The UN is crazy......... Syria

[Rorschach]

Welcome back Chard, where' ya been?

Obama opened his mouth and threatened reprisals now he feels he can't back down...so far like many members of Congress I too have not seen any proof that the Assad regime attacked it's own people with chemical weapons.
When is the UN report due out?

The US should try to get used to the idea that it isn't the Sheriff of the world... and that that is a good thing for them and for the rest of us.

[DaS Energy]

Hello Super Nova,

Russia not silly, it know for America to close enough to lob anything in Syria, wherever it came would disappear in a flash! All that his happening is Obama is doing a Rudd, all piss and wind for the camera.

[Chard]

Russia is clever they now have a proposal for Syria to handover all chemical weapons to UN to prevent US attack.

The Russians took an off-the-cuff remark by Secretary of State Asshat, er, Kerry and ran with it. Russia is more concerned about possibly losing a military and industrial client then anything else.

Syria has not agreed yet.

I really hope Assad pulls his head out of his ass and takes the Russian-Kerry plan. The last goddamn thing we need is yet another bush war with middle eastern peckerheads and it'd be nice to see King Barry the Unwise get told "no, you may not bomb more brown people" by Congress.

[DaS Energy]

God its funny to watch. That's not how you kill your own people, you should do it this way! Hang on and we will demonstrate it on your people for you!

[Chard]

Welcome back Chard, where' ya been?

Had a bit of a working vacation in Hawaii. Wife worked on her tan and I got to scratch my head and wonder if the Air Force is secretly run by chimpanzees.

Obama opened his mouth and threatened reprisals now he feels he can't back down.

Yeah, Barry is going out of his way to be an asshole. He's got it in his head he needs to act tough and support "democracy" or some shit. Why does that sound familiar? Because it's the exact same shit Chimpus Caesar pulled when he decided to invade Iraq. At this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Scooby Doo Gang were to tie up Obama and yank off his mask to reveal George W. Bush.

..so far like many members of Congress I too have not seen any proof that the Assad regime attacked it's own people with chemical weapons.

The thing is the CW agent allegedly was Sarin, which as Aum Shinrikyo demonstrated in the 1990s, isn't hard for anyone to synthesize. What would be telling is how the agent was delivered. If it was delivered by air or artillery then there's no question that the Syrian government was responsible simply because they're the only ones in Syria with the means to deliver CW agents in that manner. It was ground delivered then it was probably the Rebels as they're the only ones in Syria dumb enough to hand carry a live nerve agent.

As for Congress, all they can do is tell Barry he can't engage in large scale military operations in excess of 60 days duration against Syria. Barry can still exercise his powers as commander-in-chief of the US Military to flatten every building in Syria as long as he keeps the bombardment under the 60 day limit.

When is the UN report due out?

Good question, but I've learned over the years that UN inspectors generally couldn't find their own asses if you superglued their hands to it.

The US should try to get used to the idea that it isn't the Sheriff of the world... and that that is a good thing for them and for the rest of us.

Agreed. The problem is we're the only people with a large enough military to actually get shit done. Ever wonder why it is we have such a huge fucking military yet all of our allies have rather modest ones in comparison and fun stuff like social welfare programs and shit? It's because we spend our money on the huge fuckin' military so you don't have to. A consequence of this is that we have to justify keeping that military around and the only way to do that is occasionally using it on some unfortunate country.

[DaS Energy]

"Ever wonder why it is we have such a huge fucking military yet all of our allies have rather modest ones in comparison and fun stuff like social welfare programs and shit? It's because we spend our money on the huge fuckin' military so you don't have to"

Dream on!

[Rorschach]

Russia and China both have huge militaries too.

I can appreciate the "big brother" symbolism, but like I said and am pretty sure you'd agree the US doesn't have to be sheriff of the world. Might be nice if it just backed it's allies and supported it's treaties. In which case Syria is not a responsibility.

[DaS Energy]

Hello Rorschach

I do agree!

[Neferti]

Welcome back Chard. Some lefty people thought "we" had pissed you off. I thought differently.

[Chard]

Russia and China both have huge militaries too.

China has a massive army, which would be a slight problem if the US happened to be part of the Asian continent. Thankfully, we're on the North American continent and the Pacific Ocean belongs to the US Navy (That applies to the Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans as well). The PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy), is what we call a "Frigate Navy" with no where near the ship numbers the USN has. CHina's Air Force isn't anywhere near as large as ours and they don't hyave much of any aerial refueling capability at all. What all this means is, that with the exception of their nuclear deterrent force, China's military is decidedly limited to a defensive role and isn't worth a damn for projecting power outside of the immediate region (That's why Chinese communist expansion in Asia pretty much stopped with nations that actually bordered China. The Chinese simply don't have the legs to go any farther then that).

So yeah, China isn't going to do a thing militarilly about Syria because they simply don't have the ability to do so. The PLAN actually sent a three "squadron" including one of their shiny new Type 052 Lahu-class guided missile cruisers. Take a wild guess at just how fast we could put all three of those ships on the bottom of the Med if we really wanted to.

Russia is pretty much in the same boat as China, only the Russian army isn't even 1/4 it's cold war size.

Regardless, no matter how lucrative selling arms to Assad's government my be, neither country is willing to risk world war three over Syria

I can appreciate the "big brother" symbolism, but like I said and am pretty sure you'd agree the US doesn't have to be sheriff of the world.

Who else is going to do it then? The UN couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery, and no one else has the resources.

Might be nice if it just backed it's allies and supported it's treaties.

We do that already.

In which case Syria is not a responsibility.

Agreed. I honestly think the idea of us conducting air and missile strikes against the Syrian government on behalf of Al Qaeda is a terrible idea. Seriously, if the last 12 years was any indication we should be asking Assad for permission to enter Syrian airspace for the express purpose of dropping iron on the Syrian rebels, who are sponsored in no small part by Al Qaeda. The reason we haven't is mostly due to the other major supporter of the rebels being Saudi Arabia, but then if it were up to me we'd have started the "Global War on Terror" by hitting Riyadh with a couple of megatons worth of Instant Sunshine (Seriously, we've been bombing the wrong brown people this entire time).