Hello America.
Can we talk about what just happened?
Great, thanks.
On August 20, 2012, President Obama announced that the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad regime was a "red line" that would "change his calculus" in deciding how to intervene in Syria.
A month and a half ago, after evidence of small-scale chemical weapons use in Syria apparently became impossible to deny, the White House admitted that:
Last week, the Assad regime retook the strategic town of Qusayr in western Syria from the rebels, with the help of Hezbollah fighters. Thousands of Hezbollah fighters have entered Syria from Lebanon to fight for the regime, and regime forces are heading north to Aleppo to retake Syria's largest city once and for all.
As Samuel L. Jackson said in Quentin Taratino's most recent film, "Lo and behold! Out of nowhere!" the administration now concludes that all the evidence is in on chemical weapons in Syria:
So said Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser, in a statement today.
Reuters is reporting that Obama has now authorized direct weapons transfers to the Syrian rebels.
Do not believe for a second that this decision is based on the Syrian government's chemical weapons use - which is responsible for less than a fifth of one percent of the casualties in this war.
This decision came about because the Assad regime, with the help of Hezbollah, gained the upper hand.
Our government was only to happy to watch Syrians dying en masse, as long as its enemies were losing. Now its enemies are winning, and our government aims to correct the problem by sending weapons to its enemies' enemies, including groups affiliated with al Qaeda, who have pledged to cleanse - and are cleansing - Syria of its non-Sunni Muslim population. 60 Shiite Muslims were massacred in eastern Syria on Tuesday.
There's really nothing else to say. I feel like I'm watching a train wreck from a mile away. The human catastrophe that's approaching is so obvious, and I can't do anything to stop it.
Please pray for Syria.
Can we talk about what just happened?
Great, thanks.
On August 20, 2012, President Obama announced that the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad regime was a "red line" that would "change his calculus" in deciding how to intervene in Syria.
A month and a half ago, after evidence of small-scale chemical weapons use in Syria apparently became impossible to deny, the White House admitted that:
Translation: We're pretty sure, but not sure enough to do anything about it."Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria... Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experiences, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient — only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making ..."
Last week, the Assad regime retook the strategic town of Qusayr in western Syria from the rebels, with the help of Hezbollah fighters. Thousands of Hezbollah fighters have entered Syria from Lebanon to fight for the regime, and regime forces are heading north to Aleppo to retake Syria's largest city once and for all.
As Samuel L. Jackson said in Quentin Taratino's most recent film, "Lo and behold! Out of nowhere!" the administration now concludes that all the evidence is in on chemical weapons in Syria:
Today, we are providing an updated version of our assessment to Congress and to the public. ...Following a deliberative review, our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.
Reuters is reporting that Obama has now authorized direct weapons transfers to the Syrian rebels.
Do not believe for a second that this decision is based on the Syrian government's chemical weapons use - which is responsible for less than a fifth of one percent of the casualties in this war.
This decision came about because the Assad regime, with the help of Hezbollah, gained the upper hand.
Our government was only to happy to watch Syrians dying en masse, as long as its enemies were losing. Now its enemies are winning, and our government aims to correct the problem by sending weapons to its enemies' enemies, including groups affiliated with al Qaeda, who have pledged to cleanse - and are cleansing - Syria of its non-Sunni Muslim population. 60 Shiite Muslims were massacred in eastern Syria on Tuesday.
There's really nothing else to say. I feel like I'm watching a train wreck from a mile away. The human catastrophe that's approaching is so obvious, and I can't do anything to stop it.
Please pray for Syria.
