What a pity Syria doesn't have a long coastline, sort of makes the choice of landing zones a little limited, no landings to the strains of the "shores of Tripoli" so cruise is the weapon of choice, wouldn't it be a pity if one just happened to hit an Al Qaeda or Hezbollah staging camp

Gun boat diplomacy can be effective .But usually it does require boots on the ground to follow up. The "shores of Tripoli " was an example where the navy cannon and Marines worked in coordination.
Here is the document that the US declassified as proof that it was the Syrians that launched a cw attack.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ment.html?_r=0
High confidence leading to confirmation.

Back to gun boat diplomacy... The emperor and Sec State have both indicated a limited salvo not designed to decapitate. If that is so then the best gain achieved is a degradation of Assad's air assets... the assets that helped him gain the advantage in the civil war. The net result will be a stalemate which would almost guarantee a continuation of the carnage for years to come.


By the way... when the French did not back efforts to invade Iraq ,French fries were renamed 'Freedom Fries'. Now that the Brits have backed out of Syria ,will English Muffins be renamed "freedom muffins" ?

Box cars full of WMD again! Is it crediable, only because we want it to be. Were chemical weapons used? Probably. Was it an accident? A plan twarted which went wrong or an actual attack? What is to be gained by attacking civilians since the rebels don't report large scale casualities? And no military advantage has ensued.

A surgical strike so you take out an airfield, big deal, perhaps you take out a chemical plant, then if you want to do it properly ask the Israeli's. The only crediable surgical strike is decapitation otherwise why do it? BO isn't going to do anything before he goes to Russia otherwise he looses the opportunty to persuade Vladimir to come over to his side

Maybe they can dust off that 'reset ' button.

Perhaps they should dust off the red telephone

I have to applaud the emperor's decision yesterday to hold off any military response in Syria until Congress has it's input. That is the correct and constitutional course to take .
The White House walk-and-talk that changed Obama's mind on Syria - First Read

Unstated in the article above is that it also gives him cover if he decides to back down from his red line bluster . He will be able to pontificate that he had every intention to "punish" Assad ,but that 'do nothing Congress ' prevented him . He can bemoan the restrictions placed on an imperial President in our system ;but alas ,he must act inside the law. He still will retain the option to take swift action when circumstances of national emergency or imminent threat develop .

Meanwhile ,Foreign Policy is reporting that the Obots had information of an impending cw attack by the Assad regime 3 days BEFORE the attack took place.
U.S. Had Intel on Chemical Strike Before It Was Launched | The Cable

This is evidently confirmed in the intel assessment that the adm released Friday .

Quote:

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In the three days prior to the attack, we collected streams of human, signals and geospatial intelligence that reveal regime activities that we assess were associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack...

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Government Assessment of the Syrian Government

They make a compelling case for bomb away.

No they haven't . What he should say is we are waiting for solid evidence concerning cw use and not simply YouTube videos. He should also say that no US action will be taken to advance AQ and jihadistan's agenda in Syria.

He has already said this was about the use of cw's by the Assad regime. The real question is what congress wants to do about it. That's where the ball is. Anything we do against Assad will help the rebels.

Hello:

It SHOULD be said that the lingering effects of our BIG, HUGE, HUMONGOUS mistake in Iraq is effecting our decisions about Syria today... It's got something to do with crying wolf..

excon

Yep and the mistake is being made again

Hello clete:

Here's the main difference between Iraq and Syria.. We KNOW Assad has WMD's. We KNOW he used them on his own people. Although Saddam too used them against his own people, he did it a LOOOOONG time ago, and got rid of the weapons before we went in.

excon

I think we did learned from Iraq, to not march an army through the country we bombed the hell out of.

Hello again,

So, WILL congress give Obama cover to attack Syria?? I think NOT. Will Obama do it anyway? I think NOT.

Oh, yes... I know the tide BELIEVES congress will do so. Nonetheless, I STILL think NOT.

excon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello clete:

Here's the main difference between Iraq and Syria.. We KNOW Assad has WMD's. We KNOW he used them on his own people. Although Saddam too used them against his own people, he did it a LOOOOONG time ago, and got rid of the weapons before we went in.

excon

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Keep believing that fiction .

Hello again, tom:

Quote:

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keep believing that fiction .

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Apparently George W. Bush believes that fiction too..

Excon

I hear there's a nice new USA embassy in Iraq.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I hear there's a nice new USA embassy in Iraq.

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And if the emperor didn't blow the status of forces agreement then the US troops would be there to prevent Qod forces and supplies from reaching Syria through Iraq.

I believe that embassy there is a monument to the previous emperor:
Embassy of the United States, Baghdad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

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At 440,000 square meters, it is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world and is nearly as large as Vatican City.[1] It employs 15,000 people and cost $750 million to build.

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