SyriaFollow

Putin never should have even mentioned this. He should have ran into Syria in the dead of night, threw all their weapons in a sack and dashed back across the border. He could have come back and told the UN about it after the fact.

Totally bad ***.

Except that the number didn't exist until *after* Obama (the White House really) started talking about going to congress to get approval for an airstrike. I'm saying that by doing that, he created the question in the first place. Had he simply taken action unilaterally, the only people talking about whether he should have gotten approval first would be the handful of pundits no one usually listens to anyway. It would be a done deal, just like airstrikes conducted multiple times during the Clinton administration (and drone strikes conducted regularly by the Obama administration I might add).

He created the public discussion Joph. That's the point I'm making. If he'd wanted to do an airstrike and just an airstrike, he should have just done it. The course he chose was guaranteed to create exactly the kind of conflict and disagreement and public response that we're seeing. Which makes one wonder why he chose to do it this way.



Well. Day one would have been Aug 26th, when Kerry declared the US finding was that chemical weapons were used and that the evidence strongly supported that they were used by the Syrian government. Recall that this was the first *official* statement about this. The unofficial writing had been on the wall for a couple days before that statement.

And even if we want to extend this "just to be sure", on Aug 28th, the US told the press they were positive it was Assad. Obama gave an interview where he spoke about possible military response. Note that this is right at the same time that the poll you're talking about began. You get that this was orchestrated by the White House Communications office, right? The president doesn't do an interview without planning. Thus, the media folks knew this was coming and what was going to be discussed at least a day or two in advance. Hence the poll starting the same day Obama appeared on TV talking about this.

It was designed this way Joph. The White House chose to schedule interviews and TV appearances instead of planning an airstrike. Obama telegraphed his intention to seek congressional approval well ahead of time on this. The idea that he was just sitting around wondering what to do, and then this opinion poll happened to appear and it told him he should send this to congress is ridiculous. The White House clearly wagged the media dog on this one, and if you can't see it, you're blind as a bat.



I'm not sure what you think that means. It's not like the inspectors were anywhere near any likely targets of an airstrike. So... what? Media reporting always trails behind decision making. Obama had clearly decided to hand this one over to Congress well before going on TV and saying that's what he was going to do. And I suspect he made that decision before that poll was put in the field as well. Hell. It was probably put out with the specific intent of supporting the Presidents decision (but obviously, there's no way to prove that, but the timing is amazingly coincidental). You've got to be pretty naive to not see that this was all orchestrated.

Ironically, it looks like the whole things backfiring on Obama though. Not sure if the long term political gains are going to be worth the chaos he's creating right now.

Edited, Sep 9th 2013 5:16pm by gbaji

I'm not sure if this is funny because it's self-aware humor or that you really consider yourself a pundit.

Paint the missiles orange and the wings green.

He has made up his mind. It's approximately akin to "Everything democrats ever do is wrong and I'm angry about it."

Whoa, your avatar is gone.

That's ... weird.

So, Kerry's off the cuff remark looks like it's going to stop us from dropping any bombs, disarms Syria of their chemical weapons, & Assad doesn't even have to admit he did anything wrong.

Weird couple weeks...

My tinfoilhat side says they worked this out during the G20 summit and all the actors are just playing their parts.



They didn't get a chance to finish their work did they?

Well yeah, after you find what you want you're supposed to stop looking around and bury your head in the sand.

Right?

Considering Obama and Kerry were priming up to launch strikes into Syria based on the evidence they had....I am not sure what your point is. Hell it was all systems go until Russia asked the US to put up or shut up. I mean **** the evidence is so damning that the US claims Russia is a poison in the UN, and Canada is calling for an end to Vetos in the Security council.

Gotta be some good evidence to put that many feet in the Wests mouth at once.






Edited, Sep 10th 2013 1:41pm by rdmcandie

Indeed, thats what I do every morning reading about how Obama and Kerry are handing over the Wests position of power to Russia and China on a silver plater...one lie at a time.

I don't like it. Your posts are too... small, now.