Pages

Monday, August 26, 2013

It’s a Trap!




Did the Syrian rebels trap President Obama into military action by using his own words, specifically his definition of use of chemical weapons as a "red line"?

I, for one, am somewhat skeptical of the idea that the Assad regime decided to mount a chemical weapon attack against a Damascus suburb just as a UN chemical weapons investigation team was hunkering down in Damascus.

Assad is no angel, but, like most dictators, his survival skills—particularly, the skill of keeping his outrages below the level that provoke Western military action—seem pretty well honed.

As an alternative version of what might have gone down, imagine some guy, let’s say, Prince B---, tells President Obama:

Yeah, the chemical weapons attack was a false flag operation by the rebels.  Whatcha gonna do about it, Mr. Red Line?   Pin the attack on the rebels and destroy the Syrian uprising?  Do nothing and look like a wuss?  Or blame Assad, bury the truth about the attack under a pile of cruise missiles and propaganda, keep the insurrection going, and promote an image of American leadership in the Middle East?

For the rebels and their supporters, foreclosing the possibility of any West-brokered negotiated settlement with Assad might be worth a few hundred innocent lives.

The carefully prepared—written!—U.S. backgrounder laying the PR groundwork for some kind of military action against Syria deployed the “too late” argument, as in “The Syrian government was ‘too late’ in permitting access to the site of the alleged attack”.

I’m no expert on sarin forensics and the difficulties of detecting traces after five days, but I do have a pretty good recollection of the run-up to the Iraq War, when the Bush administration was rather anxious to bring an end to UN inspection process, primarily, I suspect because it had discovered an embarrassing lack of WMDs.

Here’s a nice item of “too late” memorabilia from CNN in September 2002:


Powell says it's too late for Iraq to negotiate


WASHINGTON (CNN) --Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that U.N. weapons inspectors must be allowed to go "anywhere, anytime" if they returned to Iraq -- rejecting that country's conditional offer to allow inspections to resume.
"If they have no weapons, what are they hiding?" Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

"They find all kinds of excuses, a thousand excuses -- 'There are spies on this team. We don't want this. When are sanctions going to be relieved and removed?' The issue is Iraqi noncompliance, and we should not allow them to move us off that issue."

At a news conference Saturday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said his nation would allow inspectors to return only if the United States doesn't bring military action and if U.N. sanctions are lifted.

"If there is a solution which maintains Iraq's sovereignty, dignity and legitimate rights and prevents aggression, we are ready," Aziz said.

President Bush brought his case against Iraq to the U.N. General Assembly last week, challenging the international organization to enforce resolutions seeking to disarm the Saddam Hussein regime.
Aziz denied Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction and accused Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of exaggerating the threat Iraq poses to the region.

Powell said it was too late for Iraq to negotiate the terms for the return of international weapons inspectors.

He said he was working with members of the U.N. Security Council to try to hammer out a resolution that lays out Iraq's violations of U.N. resolutions, what the country must do to meet the U.N. conditions and what the international community will do if it does not respond.

"The time for Iraq to respond was years ago," Powell said. "They now have an opportunity to respond now with this new resolution. But what we cannot allow to have happen is to get into this haggling and listening to the duplicitous comments that are constantly coming out of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz."

...

"Enough is enough," said Bush, who argued that Saddam has defied the United Nations 16 times since the Persian Gulf War. "The United Nations will either be able to function as a peacekeeping body as we head into the 21st century, or it will be irrelevant, and that's what we are about to find out."

Bush also said if the world body did not act, he was prepared to take matters into his own hands.

"Make no mistake about it," Bush said. "If we have to deal with the problem, we'll deal with it."





Find this article at:
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/09/15/powell.aziz.iraq









29 comments:

  1. I agree with you. This post is truly inspiring. I like your post and everything you share with us is current and very informative, I want to bookmark the page so I can return here from you that you have done a fantastic job. agen bola, agen sbobet, judi bola, agen ibcbet

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must say This post contains very useful information which help me a lot, Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful. Agen Bola

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great Post. I have not been visiting the site recently. Took a visit again and there were some great comments on the site. Excellent post. Keep up the good work. Agen Sbobet

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great Post. I have not been visiting the site recently. Took a visit again and there were some great comments on the site
    Judi Bola

    Judi Bola

    ReplyDelete
  5. Main game dapat Duit Puluhan juta, hanya modal 20.000 , mau ??

    Website link alternatif :

    - rajasahabat,com
    - rajasahabat,net
    - rajasahabat,org
    - rajasahabat,info

    PIN BBM : 2AE48042

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Langkah yang dapat anda kerjakan bagi menang togel 3D - Pada permainan Togel 3D ini jadi anda dapat pakai sebagian rumus ada hingga dapat anda pakai supaya dapat bermain lebih asik serta mengasyikkan di Nagahoki.
    http://nonstopreklam.hu/forums/user/mirai993/
    Hingga anda dapat gampang bermain dengan pertolongan perkiraan yang lebih pas. Pada permainan ini langkah yang dapat anda pakai yaitu dengan ambil angka keluaran pada 1 minggu yang kemarin. Lalu anda butuh lihat angka yang juga akan keluar pada hari tempo hari.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kalau sudah masuk ke hukum internasional, tentu pemerintah MusikQQ Indonesia tidak akan bisa ikut campur. Makanya satu-satunya cara adalah dengan memblokir website (internet positif), TETAPI itu pun bisa anda atasi dengan sangat mudah yaitu menggunakan VPN dan link alternatif dari pihak situs.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Top Up Saldo Deposit Poker di Pokerdewi
    Untuk mendapat peluang memperoleh bonus jackpot poker terbesar di permainan game judi poker Terpercaya berbasis online, terlebih dahulu kalian top up sisa deposit poker dengan nominal secukupnya. Kalian dapat top up sisa deposit poker dengan melewati rekening bank, melewati via pulsa, melewati Ibanking dan terakhir melewati Ovo. Silahkan pilih teknik yang menurut keterangan dari kalian gampang serta nyaman guna top up sisa deposit poker. Setelah kalian top up sisa deposit poker di akun kalian masing-masing, kalian dapat bermain game poker dengan peluang atau kesempatan yang besar guna mendapat jenis kartu poker terbaik dan terbesar yang dapat kalian kombinasikan.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sebuah lokasi yang terpercaya tentu mempunyai proses verifikasi Daftar Poker Online Resmi yang dapat dibilang lumayan ribet. Salah satunya ialah nomor telepon aktif yang seringkali akan menciptakan para member merasa risih untuk menyerahkan privasi mereka. Tetapi kenyataannya urusan ini bakal sangat mempermudah kita dalam sekian banyak proses transaksi selanjutnya. Ini dapat dikatakan sebagai proses verifikasi yang sangat aman sebab di era ketika ini masing-masing orang melulu memilih 1 sampai 2 nomor telepon saja. Maka dari tersebut akan paling mudah untuk pihak developer dan kita guna mendapatkan verifikasi yang lebih cepat. Selain urusan itu keunggulan nomor telepon ialah kemudahan dan akses yang perlu dilaksanakan ketika adanya kepentingan yang sifatnya urgen

    ReplyDelete
  12. Klik disini untuk mengetahui Cara Daftar IDN Poker Online yang baik dan benar

    ReplyDelete
  13. Selalu Belajar Strategi Terbaru
    Dalam bentuk permainan judi online maka tentu saja ilmu dalam membahas game ini akan selalu berkembang dari waktu ke waktu karena ilmu statistik yang menjadi dasar dari permainan judi online juga akan memiliki formula yang bisa dikembangkan secara signifikan. Jadi strategi dalam memenangkan berbagai permainan judi
    ceme online akan selalu ada yang baru dan up to date dengan kesempatan kemenangan akan semakin besar.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dalam permainan judi bola di agen sbobet Anda akan bersua dengan arti home dan away. Home sendiri yakni team NAGAWIN yang berbuat jadi tuan-rumah yang umumnya diikuti dengan warna merah. Sedangkan away yakni team yang berbuat jadi tetamu serta umumnya diikuti dengan warna biru. Sedang untuk isu full time yakni pasangan taruhan sampai selesainya satu laga. Untuk isu first half yakni pasangan taruhan dimana Anda cuma bertaruh pada satu set laga saja atau 1/2 permainan.

    ReplyDelete
  15. if only all bloggers offered the same content as you.
    kumpulan poker online
    144.208.76.117
    35.240.228.43

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am inspired!
    Extremely helpful information particularly the closing phase I maintain such information much.
    I used to be seeking this certain info for a very lengthy time.
    Thanks and good luck. http://animatlab.com/User-Profile/userId/66757

    ReplyDelete
  17. Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely. Agen Slot

    ReplyDelete
  18. Joker Gaming menarik dan mengasyikan. Semuanya tersaji komplit di sini. Mulai dari game slot , tembak ikan ,fish hunter ,fish world , , live casino, dan masih

    ReplyDelete
  19. graphic designing training course in chandigarh
    Graphic Design Course Helpful in designing visual content to convey knowledge to a huge audience. It is a combination of Communication and Graphic Design and is presented with the help of photographs, colors, typography, pictures, and icons in a form of Visual Content.
    graphic designing training course in chandigarh

    ReplyDelete
  20. Raw chicken Online Prime quality, prefect-cut meats are our speciality. We pride ourselves in our commitment to meat.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Digital Marketing is a course, besides this you can go into marketing line. visit cultureofinternet.com

    ReplyDelete