Happy Anniversary!!!

Today is the anniversary for Michelle and I!  And East Carolina pummeled UNC today in Chapel Hill, 55-31!

Nobel Peace Prize for Putin?

The Russians have shown more sense than the United States over this Syrian thing.  This makes me wonder how insane this situation is.  There might be some common sense emerging but it is coming from Moscow, not Washington.

The United States appears to be pushing for a strike.  Kerry had declared that the Syrian offer to let UN inspectors as "too little, too late" and even now is saying that a thirty day program to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control is not enough.  The United Nations is not going to let any resolution authorizing force to pass.

The United States government says it has evidence that Assad launched the chemical attacks but won't show the evidence citing national security.  If you don't show the evidence, why would I believe you? Given the scandals this summer--NSA, IRS, Benghazi etc...--why would anyone trust this administration even if they did show "evidence".  The rest of the world remembers the build up to 2003 and Iraq.

No one condones chemical warfare.  No one condones out of control military aggression either.  Especially on flimsy pretexts.

I think it is likely that Assad did launch a chemical strike.  But we don't know that conclusively.  The opposition, full of al-Qeida elements, may have done it to pull the US into another quagmire.

If you thought Iraq was bad, Syria would be even worse.

Would a US strike even change anything?  The Russians will rebuild whatever gets destroyed.  Any chemical weapons that are hit will drift around and in the chaos, may even fall into the wrong hands.  Of course, the Syrian government would constitute "the wrong hands".

Welcome to the Middle East.

Stay out of it.

A step in the right direction...

I believe in giving credit where credit is due.  President Obama backed off his threat to strike at Syria just long enough to debate it with Congress--as the Constitution calls for.  Now, if this is a good idea, given Congressional competence, I cannot say but at least the imperial presidency is being rolled back.  And this was a move by the President no less.

I am pretty sure this had something to do with the British people, speaking through their Parliament, saying NO to any UK military involvement in Syria last week. That, by the way, was the first time any British military action has been forbidden by Parliament since 1782.

The President CANNOT start a war on his own nor initiate the use of military force without Congress.  Granted, there are those who point to Grenada back in 1983 and Panama in 1989 as operations launched without any debate but those were potential hostage situations where time was of the essence.  Then-Presidents Reagan and Bush did however consult with Congressional leaders just before everything started rolling--maybe not the perfect solution but one that seemed to work.

In the 1990 build up to Desert Storm, President Bush attempted to assert he did not need any Congressional approval to invade Iraq but was quickly proven wrong. Obama's 2011 air war in Libya was unconstitutional but it looks like the roosters came home to roost on that one here in 2013. Congress threatened to cut the moneyflow so that also got the message across.  Things have a way of balancing out.

This still does not mean attacking Syria is a good idea.  This has the potential to get out of control real fast as things usually do in the Middle East.  Delaying everything until September 9 at least gives the situation a chance to cool off.

The US seemed to be in a rush to bomb, calling Syria's acquiescence to allowing UN inspectors to investigate the site of the chemical attacks and determine if the Syrian government or rebels used them.  The snipers shooting at the UN personnel were not on Assad's payroll so draw your own conclusions.

The build up to an attack on Syria in 2013 looks a lot like the build up to the attack on Iraq in 2003. I fell for that one but I won't this time around.  There has to be some other angle here than just anger over chemical weapons. The US did not punish Iraq in 1988 for using them against Iran or the Kurds.

Syria is none our business.  Airstrikes will do damage but in the end, it won't matter. They will rebuild. And Syria has a fairly dense anti-aircraft defense system. Remember, or look it up, Syria shot down two US planes in 1983 on a retaliatory raid.

Americans have been fighting in the Middle East since 2001.  It is time to leave that screwed up part of the world to its own devices.  Both Obama and the Republican hotheads should remember a basic law of history--wars are easy to start but hard to end.

Of course, you won't see Obama or McCain anywhere near the fighting if it breaks out.