Pending USA response to Syrian chemical attack

It looks like the USA is contemplating a 2 day limited military response to the recent chemical attack in Syria it blames on the Assad regime. It also looks like the USA will not bother to get UN support in the form of a resolution on this; nor will the Obama regime deign to ask Congress for  declaration of war, albeit a "limited" war.

I was so outraged by Secretary of State John Kerry's responses that I wish to precede his quoted comments below with my own comments based on the three yellow-highlighted phrases below.

Kerry speaks of "moral obscenity," "inexcusable [attack on civilians]," and his "very personal" response to videos he'd seen of this attack. Mr. Kerry would do well to remember that the USA itself was the first to use nuclear weapons in war as a terrorist tactic. [Here, I'll say it in a more direct way: "The USA was the world's first nuclear terrorist."] We had no problem bombing Nagasaki, killing between 60-80,000 people (almost all civilians) a mere three days after bombing Hiroshima. Nagasaki had next to nothing in the way of a military presence stationed there and its potential contribution to the war effort was entirely negated by the US Navy, which ensured that none of its materiel could ever leave Japan to support its overseas war effort.

And here's the kicker: The USA didn't bomb these two cities to terrorize the Japanese, but instead to try to throw the fear of God into the Russians whom it saw as their only potential rival as a budding superpower.

So when Kerry speaks of "moral obscenity," I urge him to compare the (possibly) 1,300 killed in the Syrian attack to the (at least) 60,000 killed in Nagasaki. If Kerry wants to see (as he put it) "gut-wrenching" videos, I suggest he review footage of the Nagasaki victims. What really burns me is, there was a time when Kerry at least pretended to be anti-war or at least to have had a conscience about the byproducts of war. But it seems that marrying into money and becoming a part of the oligarchic system really turned his head. Too bad. I have nothing but contempt for this man.

Now for those quotes:

QUOTE [from article posted on YahooNews! on 8/26/13]:

Secretary of State John Kerry left no doubt Monday that the United States believes Syria’s Bashar Assad used chemical weapons to slaughter civilians last week and vowed that the United States will respond to that “moral obscenity.”

“Anyone who can claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass,” he said, in a barb likely meant for Syria and its patron Russia. “By any standard it is inexcusable, and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable."

Kerry, speaking to reporters at the State Department, spoke of the attack in very personal terms, describing how he had watched the “gut-wrenching” videos of the dead and dying via social media.

:UNQUOTE.



QUOTE [see NOTE 1 below]:

"We know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons." And is Kerry equally confident that somehow the rebels themselves don't have any such armaments, either from Assad's stockpiles or from (say) Saudi Arabia? What about the possibility that USA agents in Syria obtained some of these weapons and are responsible for this attack?

I'm at a loss to figure out why Assad, who is clearly beating the rebels and surely wouldn't want to cross any US red lines, would intentionally kill civilians. Unless, and this is a stretch, his intel determined that there was such a large number of rebels holed up (using their proximity to civilians as a human shield tactic) that he wanted to not only be rid of these rebels, but also to send them a message, "Give up the human shield tactic, for we'll use chemicals on any large numbers of rebels we find while considering, much as the USA would, any resulting civilian deaths to be collateral damage."

As a side note, I was intrigued by video footage showing a "victim" of this chemical attack being tended to by a doctor. This doctor was busy massaging the "victim's" knees even though he was undergoing spasms. Strange, indeed.

Me thinks Kerry better stop snorting that ketchup he's become so addicted to. His posturing self-righteousness is an act that grew old a long time ago.

:UNQUOTE.

In my personal opinion

I don't believe the uprising against Assad happened without substantial clandestine support by the USA for many years, possibly decades. Same as in Libya. Events like these don't just happen. However, I do believe the USA was surprised that Assad's regime proved to be a lot more tenacious than at first estimated. Perhaps the USA was hoping Assad's army, which has a sizable enlisted makeup of Sunni soldiers, would rise up in opposition to Assad's Alewite/Shia command structure. Perhaps those Sunni soldiers are fighting to have a country not dominated by Sunni militant extremists. So...we guessed wrong: Not all Sunnis are created equal.

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Steven Searle, former candidate for USA President (in 2008 and 2012)
Founder of The Independent Contractors' Party

"There's a special place in hell waiting for John Kerry - right next to that place waiting for Barack 'change-you-can-believe-in' Obama" - Steven Searle.

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

NOTE 1: This quote is my response posted to an article posted on YahooNews!, but not to the same article referenced in my first quote.