I
don’t suppose the world waits with
bated breath until an obscure blogger and
confirmed crank chimes in on the
headlong rush to put another target pin in the already bristling map of the Middle East. Events rush forth heedless of his opinions or
protests. But the old fool insists on
entering the fray anway. This is
what he has to say:
Stop
it! Damn it, Stop it, Mr. President, before you blunder into
a deadly morass in Syria because
your advisors and all of the very serious talking
heads on cable news convince you
that because you drew an imaginary bright
red line in the sand over the use of chemical weapons you are compelled to
reign thousands and thousands of tons of high explosives and billions of
dollars in armaments or lose your credibility,
whatever the hell that is.
As
Jon Stewart so eloquently pointed
out in his return to The Daily Show, “the red line that
they crossed is actually a dick-measuring ribbon.” And that is just not a good enough reason to
join the War of the Month Club.
Since
you announced to the world you intention to spank President Bashar Hafez al-Assad
with high tech munitions last week, things have
moved swiftly. And unfortunately for
you, not all that well. Not only did
many of your domestic enemies in the right
wing of the Republican Party,
suddenly discover a war that didn’t make their little hearts race with wild
anticipation when the man on the White
Horse is Black, but the allies
you sought to back up your claim that you would be enforcing, somehow, international
law were scarce and unreliable.
Oh
sure, the French are on board—fat lot
of good it will do you—and the Turks
who have a few troubles of their own.
The Israelis always want Americans to be their proxies in
regional conflict. But in Britain, Parliament decisively slapped
down the Prime Minister’s attempt to
join the party. The Saudis who have a dog or two in the fight and who may have actually
provided the sarin which proved
deadly in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta—more
on that later—have your back as well.
How comforting that must be.
But
the rest of the world, not so much. Not
the United Nations, not NATO are prepared to give your explosive
intervention the cover of international law.
The U.S. refuses to recognize the World
Court in The Hague and Syria is
not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons
Convention and thus not subject to its strictures and restrictions. In fact, most of the world governments which
have spoken are opposed to U.S.
intervention. As measured by
polls, popular opinion around the world is even more negative. As it is right here at home.
So
much for the real politic assertion that the world yearns for “reliable”
leadership from the United States and that failure to follow up on a hastily
made threat will be seen as weakness and “unreliability.” Mr. President the world does not want to rely
on your itchy trigger finger.
The problem is not that anyone thinks the use of
chemical weapons, especially on civilian populations, is acceptable. The problem is that in about two years Syria
has degenerated from and Arab spring movement
when largely secularized middle class citizens took to the streets to bring down the Al-Hassad
family dynasty. Both they and the West expected that the regime would
crumble quickly. But Assad not only had
firm support in the military and the firm backing of allies Iran and Russia, but even many majority Sunnis
who had prospered in the four decade Ba’athist
regime dominated by minority Alawites, a secretive Shi’a minority. Taking a cue
from Bahrain, where, ironically, a
Sunni King ruthlessly suppressed a largely Shi’a popular uprising, Assad dug
in. He ruthlessly suppressed protests
with the free use of arms, especially away from the capital and most Western
press. Hundreds of thousands were driven
from their homes, many into exile as refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan,
and even in war torn Iraq.
It can, and has, been argued, that Western and U.S.
support of the earliest popular movement might have effected regime change. But no matter how distasteful the Assad
regime was, the possible successors seemed even more problematic. Mr. President, while calling for Assad to
step down, you repeatedly declined to offer any real support to the opposition.
With moderate forces in society either in exile or
frozen with fear, highly motivated religious and political extremists took
control of a chaotic insurgency as the country slid into open civil war. It is not a united insurgency;
there are numerous groups on the ground bound by sectarian, tribal, and
ideological ties. Many benefit from arms
and support from abroad, including fairly open arming of Sunni forces by the
Saudis, and the emergence of an active Al-Qaeda
presence in a country that had previously not only kept that tendency out,
but which actively allied itself with the Bush
Administration’s effort to crush it.
On the other hand the Iranians and Russians stand behind
the regime and have been supplying arms and technical assistance, not unlikely
including chemical weapon technology. The Syrian Civil War was becoming a regional
war-by-proxy. And it has begun to spill
into unstable Lebanon and over the
borders of Turkey.
In essence there are no good guys this bloody fight,
only the largely innocent civilian population caught in the vicious cross
fire.
The problem with intervention, even if we assume the
absolute responsibility of the Assad regime in the use of chemical weapons, the
supposed Casus belli, is that our
bombs and missiles, while killing a lot of folks, may effectively tip the balance
for one of the factions we may not be too thrilled about seeing come to
power. Or we may rally flagging popular
and regional support for Assad and actually strengthen him. No one has up with any scenario in which U.S.
military action actually improves the situation.
Despite this, you seem to be determined to plunge
ahead and trotted out Secretary of State
John Kerry, who rose to national prominence as a young Vietnam veteran in uniform testifying against that war in Congress,
to make your case for intervention. And
frankly, his presentations failed to convince many that the Syrian regime had
actually employed chemical weapons. His
assertions were vague, at best. And from
the beginning came reports, including from United
Nations Inspectors on the ground, that the deadly incident in Ghouta where as
many as 1,400 died, may have actually been the result of insurgent actions
either accidentally or as an attack on their own people to draw the west into the
war.
The public clamor was rising against you, Mr. President. Conservatives were suddenly insisting that
you needed prior approval of Congress for military action. Your old speeches on Iraq, demanding Congressional
approval for that war, were dredged up.
You were forced to say that you would submit your case to Congress. Of course some of the very same people who
had demanded that on Thursday, denounced you on Friday for “vacillating” and
showing weakness.
Kerry appeared on all of the Sunday morning news programs on broadcast and cable. He
fleshed out his case, but was bare on specifics or supporting
documentation. Assertions that claims of
rebel responsibility were not “credible” were themselves not credible. Pardon the American people if we don’t trust
the hype. Bitter experience has taught
us, and you are looking more like George
W. every day.
You put the full press on and did get old Senator John McCain, the classic
never-met-a-war-I-didn’t-like hawk, to give you support. So did a very uncomfortable and orange House Speaker John Boehner. But the Republican
rank-and-file is reluctant to follow suit and Democrats are torn.
Kerry appeared before a Senate panel following a parade
of uniforms and ribbons yesterday. He
offered dramatically less “proof” than Colin
Powell did about alleged weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq. Much of Powell’s impressive case later
turned out to have been largely fabricated in Dick Cheney’s basement, so it is little wonder that Kerry’s weaker
case wasn’t unanimously greeted as gospel.
Meanwhile more reports were emerging that the sarin
gas had been supplied by the Saudis to a Sunni faction and that careless
handling of the chemicals caused an accidental explosion and release. These reports may be propaganda as well, but vague reports of chatter by low level Army
commanders—no intercepted texts provided—or of rocket launches 90 minutes
before the release of gas, and heavy reliance on social media in Syria, were hardly more convincing
Mr. President, you are in a pickle. In the end today you could only get a 10 to 7
vote with one “present” in the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. Opposition
included 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
You may win next week in the full Senate, which is narrowly controlled by
your party. But it would not take very
many defections on the left to put your scheme at risk even there.
Things are even grimmer for you in the
Republican/crazy-as-a-loon controlled House
of Representatives where the many Tea
Party types are salivating at the chance to use this vote to “bring down
the President.” The Neo-cons and imperialists
may reluctantly lend support, but they are a beleaguered minority in the caucus. In addition there are a solid number of
anti-war Democrats who have already announced opposition. Nose counters yesterday reported that only 11
House Republicans are sure or likely supporters, 124 are likely in opposition,
and 98 are undecided. On the Democratic
side, there are 35 yeas, 45 nays, and 120 on the fence. There are so many ways you could lose the
vote in the House, that it is difficult to envision you actually winning it.
Which is why, alarmingly, yesterday you said that
you were only deigning to “consult” Congress as a courtesy but that regardless
of a vote you had the executive power as Commander
in Chief to order the attack anyway.
Leaving aside for the lawyers whether having once asked for Congresses
explicit approval, you can disregard its rejection; this course would be a
disaster for the nation and for your presidency. Not only could it revive domestic dissent to
levels not seen since the height of the Occupy
movement, but it would surely bring paralyzing impeachment proceedings in the House and permanently sully your
legacy.
Then there is the question of how much and how hard
to strike, if you go heedlessly ahead.
Assad has by now gotten plenty of advance warning to hide or harden any
chemical weapons he does have as well a major cashes of arms and
equipment. He is probably prepared to
take hits on his air defenses, air fields, command and control facilities electrical
grid, and transportation corridors, all the traditional targets of “surgical
air strikes.” Military pros say that what
might have been devastating in a surprise attack can now be absorbed. Too short an attack or too limited one will, we
are told, be viewed as a mere symbolic slap on the wrist and be disdained by
the international community. In order to
be effective your attacks will have to more intense, deeper, and more damaging
to the fabric of Syrian civil society as well as the regime. And even then without those “boots on the
ground”, the rats that emerge from the rubble are apt to more dangerous and destabilizing
to the region than even the chaos of today.
In short, Mr. President, you can’t win. The United States can’t win. And most assuredly the long suffering people
of Syria can’t win.
Call off your damned war! Now!
