Terming the weapons themselves are likely to have a relatively small impact, analysts see the timing of the leaks that US weapons are starting to show up in the hands of Syrian rebels as a carefully orchestrated release designed to send a message to “Assad and to his supporters like the Russian government.”
The message, at least on the surface, is that the Obama Administration’s policy toward Syria is still essentially what it was last week, with officials talking up war and working to aid the rebels trying to take over the country, despite Syria’s sudden ratification of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
The exact amount of weapons is of some dispute, though they are believed to include only light arms and not any of the anti-aircraft weapons the rebels have sought, as they have promised to attack civilian aircraft and the US appears not to want to go down that road just yet.
The lack of such arms has prompted another round of angry condemnations from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which the US is sending the weapons to, saying that the arms won’t make a difference and that the US needs to dramatically escalate them. The FSA has also come out against Syria joining the CWC, because it seems to have forestalled US attacks they were hoping would install them in power.
With all these "messages" being sent hither and yon one would think that the Administration would pay a little closer attention to the one being sent by the American people. We are not interested in another ME war – any war. We, the people, are tired of the attempts by the people we elect to lie to us, fabricating "reasons" why we should spend blood and treasure in a country that is not ours supporting people who don't gives a rat's ass about American freedoms and honor (what little remains.)
Perhaps we need to send a louder message in November 2014 and remove some of the electeds who are clamoring for war and spreading death and destruction by being the world's weapons dispenser. Perhaps then they'd understand where their disconnect with the American people is. Don't any of them realize what could have been accomplished in THIS country with the money that has been spent stirring up trouble around the world?
Time to re-prioritize where this country is going – before these idiots take us someplace we can't come back from.
Money-free internet politics anyone?
Well, curmudgeon, very good point, one I have been thinking about for quite some time.
The Internet is fundamentally a communication medium. It connects people as never before. Note the explosive growth of Facebook, which now connects one billion people, one out of every seven people on the planet.
For some time now I've been waiting for this new medium to have an effect on politics. Specifically I have been hoping that the ancient imprisonment of all citizens to a politics by-and-for-money, could be overthrown by a polity empowered by the innovative communications capabilities brought to us by the Internet.
The eight years of Bush/Cheney was horrifying enough, but now we see that eight years of Obama will likely have a similar effect. But perhaps with a silver lining: establishing beyond question that neither of the two dominant political parties is capable of providing just, or even rational, governance, and that consequently, our almost criminally defective political system cries out compellingly and beyond partisanship for major restructuring. So I've been waiting, and I suspect many others have as well, for the communication revolution to give us a political revolution. Your suggestion is apt, and expresses the need and desire of millions of Americans, if not billions of people, across the face of the planet.
So how to we do it?
I might add that the money that runs the politics that imprisons us, is all about paying for the various media that connect candidates to voters. I can think of no reason why that connection cannot now simply be part of our ubiquitous Internet connectivity.
After Bush/Cheney, left and center have no use for the republicans. After Obama, left, right, and center have no use for the democrats. The time is right. All we need is some mechanism installed in the Internet to make it happen.
My name is Jeff Davis and my e-mail address is jrd31415@yahoo.com.
A message that our gov't is stupid ? I think he knows that already.
I am sorry, JTRS, if only it were true that "our gov't is stupid." They are not. They are playing reasonably according to their pre-conceived goals and objectives: world-wide domination through controlling money and unchallenged military superiority. And no conscience regarding demonstrating our willingness to unleash death and destruction upon those who refuse obeisance. They are not stupid, but frighteningly immoral and callous. Our current governmental leaders need to be exposed for who they are and what they have done, with appropriate penalties.
Someone should "send a message" to America, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their proxy terrorist armies – some of the biggest two-faced, back-stabbing hypocrite warmongers of the modern era.