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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama will not launch strike against Syria
Canada, the UK and France have all said that they will not participate in a military action in the past 24 hours. President Obama, with his anti Iraq-war credentials and plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, will not be dragged into a unilateral action. I'm sure that he understands the political, economic and military catastrophe that will befall him if he goes it alone.
If you go back to last Friday, in his interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, on "New Day", you will see his remark "past military interventions haven't gone well that we rushed into" or something like that.
If you look at UN Ambassador Susan Power's of "Hillary Clinton is a monster" fame from 2008, she is an extremely aggressive advocate for humanitarian military intervention and has been for years. I suspect that what happened is she, Biden, and Kerry ganged up on President Obama for military intervention and with the UK and France initially supporting it, President Obama felt compelled to go along. Please recall that President Kennedy's advisors wanted to nuke everything during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and Kennedy stood alone against them and won.
The fact that President Obama has always said "no decision has been made" along with the fact that the international coalition is now in tatters along with his hatred of war makes me supremely confident that he'll find a tactful way to come down from Defcon 1. I'll be shocked if the US ever gets any more deeply involved in the Syrian crisis than it is today, which is to say it isn't.
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)I doubt POTUS will not order an attack.
I was against the attack before, not so much now anymore.
Napalm bombs dropped on a school?!? That guy Assad is nothing but a muderer
David__77
(23,774 posts)I hope you realize that the terrorists have committed a number of well documented crimes.
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)They're at war. Soldiers kill soldiers.
But WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND DROPS NAPALM BOMBS ON CHILDREN???
Assad did, since the rebels don't posses planes.
That monster needs to go!
David__77
(23,774 posts)...
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)Look, its a civil war there, I get it.
But dropping napalm bombs on a freaking school is got nil to do with it!!!
Assad is killing inocent children!! Can you aknowledge that much????
David__77
(23,774 posts)I wonder who will protect the Christian and Alawite children from al Qaeda and allied terrorists, who openly promise to annihilate them and their families.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)naked with napalm burns on her body. Oh wait, that was in the 70s in Vietnam!
NewsCenter28
(1,835 posts)Assad is definitely a thug but the other side in the civil war equals his brutality. Also, I don't see how there can be action now with no international coalition intact.
That said, the Napalm act that you mentioned is horrific indeed.
joshcryer
(62,296 posts)The alleged 1300 dead from one attack is what caused Obama to make his statements. Not, and I know this is sad to say, but a few dozen killed by a bomb at most.
David__77
(23,774 posts)Not one bomb or bullet, life, or dollar should be spent on activities that could give aid to terrorists in Syria.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Ben Rhodes guy. Not sure where Susan Rice stands. Very hard to know what Kerry, Biden and Hagel are thinking, because they have to do their jobs of carrying out the Prez's wishes and are loyal, but they would be Obama's more-cautious crew, having all answered to actual voters in their Senate days. That said, Obama only leans on his advisors so much--I think he makes his own judgments, in the end.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Francois Hollande said all options were being considered, and that a strike within days was not ruled out.
His comments came after US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington would continue to seek a coalition for possible military action.
However, Germany said it would not participate in military action...
/... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23897775
Canada Not.
... Our government has been a very reluctant convert to the idea that there needs to be some western military action regarding the Syrian situation, he told reporters at an event in Toronto on Thursday.
At the present time the government of Canada has no plans, we have no plans of our own to have a Canadian military mission....
/... http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/29/syria_no_canadian_military_mission_planned_stephen_harper_says.html
Our approach is to continue to find an international coalition that will act together, Mr. Hagel said in Manila, the Philippine capital. And I think youre seeing a number of countries state, publicly state, their position on the use of chemical weapons. ...
/... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/middleeast/syria.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
(No potential candidate countries are mentioned). However:
Eleven percent, however, did think that Israel should launch a strike if nobody else was prepared to do so.
Twelve percent had no opinion according to the poll of 519 people, which had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points...
/... http://www.france24.com/en/20130830-tel-aviv-gets-missile-defence-amid-syria-fears-media
Meanwhile:
/... http://www.france24.com/en/20130829-western-doubts-grow-syria-strike-looms
And:
But Mr. Bans efforts to forestall armed intervention by the United States in the affairs of another country, without the permission of the United Nations Security Council, appeared to be having little effect, recalling the frustrations of Mr. Bans predecessor, Kofi Annan, 10 years ago in failing to dissuade the Bush administration from attacking Iraq.
Diplomats, former diplomats and legal experts said that if the Obama administration proceeded with an attack on Syria, the effects were likely to reverberate through the United Nations, reinforcing a sense of powerlessness in resolving disputes, in particular those in which one or more superpowers are among the antagonists.
Some said an American military action in Syria, regardless of the merits cited by administration officials, would degrade the credibility of the Security Council, the only internationally recognized institution empowered to authorize force...
/... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/world/middleeast/un-leader-urges-obama-to-hold-off-on-a-strike.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fworld%2Fmiddleeast%2Findex.jsonp
morningfog
(18,115 posts)I don't see him turning back. No way, not now.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)do you stop them from committing crimes against humanity?