The Gadfly is back at the old desert homestead after another week's worth of brain draining training in pursuit of his new career field. Let's see what has transpired in his absence . . .
Obviously the big news of the week is America's, apparently imminent, intent on shoving a stick in yet another mid-east hornet's nest (Syria).
The
Obama administration is postulating that their intelligence (here we go again) is certain that the Syrian government of this clown named Assad used chemical weapons to kill around 1400 Syrians in an area (Ghouta) that is a known stronghold of the rebels who have been fighting the Assad regime for 2 years. And as such, America's political elites are pining for the bombing to commence in order to send a message of ambiguous disapproval to Syria which has the potential to turn a in-country confined conflict in to substantially wider hostilities.
Now - The Gadfly does not know whether America's (and don't believe for one second that Israel hasn't added their input in to that data) intelligence proves conclusively that Assad is guilty of using chemical weapons. The Gadfly does know that America's and Israel's intelligence operations do not have a sterling track record when it comes to being forthright with the truth in such matters, and in fact have been known to manipulate such intelligence for their own military industrial complex agendas.
The
U.N. and Hans Blix were 100%, provably right about Iraq
not having WMD's back in 2003 and we ignored their evidence, and look where it got us. The Gadfly is more than willing to allow the U.N. all the time that they need to do their business in this case, to complete their investigation and give their report to the world. Should the results of the U.N. investigation validate the U.S./Israeli intelligence, then The Gadfly would accede that there truly would be cause for American action of some sort against the Syrian regime and that decision and the scope of the action to be apportioned will be made by President Obama and his advisers accordingly.
However - should the U.N. report be either inconclusive (for there have been reports of the Syrian rebels also employing chemical munitions in their fight against Assad's government) or contradictory to the American intelligence, then Obama needs to suck it up and aggressively pursue a more diplomatic solution, even if the war hawks don't like it, to this conflict. Bombing a country that has already bombed itself in to the near dark ages over the past 2 years of their internal conflict is not going to help the people of Syria in their struggle -- and let's be clear -- it is THEIR struggle.
There is another bothersome question that The Gadfly has re: this alleged chemical weapons attack. If this attack truly did occur, and The Gadfly is not insinuating that it did not, and it is a serious enough offense to warrant compulsory American military intervention -- The Gadfly is wondering why it is that the 100,000 + civilians that have been killed during the past 2 years by the Syrian government via delivery of conventional weapons (bombs, missiles, etc.) -- why weren't those 100k deaths cause for world concern? What if there had been no chemical attack in Ghouta last week, and instead those 1400 people of Ghouta had simply been blown to bits by a conventional bombardment? Would we now be on the brink of sending American made bombs into Syria to punish them and show them that America disapproves of their killing methods -- and in the process embroiling us in yet another mid-east conflagration? The Gadfly is just asking some questions here. There seems to be a rush to pass judgement on a complicated situation and a bigger rush, egged on (just like Iraq) by this country's totally fucking useless and corrupt media, to pull the trigger on U.S. military involvement - and that dear readers would signify that America's "leaders" have not learned it's lesson from the Iraq/Afghanistan debacles and it would then be imperative for the American people to stand up and with one voice say - ENOUGH! No More Fucking Wars For The Military Industrial Complex!
That is what The Gadfly thinks - and he acknowledges that there is the chance he could be wrong about this situation - but The Gadfly was right when he sided with the folks who believed the Iraq invasion was a bad idea - so he is relying on those same instincts in this case. Feel free to dissent with The Gadfly if you wish - your view will be respected.
----TFG
