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The Forum > Article Comments > Cruise missile targeting of Syria > Comments

Cruise missile targeting of Syria : Comments

By Peter Coates, published 29/8/2013

The US and allies seems almost certain to use cruise missiles against the Syrian regime, but what can they sensibly target?

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Poirot,

As usual, I agree with you. This one in Syria is particularly brutal and insoluble, given the doctrinaire views of most of the adversaries, each of which takes a no-questions-allowed, this-is-how-it-is approach.

But on the one hand, the bottom line is that 1400 or 1300 or 400 or more than two or three innocent people have been killed by the use of an illegal weapon. Whoever used those ghastly means of killing can't be allowed to repeat the process, while the world sits idly by.

On the other hand, maybe one way to bring a civil war to an end more quickly is to degrade the capabilities of both sides. As Abbott points out, both sides are pretty evil, nothing much to find worthy on either side.

Our preferred grouping, the secular-democrats, liberals and Left-progressives, is by far the weakest in this struggle which is mainly between a semi-fascist (to be charitable) dictatorship and a medievalist bunch of terrorists.

It's highly unlikely that the secular-democrats/liberals/ Left used sarin gas, that's probably taken for granted. So whether the perpetrators of this crime against humanity were the dictatorship or the terrorists, perhaps the US should take the opportunity to target their CMs at both, at airfields and control centres, AND at terrorist training and base camps. Two for the price of one ! Degrade both !

And beforehand, make this strategy clear to both the Iranians AND the Saudis. Reduce all parties to finger-wrestling competitions. Ultimately, of course, find ways to force them to a conference table with the secular forces.

I suspect that, in the long run, the least worst outcome may well be a hold-your-nose deal between the dictatorship and the secular forces, to shut out the Islamists. Yes, it will be very unstable, but pick off one enemy at a time: first up, the Islamists.

At least, in that way, the struggle may be brought a bit closer to the 21st century.

Cheers,

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 4:55:32 PM
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By saying that Americans are "duplicitous and cunning" you have just made a negative generalisation about an entire national group of people, which is an act of racism. You shall now be shunned by Arjay and James for conduct unbecoming an ideological zealot.

In 1939 the Soviets supported Nazi Germany, and both countries invaded Poland simultaneously. The yanks did not give the Lufwaffe training areas prior to WW2, the Soviets did. When the war started, the Soviets sold the Germans tungsten, tin, oil and rubber, and Soviet icebreakers cleared a passage through the Arctic Sea so that German maritime commerce raiders could get into the Pacific. People with your mindset were active in British trade unions doing their best to sabotage the British war industry at the urging of the Soviets.

When Germany invaded Russia, Churchill noted that the slogan daubers had been active overnight painting out their "Don't Fight in the Second Imperialist War!" to "Fight in the Great patriotic War!".

The US has bases all over the world because it realised after Pearl harbour that passivity had failed and it was going to take a pro active stance to protect the liberal democracies. It engages in endless wars because the bad guys hate liberal democracies and they want to stir up trouble in any country friendly with the western democracies. The US uses cluster bombs, depleted uranium shot, and drones because they are effective weapons against the enemies of liberal democracy.

The US does not torture prisoners. It "renders" (or "outsources") prisoners to allied countries for "traditional" interrogations because the prisoners are the sorts of people who put bombs in aeroplanes and they deserve it. And it is effective. That is how they got Osama bin Laden. The US supports some dictators because the alternative is worse.

The US is basing assets in Australia because the Pacific is gaining in world importance and China is essentially a Nazi regime with ambitions. The Chinese are Nationalist and Socialist, and they could teach the German National Socialists a thing or two about racism.
Posted by LEGO, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 5:52:26 PM
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Some evidence of the Assad regime using chemical weapons has been released this morning:

"A Hezbollah official said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ordered a poison gas attack last month and that the organisation considered the move a mistake which showed he was losing his grip, according to German intelligence."

"Participants at a confidential meeting of German lawmakers earlier this week said the head of the [German] BND foreign intelligence agency told them it had intercepted a phone call believed to be between a high-ranking member of the Lebanese Shiite militant group and the Iranian embassy in Damascus."

"The BND referred to a phone call they had heard between a Hezbollah official and the Iranian embassy in which he spoke about Mr Assad having ordered the attack," one of the participants said."

"In the phone call, the Hezbollah official says Mr Assad's order for the attack was a mistake and that he was losing his nerve, the participants reported the BND briefing as saying."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/assad-ordered-a-poison-gas-attack-says-german-intelligence/4936372

The German external intelligence agency (BND) has a high reputation for accuracy in the media. This is partly because BND is not part of the Anglo-US alliance and because it (and its military intelligence predecessors) regional expertise goes back a century.

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Thursday, 5 September 2013 7:07:57 AM
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Syria does not owe any money to the World Bank, hence they have to be invaded to plunge them into debt to the private central bankers!
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/syria

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Vatican-ramps-up-opposition-to-Syria-strikes/articleshow/22295179.cms

http://xrepublic.tv/node/5186
How AIPAC works your Congressperson–
using donors, rabbis, and Jewish members

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2013/09/us-government-making-people-feel.html

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18175-what-congress-will-be-voting-on-is-another-war-not-a-limited-punitive-strike

http://ruvr.co.uk/2013_09_03/Debunking-Obama-s-chemical-weapons-case-against-the-Syrian-government/

http://investmentwatchblog.com/pipeline-politics-and-the-syrian-war-pepe-escobar-on-grtv/

boots on the grrround
http://12160.info/xn/detail/2649739:Video:1307268?xg_source=activity
What Congress Will Be Voting on Is Another War,
Not a "Limited Punitive Strike"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/officials-press-lawmakers-to-approve-syria-strike-obama-invokes-congresss-credibility/2013/09/04/4c93a858-155c-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_story.html

sorry ..has voted
full war
http://xrepublic.tv/node/5192
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/former-bush-official-syria-resolution-could-authorize-attack-on-iran-and-lebanon/

dont worry..the arabs are paying
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2013/09/kerry-tells-senate-committee-arab.html

presstitutes
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/09/presstitutes-and-whore-esspondents.html

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/09/britain-france-germany-and-israel-lie.html
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/the-middle-east-1/john-mccain---lost-in-space.html

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/09/syria-permanent-structure-of-us.html

puten..what about international..law?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntkkJwl8TNY

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2013/09/04/question-4-why-was-building-7-that-wasn-

more evidence..isnt evidence..if its lies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbrV2Ie2rls

anyhow notice the regular blogger have gone missing
ie all..lobbying..the us ..to hell..with us

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/09/04/227120-syria-countdown/

http://investmentwatchblog.com/fema-there-will-be-an-attack-on-usa/

signed and sealed..seemingly
Posted by one under god, Thursday, 5 September 2013 9:01:34 AM
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The Syrian War Movie coming to Hollywood

http://www.andmagazine.com/content/phoenix/13259.html

all about the US now...
Posted by plantagenet, Thursday, 5 September 2013 4:22:56 PM
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Pete, Joe and UOG. Ban Ke Moon has just come out and restated the obvious. Any attack on Syria (and that includes the three attacks by Israel so far this year) without it either being in self defence (which the US has never claimed) or the approval of the Security Council is contrary to international law.

Which raises the rather obvious point: either we have a system of law or we do not. One cannot pick and choose the bits one likes and ignore the rest. We established some important principles with the Nuremberg trials. Since then there has been an abject failure to hold political leaders to account for their repeated violations of international humanitarian law and the commission of war crimes (unless they are from Africa or the former Yugoslavia).

As long as the major imperial powers, including but not limited to the US, are able to carry out in this accountability free environment what happened in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and many other places is bound to be repeated. Australia's track record in recent decades is that there hasn't been an American inspired war that we didn't like.

Sooner rather than later there is going to be a terrible price to pay, and it will not only be the guilty who will suffer but the millions of innocent civilians who are always the greatest losers of this imperial hubris. Rather too many of the commenters on this thread have a remarkably blase attitude to the suffering that their views and policies would cause.
Posted by James O'Neill, Thursday, 5 September 2013 4:55:45 PM
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