Senate Push to Help Syria Brings Rubio, Boxer Together
The Syrian uprising is a year old and bloodier than ever as tyrant Bashar al-Assad digs in even further and refuses to give in to the fate of fellow dictators in the Arab Spring.
With a death toll conservatively estimated at more than 6,000 Syrian civilians and defectors — including brave members of the Syrian armed forces who refused to open fire on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators — the global community has been seesawing between cries to do something to stop to the bloodshed and being stymied over how to stop the massacres.
Not surprisingly, that help won’t come from the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China proved yet again that those who oppress basic human rights and the rule of law happily jump into bed together and stay tight under the covers.
And as horrible tales of Syrian suffering continue to reach the world via social media and the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is on a trip to Haiti.
Though their effectiveness may prove little more than drawing attention to the plight of those in Homs, Hama, Damascus, and beyond, members of Congress are trying to fill the intervention void.
And the effort to help Syrians is bringing together some unusual legislative pairings — like Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Rubio and Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) introduced a resolution last Friday that calls on Assad to step down from power, “strongly condemns” Russia and Iran for giving the regime military aid, and encourages President Obama to keep slapping sanctions on human-rights violators in Syria.
It also “urges the President to support an effective transition to democracy in Syria by identifying and providing substantial material and technical support, upon request, to Syrian organizations” and urges the State Department to devise a strategy to “encourage defections” from the Syrian military.
“The Syrian people can’t expect Assad to heed calls for his departure, nor can they rely on the United Nations to act,” Rubio, also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “For the sake of innocent lives in Syria and the security of the entire region, the United States must keep up the pressure on the regime and begin planning for a post-Assad Syria. We need to hasten Assad’s departure from power and also lay the groundwork for the difficult path towards a true inclusive democracy.”
The Casey-Rubio resolution also calls for greater U.S. cooperation with Turkey and members of the Arab League and EU in crafting a “robust humanitarian assistance” strategy that includes establishing safe havens along the borders.
“The regime’s brutal violence has torn the country apart, and threatens to destabilize the entire region,” said Casey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs. “The international community can and should do more to support the people of Syria during this terrible hour in their history.”
Co-sponsors on the resolution’s introduction were Boxer and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Since then, Sens. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have also signed on.
Last month, Gillibrand introduced the Syria Human Rights Accountability Act of 2012 along with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a sanctions bill that prohibits the sale of technology or weapons to Syria, by any companies seeking to do business with the United States, that would be used for censorship or human rights abuses in the country.
“The tough sanctions I introduced to crack down on Syria’s energy sector which funds the development of nuclear weapons and supports terrorists isn’t enough,” Gillibrand said then in reference to her August bill, the Syria Sanctions Act of 2011. “This new bill is an important step to end the bloodshed by the Syrian government and provide the Syrian people with tools needed to take back their own country.”
The only other co-sponsor on the bill is Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
In the House, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) introduced the Syria Freedom Support Act with New York Democrat Eliot Engel in an effort to strengthen existing sanctions against Damascus and target the regime’s “Achilles heel — its energy sector.” The bill was placed on the Union Calendar, which schedules bills involving financial issues.
Ros-Lehtinen’s spokesman told me that she intends to mark up the bill in committee in the coming weeks.
Rubio and Casey also joined a resolution effort helmed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) last May, which had 26 co-sponsors, got stuck in the Foreign Relations Committee and “urges the United Nations Human Rights Council to swiftly implement United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution S-16/1 and to ensure that the international investigation into violations by the Government of Syria of international human rights law called for in the resolution is undertaken immediately; and reinforce the crucial need for the United Nations General Assembly to reject Syria’s candidacy for membership on the Human Rights Council and terminate the consideration of Syria’s candidacy.”
The new resolution commends the Arab League efforts “to bring about a peaceful resolution in Syria,” but offers no praise for and makes no requests of the United Nations.
When will these people learn to accept the fact that not every thing is our business? Syria is of ZERO strategic importance to the US. I had thought better of Rubio, but I guess he’s got that old Neocon gene that makes him want to strut around the globe acting the big shot, even though WE’RE BROKE.
Because if we don’t poke our noses everywhere and keep trying to start wars, the rest of Americans might suddenly realize that the US is broke, has little Constitution left, has lost its manufacturing base and is in overall decline.
Best to keep people from noticing that.
Rubio is just an ignorant punk with dreams of fame and fortune. He is catholic, but attends protestant churches hypocritically, fishing for votes.
Boxer is committed to the support of every evil cause she can identify. I will vote for Rubio beginning the day of his death.This clown has the smarts of a stale eggroll.
If Syria had any oil, U.N. forces would already be strafing and bombing the Syrian military. Since they have no oil, we’ll settle for a strongly worded letter of condemnation.
Hey Senator Rubio, how about we mind our own business and work on saving our own country from a brutal dictator?
I suspect this will end up with the overthrow of Assad, an election wherein the islamist muslim brotherhood related party “wins” the majority of the seats, sets up a new constitution based on sharia and declares war on Israel. And the U.S. will get the blame again.
We’ve seen this movie and it doesn’t turn out well.
How about we get out of the U.N., get the U.N. out of the U.S., and take care of our own problems? And if we’re attacked, level a couple cities, towns and/or villages and call it a day.
Exactly Walt, every move to support “democracy” in the Arab world creates another piece of the caliphate.
Thank you for typing this for us to read:
…”How about we get out of the U.N., get the U.N. out of the U.S., and take care of our own problems? And if we’re attacked, level a couple cities, towns and/or villages and call it a day.”
The “dues” we send to the “United” Nations will go a long way toward easing our Budget.
How tragic, after all the American blood shed, that we Americans who sacrificed such astonishing amounts of everything including all of that precious blood, won the Second World War and then convened that idealistic Conference in San Francisco to create the successor to the League of Nations, have had to witness its degradation into that Third World dominated group in New York City……becoming our new adversaries.
What monumental hypocrisy…..and we continue to support it in this Orwellian manner.
Why?
If warmonger McCain, warmonger Graham, warmonger Rubio, warmonger Lieberman, and warmonger Boxer feel so strongly that Assad and the minority Alawites have to go – then let them go to Syria and put on uniforms and lead and fight alongside their good buddies, the Sunnis — and help them overthrow Assad and the minority Alawites.
The Sunnis are 74% of Syria’s population, and the Alawites (who are an offshoot of Shi’a Islam) are only 12% of Syria’s population.
This has NOTHING to do with “democracy”, or anything like that. It is pure Islamic tribalism and religious fundamentalism. Assad and the minority Alawites are brutally suppressing the majority Sunnis. If Syria was a “democracy” with “free elections” they would vote along sectarian lines, and the Sunnis (74% of the population) would win in a landslide. The Sunnis consider the Alawites heretics, unqualified to govern a Muslim country like Syria. If the Sunnis weren’t being kept in check and suppressed by Assad and his military, they would rise up and slaughter the Alawite heretics and drive them out of the country (ethnic cleansing).
Let them fight it out amongst themselves. Uncle Sam is tired and bankrupt. America is sick and tired of these interventions in the Arab and Islamic world (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc.) that drag on forever, with no purpose whatsoever. Let them fight it out amongst themselves. It is none of our business. Who gives a damn if the Alawites suppress the Sunnis, or if the Sunnis destroy the Alawites? The best case scenario is that the civil war should drag on for as long as possible, and there should be lots of casualties on both sides. Eventually the Sunnis will win because they outnumber the Alawites. Perhaps Syria will get broken up into a few pieces.
If/When the Sunnis overthrow Assad/Alawites, they will slaughter the Alawite heretics and drive them out of the country (ethnic cleansing).
“Tyrant Bashar.” Strong words these, Bridget. Who usn’t a tyrant in Bashar’s hood?
Why do you automatically care so deeply about the “Syrian people,” Bridget? Far more important, why should I, your reader, care about them?
There may be a “transition” in Syria as you wish and it may or not be “effective” but the chances of it being to “democracy” are slim to none.
I don’t know what size shoes you wear, Bridget,but you need to set them firmly on the ground. Take your head out of the clouds while you’re at it.
Syria is a cruel land occupied by fiercely competing groups of cruel people. I like the UN far less than you do. But the longer issues remain in committee, the longer the UN does nothing. And the UN doing nothing is a blessing.
BTW: I don’t know what Susan Rice is doing in Haiti but I’m sure whatever it is can’t be effective. Nonetheless, Haiti should not be dismissed along with useless Ms. Rice.
I haven’t been to Syria (Jews aren’t allowed, even if, for some bizarre reason I cared to go) but I have been all over the Island of Hispaniola. My wife and I saw a French beachfront hotel owner set Dobermans, three or four of them, on a bunch of tattered and shoeless African eight, nine and ten year olds. We saw children that age and younger with kinky hair turning red and bellies popped. Clinically malnutrited. Literally starving to death before our eyes.
The Haitians deserve our help more than the Syrians.
GET THE HELL OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!
IT IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS!
THE NEOCONS SCREWED UP ROYALLY IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, LIBYA — AND NOW THEY WANT TO INTERVENE IN SYRIA AND GO TO WAR WITH IRAN? HELL NO!
LET THE NEOCONS GET IN SHAPE AND PUT ON UNIFORMS AND GO OVER AND FIGHT IN THE MIDDLE EAST – FOR THEIR WORLD DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION & TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY.
NEOCONS RETURN TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM — THE LEFT. YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS ON THE RIGHT. SHAME ON YOU. NEOCONS ARE THE BANE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
More and more, these days, your sentiments are being echoed everywhere, among my friends, among bloggers I follow, and among my own family.
We are full to exploding over the idiocy that is the “Democracy Project” of the neo-cons, the Republican establishment, the many who used to be Democrats. Look. Democracy — anyway in the Middle East — equals Sharia, and Sharia is antithetical to Western civilization. But no. The dimwit neo-cons believe WE will be safer as a country when the whole planet is democratized. Bull poopoo. Unless, of course, they’re happy to be the instrument by which Caliphitic Islam overtakes the planet.
One has to wonder what really is the end-game of these neo-cons.
AMERICA’S INTERVENTIONS SINCE VIETNAM HAVE BEEN DISASTROUS.
THE NEOCONS HAVE PERVERTED THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PARTY OF WARMONGERS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE WAR PARTY, THEY START ALL THE WARS — WW1 (WILSON), WW2 (FDR), KOREA (TRUMAN), VIETNAM (JFK & LBJ), BOSNIA & SERBIA (CLINTON)…
IT IS ONLY RECENTLY THAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TURNED THEIR FOREIGN POLICY UPSIDE DOWN — DUE TO THE NEOCONS (WHO CAME FROM THE LEFT).
THE NEOCONS & EVAGELICALS (AND GLOBALISTS) HAVE CONSUMMATED AN UNHOLY MARRIAGE AND TOTALLY PERVERTED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. BARRY GOLDWATER, ROBERT TAFT & RUSSEL KIRK WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE TODAY’S REPUBLICAN PARTY. NEITHER WOULD REAGAN. WHAT A JOKE.
AMERICA IS BANKRUPT WITH A $15 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT — 100% OF GDP — AND THAT IS NOT EVEN COUNTING THE UNFUNDED ENTITLEMENT LIABILITIES ($62 TRILLION ACCORDING TO USA TODAY). WITH THE NATIONAL DEBT INCREASING BY $1 TRILLION A YEAR – THE NEOCON FOREIGN POLICY & AMERICAN EMPIRE IS COMING TO AN END. LIKE IT OR NOT – IT IS COMING TO AN END.
“If/When the Sunnis overthrow Assad/Alawites, they will slaughter the Alawite heretics and drive them out of the country (ethnic cleansing).”
That.
And they’ll cleanse the country of Christians too.
But since our intentions are good that does not matter.
Feeeeeellings, wo wo wo feeeeeeellings…
There is no vital U.S. interest in who rules Syria.
Arming the rebels would cause a geometric increase in dead and wounded.
Should America start funneling arms to the rebels, Assad will realize that, like Moammar Gadhafi, he is in a fight to the death.
And with a tiny Shia Alawite sect dominant in Syria, and the rebellion rooted in a Sunni Muslim majority, Assad and his loyalists know that if they go down, they go to the wall.
“Christians to Beirut and Alawites to the wall,” was an early slogan of the resistance.
And after seeing the atrocities visited upon the Christians in Iraq when Saddam went down, and on Copts when Mubarak went down, do we want to depose another secular dictator — only to empower another regime of Islamic fundamentalists?
If Assad falls, who rises?
Would a triumphant Muslim Brotherhood in Damascus keep the peace on the Golan Heights, as the Assads did for 40 years?
According to U.S. sources, al-Qaida was behind the four suicide bombings that killed scores of Syrian soldiers and officials in Damascus and Aleppo. Osama bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called on Sunnis from all neighboring countries to join the war against Assad’s “pernicious, cancerous regime.”
If the ouster of Assad is good for al-Qaida, can it also be good for America?
Syria’s Christians support Assad. The Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda want to overthrow the Assad regime.
How are Christians (and other minorities) faring in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt since the U.S. got involved in those countries?
The Tolerant Dictator
Syria’s Christians Side with Assad Out of Fear
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,800450,00.html
The old farmer said, “never step into something that you can’t scrape off.”
What are the odds that Syria will go democratic?
We should not be reading this story, as any aid to the rebels should be going in country through back channels.
Can the U.S. ever succeed at nation building? Can they ever hope to buy friends? Do we have a dog in this fight?
AMERICA’S INTERVENTIONS SINCE VIETNAM HAVE BEEN DISASTROUS.
THE NEOCONS HAVE PERVERTED THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PARTY OF WARMONGERS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE WAR PARTY, THEY START ALL THE WARS — WW1 (WILSON), WW2 (FDR), KOREA (TRUMAN), VIETNAM (JFK & LBJ), BOSNIA & SERBIA (CLINTON)…
IT IS ONLY RECENTLY THAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TURNED THEIR FOREIGN POLICY UPSIDE DOWN — DUE TO THE NEOCONS (WHO CAME FROM THE LEFT).
THE NEOCONS & EVAGELICALS (AND GLOBALISTS) HAVE CONSUMMATED AN UNHOLY MARRIAGE AND TOTALLY PERVERTED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. BARRY GOLDWATER, ROBERT TAFT & RUSSEL KIRK WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE TODAY’S REPUBLICAN PARTY. NEITHER WOULD REAGAN. WHAT A JOKE.
AMERICA IS BANKRUPT WITH A $15 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT — 100% OF GDP — AND THAT IS NOT EVEN COUNTING THE UNFUNDED ENTITLEMENT LIABILITIES ($62 TRILLION ACCORDING TO USA TODAY). WITH THE NATIONAL DEBT INCREASING BY $1 TRILLION A YEAR – THE NEOCON FOREIGN POLICY & AMERICAN EMPIRE IS COMING TO AN END. LIKE IT OR NOT – IT IS COMING TO AN END.
Not just since Vietnam, but including Vietnam. 60,000 dead Americans for nothing.
Simply supporting “rebel” groups in Syria is pointless. Just look what happened in Libya. Sure, we got rid of a dictator, but now the situation is arguably worse than when Gadaffi was there. You have militia groups fighting each other for the country’s oil wealth, leaving al Qaeda every opportunity to set up shop there (if they haven’t already). We now have Somalia on the Mediterranean.
How about we support only pro-western groups in Syria? And if there are none, then just stay out of this civil war. Let them fight it out. And if Assad is overthrown, what replaces him can’t really be worse than him. The man is a psychotic homicidal maniac, so I don’t think Syria can do much worse with a new dictator or even a mullah or an Islamist. Either way, they are NOT going to like us or Israel. So why get involved at all? I would only do anything if there was clear evidence that there was a substantial pro-western element or faction in that country. If not, let them fight it out on their own.
“Syrian armed forces who refused to open fire on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators…”
What a crock of lies — there is no pro-democracy anything in Syria – none, zero, zip. These “peaceful” demonstrators will turn where the money and power is — and it will quickly be monstous. When will we learn?
Rubio- Boxer… what a couch.
The neocons only care about Israel. They don’t give a damn about the Christians, Druze or other religious minorities who don’t have a state and always get the raw end of the deal. Yeah, you brought “freedom” to Egypt. The copts are now paying for the glorious world democratic revolution with the blood of their people.
And think that Rubio is being sold as a potential Republican VP candidate. What a sad joke.
And Rubio, like Obama, is not even a Natural Born citizen. And that fool would have us in dozens of Muslims states protecting Muslims from other Muslims. When it comes to foreign policy he is a real cretin, basically the anti-Reagan.
Hey why not. What’s one more newly installed radical islamic terrorist nation that hates the United States and Israel in the middle east. Look at the great results in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iraq (since we cut and run on the orders of our first communist president. All accomplished by the smart power diplomacy of Obama and his Secretary of Disgrace, Hillary Clinton. As Albert Einstein once said “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Our nation has gone insane since electing this America hating president and his communist cronys.
Regarding Rubio doing the bi-partisan foolishness with the dreadful Babs Boxer: When are the Republicans ever going to learn that you don’t form alliances with the commiecrats in Congress under the failed mantra of “bi-partisanship. Alls it ever leads to is the further destruction of our Republic. Wake up Rubio, the real war is at home with the commiecrats.
We have no business being in Syria, let the islamic savages kill each other. At least that will keep them so busy they won’t have time to try to kill either us or the Jews.
1. Syrias’ internal problems are none of our business.
2. The “opposition” will be identified, once again, far too late, as an arm of islamic jihad.
Another arab country in the control of those committed to destroy us.
3. Ergo, we should stand off and let the chips fall where they may.Those lunatics, allah is the babylonian “moon god”, will continue murdering not only outsiders, but one another, to the end of the world. So be it.
4. If and when intelligence indicates they are about to strike us, turn their military centers into parking lots.
Looks like Rubio learned nothing from his supporting the Libyan “rebels” who surprise, surprise, are turning out be be worse than Gaddafi.
Yet again –
“Our experience in Lebanon led to the adoption by the administration of a set of principles to guide America in the application of military force abroad, and I would recommend it to future Presidents. The policy we adopted included these principles:
1. The United States should not commit its forces to military action overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.
2. If the decision is made to commit our forces to combat abroad, it must be done with the clear intent and support needed to win. It should not be a halfway or tentative commitment, and there must be clearly defined and realistic objectives.
3. Before we commit our troops to combat, there must be reasonable assurance that the cause we are fighting for and the actions we take will have the support of the American people and Congress.
4. Even after all these other tests are met, our troops should be committed to combat abroad only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.” – Ronald Reagan
1)No matter what we do, the Middle East will always be a piece of crap until they ditch Islam (which won’t happen in our lifetime)
2)We don’t have the money to continue fighting a missionless fight.
3)It’s unfair to our soldiers to put them in harms way for a situation that has absolutely no benefit to the United States.
4)If we leave tomorrow or if we leave in 100 years, the middle east will still suck.
5)We got Bin Laden.
6)Our troops would be better used protecting our Southern border which is actually in our national self interest.
7)The Afghans are living like welfare queens off of our money while we are doing all the dirty work for them.
8)We are getting ourselves stuck in the same Afghanistan quagmire the Soviets did. That country is hopeless.
9)Democracy is incompatible with Islam. Try as we might, we won’t be able to remake the ME in the image of New England.
10)Our founding fathers warned us about getting caught up in willy-nilly interventions abroad. It puts undo stress on a nation.
11)Neoconservative intervention is a left wing ideology developed by Woodrow Wilson. The idea that we can use American troops as pawns to “promote democracy around the world” and “rebuild nations” is progressive BS.
Why are we getting involved with Muslims?
Why are we supporting the “opposition”?
The opposition consists of devout Muslims who will commence the implementation of genocide against Syrian Christians. This country is going to be responsible for the murder and eradication of all Christians in the Middle East and North Africa.
Rubio’s ignorance about Islam is almost as bad as the Democrats complicity with advancing Islam. All they have to show for their insane efforts are more Islamic governments, the spread of Sharia Law and the eradication of Christians.
As Feral points out, Marco Rubio is ineligible to be president because he is not natural born like Obama. Your parents must be U.S. citizens at the time of your birth to be natural born. At least Rubio didn’t grow up as a Muslim and most likely a citizen of Indonesia like Obama.
Rubio was born in south Florida of Cuban parents, and he can be President.
Muslims killing Muslims…….what’s not to like about that?