OBAMA'S SYRIA WAR TO SAVE LEGACY

Our President Obama, (an undeserving Noble Peace Prize Laureate) is beating the drums for a war in Syria. He embarrasses us all as he unashamedly channels George Bush and Dick Cheney in his attempts to twist unwilling arms and propagandize for war. He is attempting to make the case for an illegal bombing campaign against Assad, allegedly to stop him from killing "innocent civilians". While Obama is propagandizing for a humanitarian cause from one side of his mouth, he was authorizing (Sept 7-8) more of his lethal drone strikes on a target in southern Afghanistan. The Pentagon bragged that that particular strike (on a vehicle) killed "ten" Afghan "militants". The officials on the ground however, picked up the mangled' charred bodies of four children and five women and the bus driver. That makes ten. The President and his men in the Pentagon do not count or discriminate so well from their drone perch at 10,000 feet above the surface. As the President tries to convince us that we should launch an "humanitarian" military attack on Syria to stop Assad's indiscriminate killing of women and children we learn he is authorizing attacks which amount to the very same crimes against humanity. Obama has made this a signature of his administration, authorizing over 350 such strikes in Pakistan alone, (let us for now ignore Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere he has used this lethal inhuman method) in the process, killing more than 2300 Pakistani innocent civilians. Fewer than 34 "militants" were killed in those strikes. Our President has some chutzpah to point his blood-stained finger at Assad, in an attempt to get us into a wider bloody, body strewn war in the Middle East.

Now about his war-drum beating on Syria.

President Obama carelessly drew his own "line in the sand" or "red line" on Syria's possible use of chemical weapons in an off-the-cuff remark to a reporter in an August, 2012 speech. That was a classic diplomat's mistake. Wise politicians and experienced diplomats learn not be so casual in their comments. His verbal carelessness certainly encouraged those, such as the jihadis and others (Saudi Arabians and Israelis) who would use lies, deception and subterfuge to force the US to intervene in this civil war, perhaps by firing Sarin gas weapons in a "false flag" attack. But more importantly, his own loose speech boxed Mr Obama into a set of responses perhaps he did not want to make. It removed any ability for this President to make nuanced decisions when and if those events did occur. Now in the face of the alleged use of Sarin gas against civilians in Syria, the President found himself with his self-imposed limited options. He was now forced to make good on his threats. If he does not act decisively HIS international credibility is weakened. But his greater fear is a domestic one. He fears most that his political rivals would batter him with charges of being a blabbermouth, a lousy diplomat and a weakling. The name calling he might not mind, being a politician. Of great concern to Obama is that his perceived weakness would emboldened his domestic opponents. They might be able to stall or nullify the Obama second-term political agenda. His whole political career and his legacy as first black president might be threatened by a stupid "slip of the lip" on Syria. For a politician that would indeed be a big pay out....too big to take on the chin. He had to try and undo his faux pas. How? Start a war!

So let us be clear, the President's motivation is not humanitarian...if that bothered him, he would simply stop blowing up Pakistanis and Yemenis by the dozens with drone attacks. He is attempting to get the US to fight a war to protect HIS legacy and the remains of HIS presidency. To protect that legacy and his position in the history books he is willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent Syrians and perhaps hundreds of our young men and women in uniform. He is willing take the very likely chance that his "little" cruise missile attack does not start a larger war. He is willing to spend tens of billions of dollars (or very much more). He would open our dusty near-empty treasury vaults, still crammed full of IOUs from Bush's wars, and have to add more IOUs for this new Obama war to further stultify the US economy.

Presidents make mistakes. They are THEIR mistakes. President Obama can not RIGHT his mistakes by leading the nation in a phony, illegal war of his own making. Syria's civil war does not threaten us or our allies. Bombing it woud not make a significant difference in the war outcome. US bombing would only kill and maim more innocents. There are no humanitarian wars. If he is determined to respond to the deaths of these civilians. If he is really moved by humanitarian instincts, as he claims, he should put his energies into easing the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in that part of the world. He should convene a conference to find a peaceful solution to the Syria conflict. He could also stop killing innocent women and children in Afghanistan and in Pakistan by his "secret"drone war.

Get the picture?

rjk