John Kerry; chemical attack by Assad regime “undeniable”
According to Fox News, our new secretary of state, John Kerry declared to the media today that the evidence of a chemical attack in Syria is “undeniable” and some rather nebulous words about “real” and “compelling” whatever the Hell that means;
The secretary of State addressed the allegations from State Department headquarters. He pointed a finger squarely at the Assad regime, sharply questioning any suggestion that the weapons could have been deployed by the opposition, or that the attack could have been staged. He called the strike a “moral obscenity” and accused the Syrian government of trying to destroy the evidence.
Shortly afterward, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney echoed the remarks, saying the evidence of an attack is “undeniable” and there’s “very little doubt” that the Assad government was behind it. Carney said it is now “profoundly” in the interest of the U.S. and international community to respond.
I’m just saying that this “real and compelling” doesn’t answer any of my questions and it feels like we’re being told we’re going to war instead of being convinced that we need to go to war. While I agree that the use of chemical weapons is egregious and should be responded to by the community of civilized nations, I’m not sure that anything we do militarily would be effective in that regard. The two sides are pointing fingers at each other as the perpetrators, and the rebels would have the most to gain by a Western intervention at this point. Snipers shot at the UN weapons team today, that doesn’t sound like something the government would do.
I think we’re being set up and the incompetent boobs who have been rushing for the exits in Afghanistan for the last four years are now running for the entrance in Syria. Like I said earlier today, it all feels like the Johnson Administration’s Gulf of Tonkin Incident as an excuse to put combat troops into Vietnam.
And Kerry is talking in Joe Biden words, like he understands something that he really doesn’t. I think they’re just doing the opposite of what they did in Libya hoping that works.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Foreign Policy, John Kerry, Terror War
Saddam Hussein’s mass murder of Kurds at Halabja was of the same scale; I did not remember the libtards clamoring for war back then. When we did invade Iraq, the libtards called Bush a war criminal, and conveniently forgot that Halabja ever happened. I can thus honorably and with a clear conscience tell obamao and his minions to go FUCK OFF and to stick their fucked up syrian adventure up their collective liberal asses!!!
Ok Kerry, Lets go, you dust off your uniform and take charge, The stipulation is that the only ones that would go would be those military members that fully know of your conduct in Vietnam.
Heads up John, watch your ass, You might earn a real purple heart instead of the bogus ones you got from scratching yourself, you sniveling prick.
Once again, sadly, I have more faith in what Putin said than in what our clowns are saying. If sKerry says it, it just confirms what we already know. One liar leaves little doubt. Both of them lying leaves no doubt at all.
For once I am rather enjoying the inability of the WH to claim a side to support.
Awesome, another war, just what we need. While we’re RIF’ing every senior combat experienced NCO and Officer at that. A child could easily understand what’s wrong with that. I got about a year and a half of actively Drilling Reserve time left and then screw this, I’m done with the Army headed by this administration.
I’m sure that the memories of those gassed civilians are just seared, SEARED, into Kerry’s brain. At least the surrender/withdrawl he negotiates in Paris this time will be “legal”, whatever the fuck that’s worth.
Wait – what? I thought we were in sequestration and drawdown and cutbacks?
Oh, I, too, smell the Vietnam syndrome seeping into the White House like evening fog. You know it’s coming, you just don’t know quite what it is.
So here’s what will happen: the RIF in the military will suddenly be reversed after a series of closed door discussions while Bodaprez attempts to get his balls out of his wife’s purse, and someone behind the curtain will say ‘I guess we need to do something about this’ and hey, presto! People who were told ‘Bye, see ya!’ will be getting recalled to active duty over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Things like this can bring presidencies to an abrupt halt.
Where the hell is Reagan when you need him?
The only “moral obscenity” I associate with that douchebag, Kerry, is his throwing some other guy’s Vietnam medals over the WH fence, claiming they were his.
The anti-war protester now wants to toss several millions of dollars worth of cruise missiles at Syria.
Anyone who believes a word Kerry has to say, please raise your hands. Anyone?
These damned idiots. We don’t have a dog in this fight, there is zero reason for us to get in the middle of this civil war. They think this will be like their little air war for Libya, it won’t. Syria’s equipment has had modernizations, it might not be cutting edge but it sure as hell isn’t left over 1970’s crap. Hell they have a crap load of S-300’s (aka SA-10 Grumble)that the Russians provided them with an extensive modernization. I’m certain we can overwhelm their air defense but at what cost ? They go ahead with this, unlike Libya we will loose people and for no good reason. Russia and China both have voted again and again to block any UN intervention in Syria, both have said they’d defend Syria’s sovereignty. Lets not forget Russia has a naval base in Syria, however many people they have stationed at the base plus they have a few thousand observers in country to teach the Syrians how to use their fancy updated equipment. What are they going to do when they accidently kill a few Russians ? Putin sure as hell won’t take too kindly to that and hes just itching to go all “Russia Strong” on someone with all the new toys they have now.
You all do know that Iran is in the process of becoming a major weapons manufacturer, right? The Iranian government launched a new cruiser a few weeks ago and released videos of their helicopter gunships. I think the Esfahan area is a one of the many places where they’re building stuff.
Anyone besides me think they are lining up customers for a major conflict in the Middle East?
Our country needs to fix itself before we get involved in YET another P.C. “war.”
Jezus Christ already, enough is enough.
I could be wrong, but isn’t this the same damn argument that was tried before my generation went into Iraq ten years ago, and then having to deal with that after effects of the non-debate/argument of the time? Waiting to see how quickly the drawdown reverses itself when we end up having to go into another major conflict.
#6 Ex-PH2
“. . . . while the Bodaprez attempts to get his balls out of Valerie Jarret’s purse, . . . ”
There. Fixed it for you.
#12 BWoodman, you mean — Valerie Jarrett isn’t his wife? Oh, wow. And here I thought she was Mrs. Bodaprez, and Michelle was just window dressing.
@13, maybe they’re co-wives? After all, VJ also has a Secret Service detail. http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/25/earpiece-envy-white-house-colleagues-skeptical-why-valerie-jarrett-has-detail/
All the caterwauling coming from this Regime and no one can articulate a valid national security reason to get involved in a flyover of Syria, much less intervention.
My instinct tells me to stay the hell out of this dirty little conflict. I’m afraid that these guys won’t use up all of the WMD’s on each other and a lot of them will end up used in more civilized parts of the world. That being said, how is killing men women and children by cruse missiles any different than using nerve gas? Dead is dead, The dead don’t care who or what kills them. Gas kills a little slower than a supersonic blast wave but it makes identifying the bodies much easier. If the purpose of this intervention is to save civilian lives, how does raining tons of high explosives down on a major population center accomplish that? Are we going to hit remote military facilities only? If so, how does this stop the Hezbollah and AlQuida fighters embedded in the urban areas from killing more innocents? I’m stumped.
@14 – Sounds reasonable to me.
The suck-up ‘tude from Kerry is as base and greedy as you can get. He changes his mind with the weather report, as long as what he gets out of it is position and power. And all that crap from him about Vietnam? Well, guess what – this is going to blow up in his face and Bodaprez’s, the same way Vietnam blew up in Johnson’s face.
Well, at least Kerry is consistent. Back in 2002 and 2003 in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, he was beating the war drums as well: Actually, Kerry was a war hawk in 2002 and 2003: “I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force – if necessary – to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.” — John F. Kerry, Oct 2002 “The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation.” — John Kerry, October 9, 2002 “(W)e need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. We all know the litany of his offenses. He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. …And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. That is why the world, through the United Nations Security Council, has spoken with one voice, demanding that Iraq disclose its weapons programs and disarm. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but it is not new. It has been with us since the end of the Persian Gulf War.” — John Kerry, Jan 23, 2003 ———- Of course, I think he joined with the media, liberals and all Democrats in pulling a complete 180 and then undermining the war soon after, with the claim that “Bush Lied!!!” Also, I remember reading in… Read more »
Also, AoSHQ made a good point that when Dubya went to war in Iraq, he had the authorization from Congress. Obama will do no such thing. He’s just going to unilaterally go on his own. Who’s the “cowboy” again?
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Ace: “Bush sought and received an authorization for the use of military force in Iraq from Congress, as the constitution requires. (I don’t really want to entertain the semantic argument favored by the Paulites that the piece of paper must specifically call itself a “Declaration of War.”)
Obama, of course, will be ordering US troops into harm’s way with out any such authority. He’ll do so based on his own authority.
In 2002, the left contended the US could not go to war in Iraq despite having Congressional approval for it; they claimed that France’s veto had more weight than Congress’ approval.
Now they make the same argument: It doesn’t matter that Congress won’t be approving this war. France approves it. Apparently France is some kind of Constitutional Alternative to Congressional Authority to the left.
I don’t have to get into all the 2001-2005 France-bashing to simply note that France is not in fact a fourth branch of the United States government.”
Again we have assclowns in Wackington who have no idea what they’re saying or doing.
Chemical assault by Assad regime undeniable.
NO DUH CPT OBVIOUS!!
Ex-PH2
Considering what I’ve read about what little is known of Bodaprez’s past, “Rev” Wright’s church (besides the anti-American rhetoric, and other not-so-subtle hints, I’d almost guess that he was married to neither (anyone seen a marriage certificate to go with the birth certificate?), banging both along with his boyfriend, and NOT the father to the girls. Have I covered all bases?
Sorry. I forgot to add the reference “Boat House Barry.”
Bwoodman, except that the girls actually bear some resemblance to him, I could agree with you.
But let us not pick on the innocent, here. They have nothing to do with Bodaprez’s slapdoodle attitude toward his job.
Lets not forget that the Syrian government hasn’t held firm control over the Bekka Valley for quite awhile. THAT’S where Saddam’s WMD’s were stashed, and it’s more than likely that AQ got their hands on a great deal of it.
What’s missing from these press conferences is any mention of what agents were used in these attacks. Sarin? VX? Taubin? Chlorine?
My bet is that the evidence will point towards Chlorine gas as the images I’ve seen would tend to show the symptoms of such an attack.
Why I bring this up is because last fall the Syrian “rebels” took over a factory that manufactured Chlorine Gas. Now, that factory wasn’t able to produce any more due to damages, but it DID have 400 frikkin’ TONS of Chlorine Gas in storage and available for use.
Remember to that both the Taliban and AQ have tried their hand at IED’s using Chlorine Gas in fuel trucks and canisters. There is precedence for this, and precedence as well for these “rebels” throughout the ME staging horrific attacks against innocent civilians in order to gain a propaganda coup.
So someone needs to show proof of what sorts of agents were used and exactly where, and WHY they consider such an area to be a target of interest for the Assad regime.
Be mindful that I am in NO way defending Assad. I’d like to see both sides kill each other off, as we have no national interest that would justify a single drop of American blood expended there.
BUT, I am damned tired of the lies.
Impeachment can’t be started too soon for this lot.
ex-PH2,
Remember, though, at IVF is very successful, and could produce the same results without him having to do it the old fashioned way. Michelle is window dressing, and nothing more.
@15.
You cannot use chemical weapons. Ask the Kurds.
Wrong.
I do not disagree with your comment, but using chemical weapons is out of bounds.
I might be a hypocrite, I do not know what to do, but using CW needs to be addressed.
Decisively.
People are dying.
AW1, true spoken.
@23.
This is like a bad crime novel.
Only two suspects.
Go figure.
Maybe Nancy Pelosi can solve the mystery.
Give me a break.
Really?
Yeppers; they’re flanking to get us in this clusterfuck one way or another. Wagging the dog big time. I guess fucking up in Libya and Egypt isn’t enough for this dumbass, he’s got to go and invent another one so he can maybe win one for once.
OT: His definition of win is not the same as yours and mine.
What is our national interest in Syria? Is conflict enough? Then what about Somalia, Congo, Yemen, Libya, and Pakistan, and Iraq. Why would we leave Afghanistan? Lots of conflict there. If it is not conflict then what is it? Undemocratic government? Suppressing a minority? Take your pick. It cannot be gassing their citizens, we let Iraq and Iran do that in the 80s without comment. Benghazi did not show the administration as incompetent in matters of state, it showed them as incompetent in practical stuff like embassy protection and foolish in the use of force. Our president is a trained but not particularly experienced lawyer. He presented facts and arguments to a judge who ruled. International relations are more like a junior high school hallway — you are a target unless everyone is afraid of you. I think that his team doesn’t like that reality and his cheerleaders (the press) have decided that they are too cool for this school and that is not the game. Altering the metaphor we in the stands think that our coach is incompetent but his contract runs for another 3 years so we have to watch our team managed and trained wrong and used badly and listen to the jeering and suffer attacks from the rest of the league. When this coach’s contract runs out, who would be better and why?
Richard, his contract can be canceled.
So are we trying to get into Syria and create the same solid outcomes we are producing in Afghanistan and Iraq for 100s of millions of dollars?
How many 100s of millions will we spend to get Assad?
It appears as we “rush to the exits” in Iraq and Afghanistan the end result will be billions of dollars spent to kill binLaden and some other AQ leaders, pretty expensive efforts on a per dead guy basis….it’s not like we’re leaving behind stable regimes in either country or even leaving with regimes we have any realistic expectation of lasting for a reasonable length of time.
Consequently I have little faith in the current administration’s ability to create a positive outcome in Syria and with all due respect I don’t really give a flying f$ck that people are dying. People are dying somewhere in the world every day, we aren’t trying to help them with a military intervention.
Syria’s problems should be solved by its’ own residents and the sovereign nation neighbors who share cultural, ethnic, and religious ties to the region. Not by foreign interlopers who are hated by both sides. If Syria and its’ neighbors try to export their misery that’s a different story otherwise I am not convinced the US can create any positive outcome, the last 12 years indicate to me that our presence doesn’t necessarily create a positive outcome regardless of what our leaders tell us.
@23 – alarabiya reports:
“Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), which is above partisanship as well as devoted to saving lives, has reported that the hospitals it supports in Damascus have treated thousands of victims for neuro-toxicity. Their reports say that the symptoms are a result of the presence of Sarin gas.”
In the last paragraph, the author wonders “it is possible that a rogue officer might have ordered the attack”
See link from today:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/08/27/Chemical-warfare-in-Syria-who-and-why-.html
If it is “Undeniable”, how come Assad is denying it?
@23 It’s too late for impeachment. Once you start across the river, you stay on the horse you rode into the current.
We’ve sown the wind; now we get to reap the whirlwind.
Al Arabiya “enhanced” the MSF report. I am disappointed but not surprised:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=7029&cat=press-release
The Doctors Without Borders web-site report does not mention Sarin.
All of you who have served know that atropine is used to treat all of the “nerve” agents. MSF described the symptoms and stated that they are consistent with a neuro-toxin. They are sending a lot of atropine to Damascus. Everything matches but they aren’t calling it Sarin.
Based on circumstances, I guess that whatever agent was used it was not persistent. The Syrian government delayed the inspection for a few days and covered it with artillery fire before the inspectors are allowed in. If a persistent agent was used, it would still be present in easily detectable quantities and those actions would not conceal it.
I hope that the report above informs better.
FWIW, I think Jonn is right — this is just politics for domestic consumption. Sending cruise missiles into Syria is not a world-leading act.