Aug 27, 2013

A New Tipping Point?

Unconfirmed WMD? UN Weapons inspectors getting the run around? A red line crossed? Brutal sectarian civil war that is bound to cause all the gulf states, Iran, NATO and Russia to become involved... You know, I think I've seen that movie? It didn't end well for anyone, why would I see the sequel?

Iran and Syria just "warned" the West that if they go in militarily, they'll attack Israel. Now, I'm not worried about Israel holding their own in this - I'm worried about, oh, how about nothing short of WWIII...

I'm kind of looking around to see if there's a fat man planning a parade - yeah kids, Franz Ferdinand isn't just a cute name for an indie band.

But did you see what that little Miley Cyrus was wearing? Yes, but did you see how she was simulating a *gasp* sex act? She used to be in the employ of the Walt Disney corporation! Yes, it is ironic that Music Television doesn't actually play music videos anymore... and that they're still handing out meaningless awards for music video production... with a Neil Armstrong trophy? Yeah, that's from a network bumper from the early eighties. You're right, that doesn't make much sense either, does it? Then or now?

Oh, sorry, we were talking about something important? Let me reset the track.

I mean, there's humor in the Hypocrite of the Week John Kerry stating that proof of chemical attacks being gathered by the UN doesn't matter. He sure laid into Bush about not proving something involving a war. Fairly sure he threw a party when the opposing party couldn't find any - and let's not forget how John Kerry’s Senate career began with a bang when he traveled to Nicaragua to obstruct President Reagan’s policy of arming the anti-Communist Contra rebels. Now Secretary of State John Kerry is taking part in arming the Free Syrian Army rebel allies of Al Qaeda and pawns of the Muslim Brotherhood....

Which, I suppose wouldn't be so awful if he hadn't said that America shouldn't subvert it's values, "by funding terrorism to overthrow governments of other countries”.[Source from 2004 Presidential Election]

Mix well, and stand back - this party is about blow!
I guess he had a change of heart? Maybe the anti-war party has decided to become the war party but forgot to tell anyone on Meet The Press? After all, we've always been at war with ... uh, remind me which one of the other Gulf States gave Saudi Arabia a dirty look last week? No, that's not waffling. It's, a, er, pivot. That's it! Pivot!

Now, don't worry. Mr. Obama built in a loop hole to his Red Line comment by saying "a whole bunch" He didn't actually say to Assad that we're going to unleash hell upon you for crimes against all of humanity, or we'll take out your whole air force as retribution and give the rebels a fair playing field, (like we did in Libya) or we're going to have Seal Team 6 cause an immediate regime change and end this civil war today...

No, he said,
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” the president said a year ago last week. “That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

His calculus? Is this a math problem on a spreadsheet? Well, okay? But did last week's use of (still unconfirmed) WMD's constitute "a whole bunch?" -- or are we just going to pull out Bill Clinton's playbook (again) and try to treat this like Kosovo? Then let the Hague sort it out when they're all old men after a couple decades of appeals?

To be fair, there have been other warnings issued too - Russia and China have come out to warn the West to keep out of it...  Russia even went so far as to add "the West is acting like monkey with a hand grenade..."  Maybe there's a bit of impiousness to the truth in that statement, since Assad is one of Russia's favorite customers... but it's not bad advice.

Either way, you either do nothing and lose more credibility with the rebels you're backing and with the world in general for making stupid useless red line statements, or you get involved in yet another quagmire in the region that could easily spiral into a toilet hole worse than the first world war.

Frankly, I think I understand why everyone would rather talk about a 21 year old-child-fading-star dragging herself back into the national spotlight by wearing latex and sticking her tongue out more than Gene Simmons, while "performing" at an irrelevant cable awards program.

...Least until football starts up again.

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