Obama’s Contras

I have not, until now, weighed in on the civil war raging in Syria.  On Thursday, June 13, 2013 the president announced a major shift in U.S. policy that would see America begin arming the Syrian rebels. The dilemma inherent with this decision is that the arms will likely wind up in the hands of radical Islamist elements savage beasts within the Syrian rebels’ camp.

With Susan Rice as the newly appointed National Security Advisor and Samantha Power awaiting Senate confirmation, it is abundantly clear, at least to this observer, that these two Obama loyalists want a more robust involvement in the region.

Surely, we can look to her 2003 essay at New Republic for The Insufferable Airhorn’s apology tour following his inauguration in 2009.  It was that essay in which she appealed to U.S. officials to institute “a doctrine of the mea culpa” publicly apologizing for past “sins” and undertaking “a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States.”

The “Interventionista”, as she was referred to on the magazine cover of The National Interest, successfully goaded Obama to send military forces into Libya to stop Khaddafy from butchering his people.  We all know how that worked out.  Just ask Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the two Navy Seals and the information management officer who were never rescued when the consulate in Benghazi came under attack.  Oh wait.  You can’t.  They’re dead.  They were abandoned to die at the hands of barbarians.  But I digress.

Secretary of State Kerry wanted an immediate no-fly zone established to stop Bashar al-Assad from continuing to use his air power to crush rebel forces and kill innocent civilians.  Let me interject my utter disgust for this fake war hero who threw away as many as nine of his combat medals to protest the war in Vietnam.  So any military strategy he suggests should be dismissed out of hand.

Supporters of a no-fly zone in Syria, like John McLame and Miss Lindsey Graham, point to the one that NATO established in 2011 in Libya.  It’s important to note that little appetite has been shown by European nations for getting directly involved in Syria because of one very simple fact—Assad’s forces command an air defense system made far more robust with Russian-bought weapons than what Khaddafy had.

Last month, Russia acknowledged it had agreed to sell Syria advanced S-300 air-defense missiles, which are considered to be the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology and could make a no-fly zone very costly.

I’m not a military tactician, but some facts to consider are that Syria is 71,398 square miles in size; roughly the size of the state of Washington, shares 600 miles of border with Turkey and it has 16 air bases.  They are located at Damascus International Airport, Deir Zzor Air Base, Dumayr Air Base. Hama Air Base, Jirah Air Base, Khalkhalah, Marj As Sultan, Marj Ruhayyil, Minakh, Qabr as Sitt, Rasin el Aboud, Saigal. Shayrat, Tabqa, Taftanaz and Tiyas. 

The decade-long no-fly zones, Operation Northern and Southern Watch, imposed by the U.S. over Iraq cost about $1.3 billion dollars a year.  With our national debt at $16,879,124,703,927 as of 4:06AM EDT on 6/22/13 we, as a nation cannot afford to pump money into an open war across an ancient sectarian faultline that has been in existence since the schism in Islam surfaced some 1,400 years ago.

The Syrian army and its security apparatus remain loyal, al-Assad’s cabinet has suffered few defections, and the key population centers of Damascus and Aleppo have not joined the rebellion according to Itamar Rabinovich, a former ambassador of Israel to the United States and a Brookings Institute Fellow.

The latest Gallup Poll results from June 15-16 reveal that 54% of Americans disapprove of this administration’s decision to direct the CIA to send direct military aid to the Syrian rebels while 37% approve.

Reports out of Aleppo seem to clearly indicate that Assad’s regime has inserted spies behind rebel lines.  This would explain a disturbing video that purports to be a rebel group in Syria testing a nerve agent intended to be used against civilians.

The video pans across a room where massive quantities of industrial-sized packages of Tekkim® potassium permanganate, potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate are stored on shelves and countertops.  Tekkim is a Turkish company.  If you have a weak stomach, you might consider not watching it.  It is not a particularly slick production, but I regard it as something the regime may have produced.  The voices are haunting and the visage of the test results is sickening.  The website, My Peta Jawa, finds it to be too convenient.  I couldn’t agree more.

At the conclusion of the G8 Summit, Vladimir Putin warned that the opposition forces include criminals that he likened to the animals who beheaded and hacked to death Ian Rigby in the streets of Woolwich, England last month.  He asked, “Do the Europeans want to provide such people with weapons?”

Just ask Nadia Umm Fuad who watched her son being shot by Islamist rebels in Syria after the 14-year-old referred to the Prophet Mohammed as he joked with a customer at his coffee stall in Aleppo.  “I saw rebels execute my boy for no more than a joke.”

Let the fool gape and shudder at the inhumane beasts of radical Islam.  It is a cancer on the world body.

Syria is a geopolitical nightmare.  Islam is not a religion.  It is a way of life.  It is savage and has been so since its inception fourteen centuries ago. The question then is when will Islam tire of its devotees slaughtering each other? Historically the answer may be never.

For that reason and that reason alone, America should not insert itself in the unrest in Syria.  It cannot end well.  We have expended enough blood and treasure for the ingrates of Iraq and Afghanistan.