This past week, we have been treated to the reports that President Obama would call for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to leave power, mixed with a statement from our feckless secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, that such a call wouldn't work, and Obama finally calling for the Big Resignation. And the result?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/20/syria-rejects-calls-for-president-bashar-assad-to-step-down/
In other words......
So much for floating trial balloons.
What'cha gonna do now, Mr President?
On a serious note, I have a suggestion for Time Magazine: As they are pondering who will be their 2011 Man of the Year, might I humbly suggest they award it to....
the Syrian people?
Call me naive, but thus far, I am unaware of any radical Islamists involved in the protests, or any unprovoked violence on the part of the protesters, or any rapes of Western reporters on the main squares, or any attacks against synagogues (There probably aren't any in Syria for all I know.) Yet, people still turn out to protest in the face of murderous gunfire from government toops. Syrians here in America are turning out to protest as well, in spite of reports that Syrian diplomats are taking their pictures and identifying their relatives back home for arrest and torture. That strikes me as pretty darn courageous.
6 comments:
For Obama, it is just another case of "bad luck".
Squid
I commend your admiration for the Syrian people. I can't fathom why you have less respect for the Libyan people. I suspect, from past examples, that if President Obama had remained silent about Syria, you would have been clamouring for him to say something.
Siarlys,
Good point, but perhaps it has something to do with PA 103 and that timultuous welcome given to the bomber when he returned to Libya-even if it was orchestrated. Both Libya and Syria have shown that Obama is in way over his head in the ME. He should remember who America's friend-not friends- is in the ME (Israel).
The Libyan people who are bravely struggling to overthrow a dittzy dictator are collectively responsible for that dictator welcoming home Megrahi???
The man could whip up a crowd in Tripoli to wave green banners and denounce the NATO intervention, I'm sure he could whip up a crowd to welcome his crony home. I suspect that phrase "whip up" is more literally true than it should be.
I don't know what I would do if I were President of the United States right now. It doesn't appear that you know what you would do either. It would be nice to send in the marines at a time when we would be clearly supporting a popular uprising, but maybe that would taint the integrity of the uprising. Maybe the people have to do it for themselves. Anyway, we can't afford, and voters are worn out and unwilling to support, massive intervention.
That being the case, should the president shut up since we have no real leverage? Or do moral statement have some purpose anyway? Many other nations closer to the situation are finding that Bashar blithely ignores their warnings, including Turkey.
John McCain said he would have gone into Libya sooner and with more force. That would probably have been a bad move. All the latest reports show Qadaffi in retreat, and a noose tightening around Tripoli, where dissent is beginning to be voiced again for the first time in months.
While I agree that the thrust of the Syrian uprising is not anti-Israel or pro-jihadi, those elements are present in the situation, as much as they were in Egypt. Israel's best hope is that the Arabic-speaking peoples will have an opening to do some productive work building their own nations with a freely chosen government, and will lose interest in the interminable distraction of Israel-bashing.
I think I mentioned it was probabaly orchestrated. And no, I would not send in the Marines. Wasn't that done a long time ago?
All I wanted out of this was a rocket dropping on Ghaddafi's head.
Well, apparently the people of Libya wanted a bit more, and it seems they are on the verge of getting freedom as well.
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