VOTE NO! TO SYRIA WAR!

A "YES" VOTE WOULD OPEN DOOR TO WIDER WAR

I urge a NO vote on any legislation giving the President authority to attack Syria. Was Sarin gas used? It may have been. But who used it? That is the key question we must answer first before we commit to war. Obama and his team are attempting to obscure and conflate those two questions. More importantly such legislation would hand authority over to Obama to engage in a wider war...if he so desires. Not a sound idea, given our history with the Iraq War Resolution. Finally, a "no" vote by Congress would not send a "wrong message". That argument is specious and a red herring.

FIRST, we have only limited, and conflicting evidence concerning WHO authorized the gas attack. President Obama's assertion that he had "evidence" before the attack, has never seen the light of day, and thus has the credibility of Powell’s “vial of phony powder” at the UN. We do not know what that evidence is. It seems to be that Sarin gas was used. But that is not the key question. The Obama team seems to want to conflate these two unrelated questions (a la George Bush in the run up to the Iraq conflict). Thus the President's assertions remain unsubstantiated, conveniently hidden by his self-imposed vail of secrecy. Such secret evidences are not what a government needs to establish guilt in a court of law, or on the international stage. They do not rise to the level needed to actually convict a government and punish them, along with many innocents by starting a war....which is what Mr. Obama is asking for.

SECOND. A formal vote--even for a limited strike----is tantamount to a declaration of war! It can be used and abused to engage in a wider conflict, by President Obama, and anyone who comes after him, even if that document is very carefully worded. The example of the post 9-11 Iraq War Resolution Act the Congress handed over to President Bush is the prime example of the mis-use of such legislation. That document has been used to keep us at war for over a decade, in countries as far afield as Libya and Yemen. That resolution continues to plague us.

THIRD. The last thing this nation needs is ANOTHER WAR in the Middle East. Know this, that we must borrow the funds necessary just to rattle sabers and send the fleet into the Mediterranean. We are in sequestration now. That amount, costing us in the billions, were it spent here at home, is enough to solve the fiscal problems of a whole city like Detroit and it's millions of inhabitants. Imagine the additional costs of an actual strike and ---the unpredictable costs of an expanding war! We must attend to our own nation's needs first. We simply can not afford such a Syrian fiasco.

FOURTH. The hawks like to use the argument that we are sending the "wrong message" by not attacking. That is a classic red herring. Our credibility is NOT at stake here on this issue. On matters that are truly critical to our own national interests we have in the past and would continue to stand strong and do what is necessary and appropriate. With our overly robust military (by far the largest and the best in the world) we have no need to establish and reestablish our determination and military ability over and over again. So the argument of appearing weak and vacillating and sending a “wrong message” to Iran and other possible enemies by not striking Syria is a red herring and does not stand up to scrutiny. That argument also gives false options. To attack or not attack are not our only options. We can appear strong and engaged by encouraging and actively supporting a truce and diplomacy. Sadly Obama and his crowd seem to have abandoned that idea.

What choices the people of Syria make are their own and should be. We have no right to interfere. Our intervention can only muddy the waters, make no significant contribution to peace, harm more people than we help and have the likely potential of sliding us into a more expansive war by “mission creep”. Please remember, there are no humanitarian wars...only messy, bloody, expensive and unpredictable ones.

Get the picture?

rjk