Our Clear And Transparent President And The Coming Syrian "Intervention"

Through the rather tense weekend we (the United States) sat in some degree of suspense as we wondered when we would see those dreaded words on the breaking news, “US Forces Attack Syria.”  President Obama was set to go ahead with this attack, but in a surprise move, delayed the attack until he gains Congressional approval.  This decision was truly a puzzler, coming from the President who needs no one’s approval for his actions, nor has he ever looked to the Constitution in regards to the legalities of the actions he has taken.  But now he suddenly needs Congressional “approval.”

Oddly enough, even while Obama was pressing his need for a Congressional “green light” on the Syrian “intervention,” Secretary of State Kerry told us that “the strikes will proceed even without Congressional approval.”  So why the charade of the dutiful President asking Congress to endorse his third war?  If the very divided Congress should vote for NO intervention, it would surely leave the President discredited, and would leave him acting illegally, as well, should he proceed against the wish of Congress.

Adding to the President’s woes is an intelligence memo generated by United States sources that make it plain the President knew at least three days before the event that a chemical weapons attack on Damascus was imminent.  It seems that President Obama’s “on again, off again” transparency went clear just at the wrong moment.  I cannot fathom what Mr. Obama’s true reason for attacking Syria might be, but it is “transparent” that he did not intervene BEFORE the chemical attack.  Was he waiting for a justifiable cause to attack Syria?  After all, the civil war there has raged for over two years, with the death toll having surpassed the one hundred thousand mark, yet in all that, the US did not intervene. 

It seems as though the number of people killed does not invite intervention, but rather the method.  One official today said that Al Assad “has joined the ranks of Hussein and Hitler.”  I agree that chemical warfare is certainly inhumane in its indiscriminate killing of all it comes in contact with, soldiers and civilians alike.  Now the hard question: If, as the intelligence document clearly states, Obama was informed of the imminent use of chemical warfare against the Syrian population, why did he not order an immediate intervention…a surgical strike, if you will…against the chemical weapons plant or against the military unit that was about to deploy the weapon.

You might say “There is no way President Obama could have known WHO would deploy the weapon.”  That may or may not be the case.  One memo was released.  How many memos, how much “known information” was not?  But I will play fair here.  Let us assume Mr. Obama knew only that a chemical weapon would be deployed in Syria within the next three days.  President Obama DID NOTHING!  He could have demanded that President Al Assad directly order the strike to stand down.  He could have made a public plea to the people of Damascus to prepare for the worst.  He could have asked President Putin of Russia, or the Chinese government, to intervene, since they are Syrian allies.  But he did nothing at all.  Maybe none of these things would have prevented the attack, but we will always know that our President Obama DID NOTHING.

Having done nothing about the chemical weapons attack BEFORE it happened, President Obama now wants to attack the nation of Syria, which in no way is a threat to the United States, nor has it ever violated United States airspace.  Can we say that about OUR military?  The President and his staff cannot even agree who actually deployed this terrible weapon, nor can the governments of Turkey or France, both of whom investigated the chemical attack.  Neither can the United Nations, which announced that it was only concerned with determining that chemical warfare was used, NOT WHO DEPLOYED the weapon.  In other words, no one knows whether the Syrian military or some rebel faction deployed the chemical weapon.  The truth is that no one can be sure that the CIA, the NSA, or some other alphabet agency from the United States, Russia, Libya, or even (dare I say it) Israel fired the weapon “in the name of” the Syrian government.

It is in all this confusion, uncertainty, and outright lies that President Obama wants to launch a new war against Syria.  Of course he will remain safely in the White House while our young men and women go to war to defend those who already hate what America stands for.  It is one thing to be willing to die for the freedom and liberty of those who are too weak to fight for themselves, but our soldiers, sailors, and airmen will be fighting for a people who want to enforce a fundamental Muslim rule on everyone.  And they (at least quite a goodly portion of them) already hate America.  So our men and women would not be fighting for freedom, but instead for the strongest Muslim faction.  After the official government is defeated, the incoming faction will not install a “democracy,” nor do they want a democracy.  No, they just want the Al Assad administration OUT.  And then they would want the helpful Americans OUT, too.  Then Syria would just go back to “business as usual,” Muslim faction fighting Muslim faction.

I think herein lies the answer to the mystery of why President Obama did not stop or TRY to stop the chemical attack.  He wants the current Syrian leader OUT.  I believe he has a definite idea about who he wants IN, but that is just my own humble opinion.  The memorandum makes it clear that intervention was held back for some reason, whatever that reason may be.  But NOW the President wants to intervene.  It is a noble thing to want to rid the world of those leaders who would resort to chemical warfare.  It is not noble to ALLOW that very thing to occur to justify an otherwise unjustifiable war against a nation that, though not friendly to US, is not a threat by any means.  I hope that cooler heads will prevail in Congress.  I believe that will be the case, but I believe also that Obama will press this war with or without Congressional approval.  I pray for the people of Syria, and I pray for our own men and women who will pay with their blood for President Obama’s arrogance and folly.

God Bless America