www.shmuelkatz.com With U.S.-brokered, Arab-Israeli talks in process, it’s helpful to become familiar with U.S. tactics, which follow a continuity little changed. This isn’t surprising given the American objective is to force Israel to make concessions which it shouldn’t, but always does. The State Department knows better than to mess with success. The first tactic […]
http://pjmedia.com/blog/intervening-in-syria/?singlepage=true Aristotle gives Obama a lesson about Syria. What is the right thing to do about Syria? On the one hand you have the thuggish Assad regime, which has murdered thousands in the past year. I doubt whether Vogue will be running more pieces like “A Rose In the Desert” any time soon. That now-notorious […]
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/obama-syria-ironic-war-plan-96036.html Imagine Dick Cheney in a “Saturday Night Live” skit fantasizing about Barack Obama handling the pressures of going to war. Cheney’s sitting there, yucking it up with Rummy and the boys, eating yellow cake. He laughs off his own reckless rush to an unwinnable war fought on flawed grounds. His thought bubble pops up. […]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/30/syria-strike-push-hits-hurdles/ British lawmakers reject military action in Syria, in setback for Obama administration Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/30/syria-strike-push-hits-hurdles/#ixzz2dRfglblI British lawmakers on Thursday voted against military intervention in Syria, in a major setback for both British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Obama administration in their push to punish the Assad regime for an alleged chemical weapons strike. […]
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/the-road-to-syria-must-lead-to-iran/
Bill Siegel is the author of The Control Factor: Our Struggle to See the True Threat published by Hamilton Books.
Many today are questioning the policy behind the possible kinetic military activity President Barack Obama has threatened in Syria. The administration is claiming that, while compelled to act in response to illegal chemical weapons use, such action is in no way to be considered a step toward any meaningful change in the balance of power in the region.
On its face, such an approach is patently ridiculous; perhaps the predictable outcome when the foreign policy children that populate this administration — the Ladies of Syria (including Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Samantha Power) along with others such as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry (who both Peter Principled their way up years ago) — are truly incapable to lead our nation in any adult fashion.
Yet even this group must be fully aware that a simple kinetic bombing cannot be contained. If the US is to simply hit and run, what is to be accomplished? Do they trust that the other players in the region will stand by for an action that does nothing? Do they think the glaring contradictions with former stances taken against the Bush administration’s Middle East policies will go unnoticed? Do they not see that such action will afford many interested parties the rationale for further anti-US action; be it al Qaeda, Syria, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Russia, China, and so on?
It is certainly true that Obama put himself in this position by drawing a red line for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Our nation’s Left Wing media has so effectively trained Obama that he scores points when he employs his “Big Daddy” attitude and threatens Congress or Israel or others who dare to complicate his job. Unfortunately, most of the world — from Vladimir Putin to Li Keqiang to Kim Jong Un to Egyptian General Al Sisi — responds differently from Sasha and Malia. One too many times Emperor Obama exposed himself wearing no clothes.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/08/obama-promises-syria-strike-will-have-no-objective.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(160)
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Attempting to quell criticism of his proposal for a limited military mission in Syria, President Obama floated a more modest strategy today, saying that any U.S. action in Syria would have “no objective whatsoever.”
“Let me be clear,” he said in an interview on CNN. “Our goal will not be to effect régime change, or alter the balance of power in Syria, or bring the civil war there to an end. We will simply do something random there for one or two days and then leave.”
“I want to reassure our allies and the people of Syria that what we are about to undertake, if we undertake it at all, will have no purpose or goal,” he said. “This is consistent with U.S. foreign policy of the past.”
While Mr. Obama clearly hoped that his proposal of a brief and pointless intervention in Syria would reassure the international community, it immediately drew howls of protest from U.S. allies, who argued that two days was too open-ended a timeframe for such a mission.
That criticism led White House spokesman Jay Carney to brief reporters later in the day, arguing that the President was willing to scale down the U.S. mission to “twenty-four hours, thirty-six tops.”
“It may take twenty-four hours, but it could also take twelve,” Mr. Carney said.
“Maybe we get in there, take a look around, and get out right away. But however long it takes, one thing will not change: this mission will have no point. The President is resolute about that.”
Another Tack: So the world is against us Around our troubled planet, constructing an apartment for a Jewish family in a vibrant veteran Jewish neighborhood – an indivisible part and parcel of the Jewish state’s capital – is decried as an unpardonable a sin against all the kind-heartedness and fair-mindedness that the international community purports to […]
BY BRUCE KESLER
The “Golden Voice of Africa” tells off BDSers – Maggie’s Farm
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/22870-The-Golden-Voice-of-Africa-tells-off-BDSers.html
Salif Keita is “an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the “Golden Voice of Africa” but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita.”
He was scheduled to appear at a charity fundraiser in Israel for albinos. Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) zealots tormented and threatened him, which is their common tactic to get artists not to appear in Israel. The “Golden Voice of Africa” used his voice, via his albino foundation, to tell off the BDSers. This is what he experienced:
August 22, 2013
Dear Sacred Music Festival, Hadassah Hospital, Salif Keita fans,
On behalf of Salif Keita and the Salif Keita Global Foundation, we would like to thank you for organizing a magnificent unifying music festival, and a visit of the albinism treatment center in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Mr. Keita will not be able to attend either events because of the cancellation of his show at the Sacred Music Festival.
Although, the show was cancelled, Mr. Keita (and his foundation for albinism) would like to convey his most sincere apologies to all concerned, such as the concert organizers, the Albinism Treatment Center and especially all his wonderful and diverse fans in Israel. The reason for the cancellation is not one which was made by Mr. Keita, but by his agents who were bombarded with hundreds of threats, blackmail attempts, intimidation, social media harrassment and slander stating that Mr Keita was to perform in Israel, “not for peace, but for apartheid.”
These threats were made by a group named BDS, who also threatened to keep increasing an anti-Salif Keita campaign, which they had already started on social media, and to work diligently at ruining the reputation and career that Mr. Keita has worked 40 years to achieve not only professionally, but for human rights and albinism.
Of course, we do not agree with any of these tactics or false propaganda, but management’s concern is to protect the artist from being harmed personnally and professionally. Although, we love Israel and all his fans here, and the fantastic spirit of unity of the Sacred Music Festival, as well as the important work your hospital is doing for albinism, we did not agree with the scare tactics and bullying used by BDS; therefore management decided to act cautiously when faced with an extremist group, as we believe BDS to be.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/08/28/the-fbi-and-the-war-on-the-nypd-and-counter-terrorism/ This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly denounced as fiction allegations in an Associated Press article published today that the NYPD “labeled entire mosques as terrorist organizations” in order to spy on imams and members without any prior proof of wrongdoing. Kelly said the piece’s purpose was […]
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2013/08/obamas-bread-and-circuses.php?utm_ Over the past week, President Barack Obama and his senior advisers have told us that the US is poised to go to war against Syria. In the next few days, the US intends to use its air power and guided missiles to attack Syria in response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons in […]
