More Thoughts on Syria

++Does anyone remember George McGovern advocating re-invading Cambodia to prevent Year Zero,the genocidal plan of Pol Pot?

++Do the Nuremberg Principles about Crimes Against Humanity trump the UN charter, which prohibits a country from unilaterally attacking another one without the grounds of self-defense? 

++John Kerry speaking his perfect French was in Paris again saying this was "Our Munich Moment". Having suffered through Tony Blair warning about the impending mushroom cloud from Saddam Hussein,one wonders why Kerry uses this language. Howard Fineman at Huffington Post tried to explain that Kerry loves the limelight and Secretary of Defense Hagel does not and that Kerry is basically hamming it up. But that doesn't explain Kerry's emotional commitment to this issue. 

++If you want a glimpse of Kerry's motivation , you only have to replay the video of his clash with Rand Paul over the authorization request. He said the strike would be a deterrent to Assad's use of chemical weapons. Paul claimed we don't know that and Kerry asked back whether Rand knew. In the exchange, Kerry went close to making his real point that intelligence showed that ,indeed, Assad was planning to use chemical weapons again unless stopped. 

++You can doubt the intelligence but it seems strange to question the integrity of Kerry and Hagel, who actually did serve in the military unlike the primary architects of the Iraq War. 

++This morning Der Speigel printed an account of German intelligence from their spy ship off the Syrian coast. For months,the Syrian military begged Assad for permission to use chemical weapons against the insurgents. A German daily paper claimed that the use of chemical weapons was by a commander without Assad's permission. Does that change things?

++The United Nations inspectors will have their preliminary report by the end of this week. If it shows the regime used these weapons,then it seems appropriate for the United Nations to call for their removal from Syria and to make provisions in the Security Council for an international force to engage in that operation. Actual proof from the United Nations would put Russia on the spot as Putin thought the charge was ridiculous. 

++As I wrote yesterday,we still have not heard constructive responses by any side in this debate about the humanitarian crisis in the country. Nicholas Kristof, who has done superb reporting on human rights issues around the world,weighed in with an article in the New York Times about the on-going crisis in the country, where 5,000 are killed everyday. Kristof argues that intervention is the least bad option. Kristof pointed out that sometimes intervention does work as in the case of Bosnia, Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

++The Syrian opposition posted a long plea to anti-war activists on Facebook, which details the last two years of peace efforts by the Arab League and the failed efforts at ceasefires and negotiations. They criticized Western anti-war activists for failing to recognize they are being bombed now daily by their own government. 

++Peggy Noonan, President Reagan's former speechwriter, weighed in with a an article titled,"Wrong War, Wrong Time, Wrong Man", which basically argued that President Obama is not the man to lead the country in war. 

++Anonymous contributed a broadcast that "their research" showed that the Syrian crisis is just an effort to ultimately attack Iran for its resources. Other anti-interventionists argue that this is all about oil and cite The New American Century group as the masterminds of all this. Ladies and Gentlemen, the largest oil reserves in the world are now in South West Australia, surpassing Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran combined. Resources have little or nothing to do with the considerations over Syria, which produces little oil. Others have argued that the real target of American interests is the projected natural gas pipeline from Iran to Syria. Rubbish.

++I get a sense that we are all falling into our political subcultures now without any imagination how to deal with this crisis. I like hearing old Phil Ochs' tunes but to use the occasion for nostalgia isn't helpful. 




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