Obama: Assad is slaughtering his people, must quit

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says the time has come for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign for the sake of his brutally repressed people.

In a stinging written statement, Obama says Assad has overseen a vicious onslaught of his people as they protest for freedoms. He says the Syrian people should decide their country's future and Assad is standing in their way and must go.

Obama also says that Assad's calls for reform ring hollow while he is, in Obama's words, "imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people."

This was Obama's first explicit call for Assad to step down. His administration also is slapping new sanctions on Syria.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_SYRIA?SITE=MAFIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Secretary Clinton also had a news conference this morning on the matter. I'm afraid I was only half awake at the time, but it was pretty clear that this was serious. Their assets are frozen and all transactions with the Syrian government (including for petroleum) are forbidden.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. and those drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

with all those innocents killed? Are our hands clean, Mr. President?

[Akoto]

2. I don't understand why this remark always crops up.

No, our hands aren't clean. Far from it. Two wrongs still don't make a right, however, and we are taking actions that we should be taking in this case.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I think "this remark" has a lot to do with pointing to clear hypocrisy,

whic is not limited to just the Republican's behavior that is so gleefully pointed out all over DU.

The USA has DECADES of hypocrisy in dealing with both domestic and foreign issues.
In the case of criticizing dictators who oppress their people, the U.S. policy seems variable depending on the politics of energy resources of the country involved.
Libya being the most recent of many examples.

[Akoto]

8. Do you disagree with our actions against Syria, for reasons beyond our own flaws? n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. I think it makes us look hypocritical, two faced,

and untrustworthy.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Anyone who has read and understood the original Project for a New American Century blueprint

esp. the now infamous "Rebuilding America's Defenses"
knows that what we are continuing to do in the Middle East is following that framework.

If you need to catch up on the plan, here are some links:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_the_New_American_Century

good overview of the document here:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm

and the site for PNAC with loads of their docs and planning going back to 1997:(including many memos on how to attack Iraq, long before 2003)
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqmiddleeast2000-1997.htm

This is not loony "conspiracy theory", this is HISTORY as it was carried out by the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Kristol gang once Shrub got into office.

Those who ignore history................

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bowens43]

3. sounds like an oppertunity

for Obama to play with his soldiers some more.....

[bemildred]

4. Obama Calls for Syrian President to Step Down

WASHINGTON — President Obama called on Thursday for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to leave power, and issued a new executive order providing for additional sanctions. It is the first time the United States has explicitly called for Mr. Assad’s departure from power.

“For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” Mr. Obama says in the statement issued by the White House.

The actions come in response to the deadly crackdown Syrian forces have been waging against pro-democracy protesters across the country.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. Eastern time about the sanctions, which the official said would be much sterner than previous measures. “We believe that this very tough action will lend additional force to the president’s words,” an administration official said shortly before the statement was issued.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/world/middleeast/19diplo.html

[Raschel]

5. This is a very dicey situation and this administration has waited quite a while before addressing

Assad.

[NightWatcher]

7. When do we start bombing the shit out of them?

Do we wait till September to roll out our next freedom loving campaign?

The week of 9/11 should provide good political cover.

[Broderick]

13. Another war

just what we need... sigh.

Meanwhile rights are being eroded, people are being foreclosed on, and some are going hungry right here in America.

[KansDem]

15. Time to oil up the "Democracy-Spreading Machine!"

And have some agency select the best Syrian dancers so they can be ready to greet us as we enter their cities!

Oh, and flowers...they need to be able to throw flowers...

[pampango]

16. Probably never, unless the UN authorizes it, as with Libya, which seems very unlikely. n/t

[bemildred]

11. Syria vows the killing is over as 25 more killed

BEIRUT: Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, has told the leader of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, that military operations against protest towns have ''stopped,'' as 25 more people were reported dead by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights.

Mr Ban spoke to Mr Assad by phone yesterday before a UN Security Council meeting on Syria where the UN human rights chief was expected to call for the international war crimes court to investigate Mr Assad's deadly crackdown, which has killed more than 2000 people.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared Mr Assad to Libya's fading strongman, Muammar Gaddafi.
Advertisement: Story continues below

''We made our calls but unfortunately we got no result,'' Mr Erdogan said. ''The same thing is happening with Syria at the moment.''

http://www.smh.com.au/world/syria-vows-the-killing-is-over-as-25-more-killed-20110818-1j07u.html

==============>

[grahamhgreen]

12. Lead by example. Stop the wars.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

14. I hope that I'm wrong on this one.

It looks as though the US war machine....uh I mean liberating forces are preparing to bring regime change to another country.

Do we really want to get involved in yet another quagmire? No, WE don't...but the people pulling the strings must already be frothing at the mouth in bloody anticipation of the money to be made.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. More than one country, actually, in case you lost count:

Politico reminds us that the original playbook included:
Iraq, ( check)
Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somalia .

Specifically, Politico points out:
"A Nato plan for a post-Gaddaffi Libya - carving up the country, and giving the richest spoils to the UAE - has been leaked.

The U.S. is already at war in Somalia. As the New York Times noted last month: "U.S. Expands Its Drone War Into Somalia".

The U.S. is always trying to justify war against Iran and Lebanon.

What explains these widespread wars throughout the Middle East?

Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of not only removing the Saddam Hussein regime by force but overturning the regime in Iran, as well as in Syria and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted extensively in then-under secretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of the Iraq war decisions. Feith's account further indicates that this aggressive aim of remaking the map of the Middle East by military force and the threat of force was supported explicitly by the country's top military leaders. "

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/obama-implementing-neocon-plan-for-war.html

Do keep in mind, before the urge to shoot the messenger becomes overwhelming, that the old PNAC plan is HAPPENING.
That is fact.
A 30 second Google search can turn up hundreds of headline examples of beating the war drum against Iran for the last
10 years, including the last 2 years.Same with Syria, same with other Middle East countries.
The playbook is: destabilize, move in and "rescue", plant American control in cement.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

23. The US does seem to an insatiable appetite for the liberation of countries

that have something that we need.

Remember when we thought that PNAC was something that we could hang on the republicans only?

Sigh....it looks as though it's time for a sequel to "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium". This time it will be about the intrusions of our government and military into weaker but energy richer countries instead of harmless tourists.

Another day and another country while this one continues to deteriorate at an ever increasing rate.

[moksha]

17. Better late than never, I guess.

I don't know why it takes a couple thousand dead civilians before we actually come out and say we've seen enough. This has been going on for sometime now.

I wonder how things are going in Bahrain?

[FreeBillClinton]

19. Slaughtering his people? That's our job!

[NHDemProg]

20. How dare Syria kill their people!

Only WE can kill our people! (H/T: Animal House)

[Uncle Joe]

21. Kicked & recommended

Thanks for the thread, Akoto.

[krabigirl]

24. please don't start another war, thanks. nt

[GeorgeGist]

25. "...his people ..." ?

think about it. Obama didn't.

[Turborama]

26. Here's a vid of Hillary's press conference

For when you have a clearer head: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/aug/18/syria-clinton-obama-calls-assad-step-down-video

K&R Thanks for the OP.