Showing posts with label Bashar al-Assad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bashar al-Assad. Show all posts

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Seeing Common Ground With McCain

English: John McCain official photo portrait.
English: John McCain official photo portrait. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As for Syria, I seem to be on the same page as McCain. I am not for a limited strike, a just making a statement kind of strike. I am for sustained aerial strikes that tips the balance of power in Syria against Assad. That is possible.

It was a curious circumstance that I did not get to campaign against this man in 2008. although I gladly would have, because I was Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC.

This Arizona Senator is talking a ton of sense on Syria. It is also "incomprehensible" to me, this whole non action, and limited action talk.
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Friday, August 30, 2013

The British Parliament Was Also Wrong About Hitler

Stamp of the Greater German Reich, depicting A...
Stamp of the Greater German Reich, depicting Adolf Hitler as the Führer of the Reich. The stamp's value is 42 Pfennig. Deutsch: Die Briefmarke des Grossdeutschen Reiches. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For a decade the British parliament stayed in denial on Hitler. As long he does not directly attack Britain, he is fine, that was the thinking. Churchill was the lone voice who saw Hitler for who he was. It took some major catastrophes for the British parliament to finally start making sense on Hitler.

If the British parliament had woken up to Hitler years before it did, the world might have been able to skip a world war.

The car is the modern day horse carriage. Assad is a modern day Hitler. The guy has already slaughtered over 100,000 of his own people in less than a year.

The White House has to make a call on this one.

Wars are always ugly. You never have the best intelligence and the best resources. The timing is never right. You make mistakes along the way. Wars are expensive. They are almost always hard to get out of. But there are times when a war is the only just option and a just nation just has to make the plunge. Gandhi was alive at the time Hitler was alive. But I doubt Gandhi had a solution for Hitler.

There is the British parliament and then there is this thing called leadership.
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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Political Benefits For Obama From A Syria Strike

Official photographic portrait of US President...
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(1) Greatness

You liberate people, you enter the greatness department as president.

(2) Avoid Being A Lame Duck

An Obama who pushed out Assad will be a stronger Obama in domestic politics. He will still be able to do things all the way to 2016. In short, a strike on Syria makes immigration reform more possible, for example.

(3) Help The Economy

World War II got America out of the Great Depression. Bringing democracy to Syria, Iran and Russia will bring the unemployment rate in America down to around 5%.

(4) Clarity Of Purpose

I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in New York City. I am talking early 2007. To me the case for a military strike on Syria is as clear as the case for Obama was back then.
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Why Iran Is Nervous

Iran (Persia) with Black, Caspian and Arabian ...
Iran (Persia) with Black, Caspian and Arabian seas around (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Think of Iran as a chair. You take Assad out of the picture and now the chair has only three legs. Is the chair nervous at the prospect?

Assad is worth taking out with or without chemical weapons. The chair ending up with three legs is a good thing for what the Iranian regime did in 2009 to its own people.
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Syria, Iran: Major Military Action Needed

English: SOCHI. With President of Syria Bashar...
English: SOCHI. With President of Syria Bashar al-Assad. Русский: СОЧИ, БОЧАРОВ РУЧЕЙ. С Президентом Сирии Башаром Асадом. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For the president to ever have talked in terms of the "red line" itself was a mistake. That was like saying Assad could do everything upto using chemical weapons - like kill over 100,000 people, which he has - and there would be no consequences. That talk encouraged Assad. And the killings have gone on. And we have had Rwanda in slow motion on our hands.

John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead. I am saying, in the long run every single country is a democracy. If you don't buy that, then my line of thinking will not make sense to you. Not only is every country a democracy in the long run, America as the oldest democracy plays an active, pivotal role to getting the world to that point. There is an obligation.

Iran's talk on Syria is a good thing. Russia's talk on Syria is a good thing. Iran pretty much did in 2009 what Syria is doing today. That country was utmost brutal to its own people. That is not a legitimate regime in Iran that you see.

An Israel that is capable of proactively attacking Iran is not an Israel America needs to worry about.

Both Iran and Russia are non democracies that do hold elections. Regime change in Syria, Iran and Russia has to be on the cards. For Russia it will be an after effect.

For now the call to be made is just enough aerial strikes to take down Assad's air capacities so as to tilt the balance of power in the rebels' favor. Assad gone is a weakened Iranian regime. It's time too will come.

Active regime changes in Syria and Iran might just be the thing the still sluggish US economy needs. After all, it was not the New Deal but World War II that finally got America out of the Great Depression. Muscular moves in the Middle East to birth democracies is what is good for the American economy. The stimulus of 2009 did not do the trick.

It is time for Barack Obama to show some leadership. History is on his side. We remember Abraham Lincoln for liberating people. Liberations are the best things a president can do to achieve greatness. Too bad wars are needed. But a just war - like the American Civil War - is all too justified. There is a clear case to be made. There is no abdicating responsibility.

Conduct a billion dollars worth of air strikes to weaken Assad. Let Iran throw a few missiles at Israel. Then rinse and repeat for Iran. Regime change in two countries for the price of one. Call Russias' bluff.
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