"The US, together with as many countries as will cooperate, could use force to eliminate Syria’s fixed-wing aircraft as a first step toward enforcing Resolution 2139. “Aerial bombardment” would still likely continue via helicopter, but such a strike would announce immediately that the game has changed. After the strike, the US, France, and Britain should ask for the Security Council’s approval of the action taken, as they did after NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999.
Equally important, shots fired by the US in Syria will echo loudly in Russia. The great irony is that Putin is now seeking to do in Ukraine exactly what Assad has done so successfully: portray a legitimate political opposition as a gang of thugs and terrorists, while relying on provocations and lies to turn non-violent protest into violent attacks that then justify an armed response." Anne-Marie Slaughter
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Slaughter? This woman is aptly named although I understand she experienced a name change somewhere along the way. She took control of the "New America Foundation" last fall. Now she is emeritus at Princeton. You Princetonians can explain to me how a 55 year old woman can be emeritus.
Her basic idea is that the US should bomb Syria's fixed wing air force out of existence AND THEN go to the UN for approval. She thinks that would start the ball rolling for a rebel victory in Syria and that all right thinking people should welcome that, especially I suppose the religious fanatics in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia who are funding and more or less equipping the Islamist fighters. The fanatic supporters would do more but they have always been organizationally challenged and usually will not listen to foreign hired help.
She also believes that this ferocity on our part would frighten the Russians into accepting our dictum everywhere. My, my, I have seen her occasionally on Zakariah's Sunday festival of mutual admiration. I find her obvious self love and pomposity to be quite a "turn-off." She always has a smug little smile and seems to me to suffer from always having been one of the pretty AND smart girls in the class, school, sorority, etc. A lot of young men and a good many older ones as well cannot resist such creatures and find themselves nodding uncontrollably while saying in Bill Cosby's words, "I loves Mozart."
Her preposterous "proposal" should be seen as satire of actual strategic thought, I am tempted to compare this to Dean Swift's "Modest Proposal..." but that would be giving her far too much credit.
She and all the other R2P ladies and male hangers-on continue to see the world as a school yard where the naughty must be taught to do better by whatever means prove necessay.
This frame of mind betrays an inability to see other places and people as they are rather than how they can be described in a graduate school seminar.
The Russians are damned tough people. They will not be cowed. They will simply be irritated and angered.
Her arrival at "New America..." undoubtedly indicates a new phase in her progress toward the Secretary of State's office or the chair of the National Security Adviser.
God help us all. pl
Tyler,
You may not be able to laugh at the stupidity at the State Dept., but you can laugh at this:
http://adask.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/feds-cant-invade-nevada-let-alone-ukraine/
Enjoy.
Posted by: Ryan | 28 April 2014 at 10:35 PM
Thank you, I needed that.
Posted by: Tyler | 29 April 2014 at 03:09 PM
RE: I find her obvious self love and pomposity to be quite a "turn-off". She always has a smug little smile and seems to me to suffer from always having been one of the pretty AND smart girls in the class, school, sorority, etc. A lot of young men and a good many older ones as well cannot resist such creatures
Thru-out her existence on this Rock, she had the enormous Fortune to avoid chancing upon Demons the likes of yours truly or Col. Lang...
Posted by: YT | 30 April 2014 at 01:17 AM
"It is of course true that saddam is a tyrant (his model, by the way, is obviously stalin, not hitler).
So what?
Mesopotamia has been ruled by tyrants since before history began, and it will be ruled by tyrants long after North America is once again tribal territories.
The last President who tried to export democracy on American bayonets was woodrow wilson.
That's one of the reasons he counts as America's worst President, ever.
Very few people, in America or the rest of the world, wish to see us revive the practice."
Bill Lind
Jan. 28th '03
Posted by: YT | 30 April 2014 at 01:28 AM