In an effort to get senators to agree to the Obama Administration’s plan to attack Syria, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sought to sell the idea that they are “limiting” the scope of the war, by adding a 60-day soft deadline to the conflict.
The deadline would fit with the ongoing narrative of a limited, punitive action against the Assad government, but also leaves open the prospect of Congressional extensions of the war, and could in practice be extended more with an additional resolution.
And that’s the best case scenario. With President Obama openly insisting that he is free to attack Syria however he sees fit with or without the vote, it is absurd to imagine he’ll feel constrained by anything in the resolution.
Indeed, the last time Congressional votes were supposed to end a war, during the attacks on Libya, President Obama flat out ignored the resolution, insisting that as “commander in chief” he wasn’t bound by it.
The “limits” in the resolution are simply a ploy to try to get the “on the fence” Congressmen to vote for the war, but once it starts, all limits are out the window, and officials aren’t making any real secret of that.
The rebels and Obama are cooking up another incident. The rebels claim a member of the Syrian army defected and told them he was part of a government chemical attack in March. He also claims the government has another major attack planned with 20 trucks with chemicals lined up ready to go. I wonder if Obama will use the new allegations as an excuse to strike before a congressional vote or this is an effort to get approval because I don't believe they have the votes… yet. The report was on CBS? radio at 10:30 pm central time.
Bet he'll get a fat check.
Most members of Congress and the American public will not fall for that trick. The original resolution suggests that they can use everything including the kitchen sink and massive bombardments. The revised version would allow just simple invasions, which of course would require all of the first options. The disgusting thing is that they have a crowd of lawyers twisting the Constitution and the English language into knots to justify their attacks.
While Americans are losing everything and life expectancy is falling, these military creeps, and theirs will make sure they live like kings on the hill.
The bottom line here is, Obama is going to war with or without a vote from congress, he refused to be that president that did not bend over and hold his ankles for Israel.
I'm not going to buy that congress will 'sucker' for the foot-in-the-door schtick. That suckering will be criminal, and isn't laundered by this 'dialogue.'
Soft deadline . Is that anything like soft serve ice cream ? It kind of melts away when circumstances call for a "revision" because the Rogue US leaders have screwed up royally AGAIN ?
How long did thy say they needed in Lbya? A month?
And how long did it take? 120 days?
At a ratio of 4 to 1 Syria is shaping up to be another Spanish American War experience.
We often read prognostications and predictions of a military coup in the US. I submit that the idea of such an event in the future is superfluous, because the coup already occurred circa 1950.
Ever since then—without any congressional declarations of war—the military has done the bidding of whoever was commander-in-chief without question or even reluctance: proving that a "military coup" in the US is a discrete event in our history, not something that might happen in the future. After all, the president, as CIC, leads the military and therefore, for all practical purposes, is part of it.
It remains possible that someday, uniformed military high commanders might conspire against the CIC and displace him, or her. But that would hardly be a coup; merely a change in supreme commander.
If Carla del Ponte and Mint Press News (http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/) are correct, and the rebels have used or released chemical weapons, then a "limited response" is not possible. Incidents will continue to occur, requiring additional US responses until the rebels are victorious.