you are not an objective journalist. You should be ashamed of
yourself.
Now that that's clarified, here's information of value in her report:
[...] the congressional hearings this week have been extraordinary for
their introspection and bipartisan nature.
Strange bedfellows have come together in both agreement and disagreement
about the wisdom of hitting Syria in the aftermath of the *alleged* killing
of hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb Aug. 21 with the nerve agent,
sarin. A trio of U.S. war veterans – *Secretary of State John Kerry,
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Gen. Martin Dempsey – have struggled to convince members of Congress that
“limited” strikes on Syria will deter Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from
using chemical weapons again.*
The three also wanted to convince Congress that such strikes would not
embroil the U.S. in a wider war, and show other U.S. adversaries such as
Iran that Washington is serious about upholding red lines against the
development, proliferation or use of weapons of mass destruction.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 on Wednesday in favor of
giving the administration up to 90 days to conduct the strikes. But *at a
hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee* that took place while
the Senate panel voted, isolationist Tea Party Republicans and anti-war
Democrats*[the war skeptics] appeared to outnumber*neoconservatives and
humanitarian interventionists*[the warmongers].*
*Several House members asked questions and raised points, for which they
did not receive satisfactory answers.
*
1. Who are the good guys in Syria?
[image: Tom
Marino]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/tom-marino.jpg>
Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA)
One of the toughest exchanges in the House Foreign Relations Committee
hearing took place between Defense Secretary Hagel and *Representative Tom
Marino (R-Pennsylvania)*. Marino said he feared that U.S. hitting the Assad
regime would benefit the Syrian opposition, which includes Islamic
extremists who hate the United States. “Who are the good guys over there in
Syria?” Marino asked. “Do you trust these people?”
*Hagel,* who had voted for the Iraq war but quickly came to regret that,
conceded that there are “various groups that are part of the opposition.”
Then Hagel *tried to change the subject by saying that “the focus is not on
good guys or bad guys*, but on a narrow authorization” for the use of force
to degrade Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons again.
*2. There are no good guys
*
[image: Rep. Jeff Duncan
(R-SC)]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/jeff-duncan.jpg>
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said something eminently sensible: “We shouldn’t be
dragged into someone else’s civil war where there are no good guys.”
*Instead of actually responding to Duncan by identifying who the "good
guys" are in Syria whose interests America presumably is defending by going
to war, Kerry, Hagel and Dempsey instead tried to change the subject *by
warning there would be serious consequences if the U.S. doesn’t respond to
Assad’s apparently massive use of chemical arms. Blah, blah, blah. The
three *WARMONGERS *said a failure to act would lead to more innocent
civilians being gassed, chemical weapons potentially proliferating and
threatening U.S. military forces abroad and even the U.S. homeland! **
3. Warmongers' linking of Iran and Syria
Another justification provided by the *warmongers* Kerry and Hagel is that
Iran would be emboldened to continue a nuclear program that could give it
the capability to make bombs.* *
[image: Bruce
Riedel]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/bruce-riedel.jpg>
Bruce Riedel
But Bruce Riedel <http://www.brookings.edu/experts/riedelb>, a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institute and director of the Brookings
Intelligence Project <http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/intelligence>,
questions the Obama administration’s linking of Iran and Syria. Riedel said
that while “the Israelis want us to bomb Syria because they desperately
fear Obama will back down on Iran, the two cases are very different. Syria
is using WMD against its own people; Iran is developing a capability which
it wants for deterrence." Riedel then warns that "*military action against
either Syria or Iran will have unintended consequences probably unforeseen.
Limited strikes can grow into open-ended campaigns that become increasingly
costly*.”
4. "Limited strikes" mean war!
Kerry also tried to emphasize the narrow nature of the strikes the
administration contemplates, insisting that, “I don’t believe we’re going
to war.”
However, *Martin Dempsey admitted that attacking Syria would be “an act of
war”* and that the United States should be prepared for a variety of
responses, including terrorism and cyber attacks.
Army General Dempsey should know. He is the chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
5. No clear goals for war
Now that it's settled that a U.S. "humanitarian intervention" in Syria is
"an act of war," what then are our goals?
Alas, as Barbara Slavin reports, "*The Obama administration is also having
trouble defending its goals for the Syria mission *– a kind of
“Goldilocks,” not-too-hot, not-too-cold series of actions meant to deter
Assad from using chemical weapons again and uphold U.S. credibility without
giving too much advantage to rebels who have also committed serious human
rights abuses.
Under questioning, Kerry conceded that the administration had more work to
do to persuade Americans that U.S. military strikes on Syria are worth the
risks. Kerry also promised that Obama would address the American people
from the Oval Office to lay out the case for intervention in another Middle
Eastern conflict
*6. The financial costs of war
*
Many in Congress cited the likely financial costs of another American
intervention as a reason for caution when the U.S. is short of funds to
deal with urgent domestic needs.
On Wednesday, *Hagel admitted the price tag for even limited strikes would
likely be in the “tens of millions” of U.S. dollars.* Kerry said
unspecified Arab countries had offered “quite significant financial
support” and that “some of them have said they will carry the whole cost”
of U.S. strikes. But *when pressed to name the countries that were offering
to take part in the actual mission, Kerry listed only Turkey and France.*
Was I asleep when France became an "Arab" country?
To conclude:
Overall, the Senate and House hearings underlined what public opinion polls
have shown – that most Americans do not support direct U.S. military
intervention in yet another Middle Eastern country. After a decade of
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – with no dramatic improvement in either
society despite the outlay of trillions of U.S. dollars and the loss of
thousands of American and foreign lives -- the American public is just
plain weary and adamantly against being dragged, *against our will*, into
yet another war. (See Trail Dust's post, "Not in our names, Mr. Antichrist…
ahem, Mr.
President<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/not-in-our-names-mr-antichrist-ahem-mr-president/>
".)
*~Eowyn*
*Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/eowyn2/>* |
September 6, 2013 at 7:08 am | Tags: Bruce
Riedel<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=bruce-riedel>,
Chuck Hagel <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=chuck-hagel>, House
Foreign Relations
Committee<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=house-foreign-relations-committee>,
Jeff Duncan <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=jeff-duncan>, John
Kerry <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=john-kerry>, Martin
Dempsey <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=martin-dempsey>, Senate
Foreign Relations
Committee<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=senate-foreign-relations-committee>,
Tom Marino <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=tom-marino> |
Categories: Congress <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=4308>,
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