Don't conflate Syria with Iran. Iran sits upon a strategic oil reserve and vital waterway. Syria does not and is separated from Iran by the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Syria has no nuclear weapons program and has never been a threat to the US or NATO. It's not our fire. What are these "solutions" that you speak of? And we have taken steps to support all of our allies. Patriot missiles and F-16s have been deployed to Jordan. Recconaisance aircraft and drones have been deployed to Turkey. Israel gets $8 million a day in US military support. Hezbollah is fighting Syrian rebels instead of attacking Israel. Israel no longer has to fear gas attack. Our friends are being looked after. We don't need to get mired in a Syrian Civil War to defend our allies. Yes amigo, Syria is very complicated but it's not invisible or particularly mysterious. My points have validity and are not invalidated by a complex scenario. Obama has played this pragmatically and cleverly. Only It didn't work that way in either situation. Ground troops were quickly utilized and were there for the long haul. What repercussions? It was a civil war before and it is a civil war now, only without WMD's. Why are you so weepy for Syria, Abdul? They are a long-time enemy who has imploded in internal revolt and no longer threaten our allies nearby. Both sides hate us, just like in Iraq and Afghnaistan. It's THEIR slaughterhouse. American cannot be the world's policeman. The Syrian Civil War is a huge present to America and our allies and a strategic advantage to us as long as they are mired in it. Why would you want to be mired alongside them?
So again you just throw out all of my points by calling them irrelevant and then make a long list of points that I consider irrelevant. You either address my points or you fail to. Your call. I'm going to keep disputing yours. I responded to your comment and you didn't like it. I don't blame you. It was all the reasons why Obama made the right call. AND IT WORKED. You keep ignoring the fact that Assad blinked and gave up the WMD's. IT WORKED. If you think that is "irrelevant" then don't bother to debate me. Assad is giving up his WMD's right now . . . at a cost to us of zero lives and dollars. He didn't cross the red line! Did you miss that part? Sure, Putin was trying to preserve Assad so he encouraged him to back down and avoid the US bombings which played right into our hands. NO WMD's. No cost to us. Loss of Syrian and Russian face. Like I have said all along, Israel can handle Syria without help, we paid them a lot to be able to do that. The Syrian Civil War is not . . . our . . . fight. Israel is loving it. Do you see them trying to end it? Amigo, America is a threat to any country on the planet including Russia and China and everybody understands this. Obama has pulled the trigger every time that it was in out best interests to do so. He is not shy about using military threats and military power, it's a matter of record. And everybody understands this.
The healthcare plan is a capitalistic plan. As far as I know there are no restrictive gun laws, the rich should be taxed more, and if they do pay 39 percent they have shitty tax lawyers because most rich pay around 18 percent with the loopholes and off shore parking. Who are these 5 people? We both agree Obama sucks, but it's not because he is a socialist, he sucks because he isn't one.
All of your arguments boil down to WMD's are leaving Syria; must be because of Obama. And there is absolutely no reason to make that leap of faith. Everything happening, is by Putin's design. And he never misses a chance to poke Obama in the eye. The WMD disposal isn't going near as well as you imply. So lets see what the future brings. And Obama still has that congressional approval problem he created for himself should he suddenly want to get in touch with his bold side. Your statement that Putin and Assad lost face and Obama gained it borders on delusional. Your not putting up arguments, your interviewing for Jay Carney's job. I made two points about Obama and Assad; Obama ain't bold, and Assad ain't afraid of Obama. And nothing you've said disproves either one of them. Your failure, not mine; Amigo.
Oh, so Putin decided out of the blue that his ally must get rid of its Chemical weapons? It couldn't have had anything to do with Obama repositioning aircraft carriers and threatening air strikes on his ally? You can't possibly be this naive. You'll never get work as a psychiatrist. Assad backed down. There is no getting around that. You've proved nothing to disprove. You only have opinions. I think they are flawed and I disputed it. Take it or leave it. I said what needed to be said about it, whether you find it relevant or not.
I said exactly that. Try to pay better attention. And I wish you would learn to use the quote feature, you make it very hard to respond to your posts. The chaos is all upon Hezbollah and Assad. Neither are a threat to Israel right now exactly because of the Syrian War. Hezbollah has always fought in Lebanon, this is no expansion. Exactly. You keep suggesting that the US needs to be at war in Syria. We do not. It has been exactly that threat until the civil war started. Patriot missiles and F-16's will very effectively protect our allies in Jordan, Israel and Turkey. Look, nothing we can do will stop violence in the Middle East. Has Iraq taught you nothing? This has been going on for thousands of years. All we need to do is protect our allies and our shipping routes and we are doing that just fine. We DO NOT need to be engaged in a Syrian Civil War to do this. Why do you think we do? This is not an argument. It is not even a sentence. Are you really surprised to find a dissenting viewpoint on a political debate forum? No, are you? Why not knock off the lame attempts to discredit me and just debate the issues. But you said Serbia and we damn sure had troops on the ground fighting Serbians in the Balkans in the 1990's. Ask Shane about it. More lame insults. I expect better from you. You are going to find me far from deluded, chief. Hysteria. Happy? No. Neither do I think it is our problem. All of these people hate us. Why do you love them so much? You seem to be losing this debate and trying to make it into a pissing contest. You are starting to bore me. Horseshit. What regional catastrophe? Explain this one. Do you really think that the US getting involved in this local civil war is going to change all Middle Eastern politics? Syria has nuthin' we need. Syria threatens nuthin' we care about. Syria is a Russian ally. An implacable enemy is collapsing of internal revolt. This is a good thing for us! You cannot fail to see this. Meaningless hyperbole.
Reuters article on Yaoo - 2 hours ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday accused Syria of dragging its feet on giving up its chemical arms, putting at risk a deal to remove such weapons of mass destruction from the country as it splits apart in a chaotic civil war. President Barack Obama this week touted the chemical weapons agreement as one of the few U.S. diplomatic achievements on Syria, but the State Department said just 4 percent of Syria's deadliest chemical agents has been shipped out of the country for destruction at sea. The United States has few good choices to force President Bashar al-Assad to comply. A State Department spokeswoman warned that a military option was still possible but urged diplomacy and called on Russia to pressure its ally Damascus to comply with an agreement struck last year to surrender its chemical arsenal. Red, you accuse me of being naive while passionately defending this fairy tale. It's the old deny and delay game. String out the crisis and everybody is going to win. All Assad has to do is the minimum to allow Obama to keep proclaiming victory. Which isn't much, Obama's not shy about taking victory laps. Obama is a winner. Meanwhile, Assad keeps doing anything he wants to do to. Assad's a winner. And Putin has gained new stature in the Middle East. Putin's a winner.
I agree, I heard the Patrick Ewing deal even before that, and that is all I see. Not proud of that, either.
Putin's reputation is still low, where do you get the idea that he is dancing about all of this. Watch his image plunge during the Olympics. He is desperately trying to prop up Assad, who is definitely not "doing whatever he wants to do". Look, Assad is no longer using chemical weapons, he is obliged to ship them out, some have been already. Whether he is delayed for logistical reasons or by foot-dragging, the UN inspectors are on top of it and both the UN and the US have warned Assad to pick up the pace. He can only delay for so long and its not long. You act like this thing is over, when it has barely begun.
