To Nuke or Not to Nuke
It’s been a long time — maybe never — since I found myself nodding to something from the editors of CSM. But here it is:
The rationale for any US intervention in Syria may be important for Americans to know sooner rather than later. Intense fighting has erupted around Damascus. President Bashar al-Assad appears dangerously cornered. On Monday, Mr. Obama seemed to tip his hand more strongly on the moral versus self-interest question. He warned Mr. Assad that “there will be consequences and you will be held accountable” if the Syrian Army uses its stockpile of chemical weapons.
The weapons pose little or no threat to the American homeland. Yet Obama’s moral stance on Syria’s weapons of mass destruction – similar to his tough warnings to Iran about building a nuclear bomb – has pushed him to promise a response in Syria that is only lightly veiled as one involving force. That contrasts with no threat of US force to end Assad’s killing of tens of thousands of civilians.
I must be stupid, because all of this smart diplomacy just confuses me.
Well, the problem is you’re thinking of the old “smart.” Incompetent, naive and scatter-brained is the new “smart.”
The only thing I’m concerned about in Syria, is to ensure Muslim Brotherhood types don’t get the chemical weapons. Otherwise, if they’re engaged in a civil war they can’t be helping Hezbollah harass Israel. And that is a good thing.
It doesn’t confuse Assad. He knows Obama will do nothing at all.
That’s kinda the problem.
If Assad has to choose between breaking out the gas and getting stabbed in the ass like Gadaffy was, he’s gonna break out the gas, and whatever else is handy. Might even throw a few in a southwesterly direction just for the hell of it.
Smart diplomats would be trying to arrange exile/asylum for Assad right now, not making threats nobody thinks will be acted on.
I miss the Bush FP team. Yeah, they made mistakes, but Assad took them seriously.
Exactly, Obama couldn’t figure out that if he left dictators with no out, they would take as many with them as they could.
I wonder if Assad has enough WMD to make a difference? Does he have the capability to deliver what he has on hand? Can he make and deliver a dirty bomb that would make a wide swath of land uninhabitable?
Just some non persistent nerve agent, or even some mustard gas would be pretty devastating to unprotected, ill-trained irregular troops.
What’s the expiration date on our Dear Leader’s threat?