Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) admonished the Obama administration to “stop hiding behind [Kofi] Annan’s diplomatic disaster as the way forward in Syria” as grisly details emerged of the latest massacre by Bashar Assad’s forces.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement today saying that she is “deeply saddened and outraged” by the slaying of more than 200 men, women and children in the village of Traymseh, admitting there is “indisputable evidence that the regime deliberately murdered innocent civilians.”
“As long as the Assad regime continues to wage war against the Syrian people, the international community must keep increasing the pressure on the regime to halt the violence and allow for a political solution to go forward,” Clinton said. “The Security Council should put its full weight behind the Annan plan for an immediate ceasefire and a political transition and make clear to the Syrian regime that there will be consequences for non-compliance.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters today “if there was any doubt before yesterday about the need for a coordinated international response at the United Nations, that doubt has been eliminated.”
Rubio said reports “of another civilian massacre further bolster the case to stop wasting time with the Annan peace effort and for the United States to lead an effort to stop the bloodshed.”
“The Syrian regime led by Bashar Assad and his enablers are making a mockery out of the international community and every basic norm of human decency as the regime unleashes its military to kill innocent civilians,” he said.
“How many people need to die and to how many countries does the violence need to spill into before the United States takes proactive steps to end the bloodshed?” the senator added. “The longer this tragedy goes on, the more it weakens America’s standing in the world, the less the Syrian people will trust our intentions in the region, the easier it is for individuals and organizations opposed to the United States to gain a foothold in Syria, and the more our friends in the region will be put at risk.”
He noted that reports of the Assad regime moving its chemical weapons out of storage only heighten the need to act quickly and decisively — a sentiment shared by others on Capitol Hill today.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he’s been sounding the alarm about Syria’s weapons stockpiles for some time now.
“These dangerous weapons, that include advanced shoulder-fired anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, and biological and chemical weapons, make Libya look like an antique gun show,” Rogers said. “…We cannot discount that the Assad regime could make a decision to use these weapons in an act of desperation, and we must act accordingly.”
“President Obama’s campaign admitted this week that he believes ignoring serious international threats is sometimes the best way to make them go away,” Rubio said. “This view of the world has had disastrous consequences, and nowhere is this more evident than in Syria.”
Personally, I do not care. If these savages want to kill one another, let them. The less people in these Islamic countries, the better.
That said, this is the opportunity to take out a partner of Iran, and the world would not complain. Shoot, we might even find the WMD they snaked out of Iraq. Wouldn’t that be incredibly ironic? The downside is the cost, and the fact that we may see an even worse damned regime.
Maybe just go in, wipe their military and kill Assad. Then get the hell out. Let it become a civil war. I do not care. A Syria in civil conflict is a less able partner for Iran.
I agree. Rubble doesn’t make trouble.
Nation building is for chumps.
Anyone who thought that “Food For Kickback” bureaucrat Coffee Anon (sic) was a heavy-hitting compromise-maker is, themselves, consuming more Choom than Young Barack Obama ever dreamed of (impossible as that sounds.)
It’s called “Turtle Bay”, folks! Why is that? A metaphor, perhaps?
For many of the staff at the UN, it’s a status, a playground, an ego-trip (especially for those from Third World sewers — usually toadies of the local strong men back home — low, slow and a bit dumb, but well-connected.)
Well this bursts my bubble about liking Rubio! He appears to be dutifully following the neoconservative idiocy of McCain, Graham and their ilk.
Intervention by the U.S. in Syria would constitute crossing of the Civilizational boundary as described by S.P. Huntington, whose sage advice has been repeatedly ignored by successive administrations, with so-far disastrous consequences: Sharia states in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one impending in Egypt. We may have temporarily escaped total disaster in Libya, despite our intrepid interference there.
We do not have a dog in this fight, in Syria, and the Muslims do not like us interfering in their world. The Syrian conflict is internal, between multiple factions, most of which hate us. Clinton was kissing up to Assad a few months ago, and we kinda liked him, right up till when we started hating him.
Sorry are there a bigger bunch of idiots than the still-neocon Republicans, especially that clown Rubio? Yes the Assads are bad guys. The Assads are fighting Islamist (Hello, 9/11!) rebels. Fighting the Assads, which these chumps want to do advances radical Islam. America is being manipulated into a war for one bad side against another bad side (as we were manipulated in the 1990′s into helping bad Yugoslav Muslims against bad Yugo Serbians).