If you think Chemical Weapons are the only problem with Syria, you are in for a rude awakening.
The head of the opposition Free Syrian Army recently told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour he has intelligence showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is moving its chemical weapons out of the country.
If the allegations are true – and I strongly believe they are – it could fundamentally shift the assessments of U.S. intelligence officials.
Assad would disperse his stockpile of chemical weapons because he knows the United States would not bomb it, hence allowing Syrian security forces to always have the edge – directly or by proxy – and this will ensure him the last word no matter what.
The Syrian opposition on the other hand is afraid that Assad’s forces will then use those weapons sometime in the future – even after the international effort to collect and destroy its chemical weapons arsenal is finished…. Another reason why the arms race would be going on for years … at least as a deterrent to Assad.
The Syrian regime is clearly behaving like Saddam Hussein and we are the suckers believing all this dog and pony show and still discussing with the Russians how honest the regime is…. Time to grow up.
I think the regime will do all what it can to prevent us from going to the locations and do our job, and that it will keep telling our investigators: “’Today you can’t go out of the hotels because the situation is very dangerous, and tomorrow you can’t go, and they will keep delaying forever.” Anyone who doesn’t believe so is a certified idiot who ought not to be dealing in foreign policy for sure…. By the same token, any peasant who wants to opine in Syria, better know where Syria is located on the map first please.
Now even if I am proven wrong and Syria’s chemical weapons are wiped out as part of this process, I think WMD proliferation is now more likely than ever given we are giving the thug all the time he wants to comply … and notwithstanding the fact that Assad has killed over 120,000 people – most of them by conventional weapons.
This Syrian show is frankly becoming a true farce…
It’s like watching some thug going on a rampage killing thousands of people and all what we are asking him is relinquishing his weapons but allowing him to stay in power thus releasing him free.
Some real deranged people out there making decisions….
You’ve got to tip your hat to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The man whose life mission over the past few months was to head-butt the US and weaken its position around the world, and especially in the Middle East, has managed to do it again.
Assad is now seen by many in the West, including in the US, as a pragmatic player “to do business with” and Putin as the ultimate Middle East “powerbroker”.
Despite the fact that the chemical weapons used by Assad so far didn’t really help him in the battlefield, he’s used them over the last year around 13 times, mainly for tactical reasons — like conquering an area and clearing it of opposition fighters and local population — and not a strategic goal like destroying those fighting him. The incident outside Damascus on August 21 was an exception.
So the Syrian president can still reach broadly similar results in his fight against the opposition using conventional weapons, with a little bit more effort and some more casualties on his side.
Though the chemical weapons he controls are the “doomsday weapon” of Syria, they are threatening and terrorizing Israel and the West, and arguably constitute the final obstacle preventing the West from broad intervention in Syria.
The American response to Syria’s announcement that “it gladly accepts the Russian offer to hand over its chemical weapons to international supervision” is frankly idiotic to say the least.
If Obama refuses to protect US interests along with our allies in the Middle East, maybe he should just then claim the title of President elect and abandon the Commander-in-Chief title to someone more capable.
As the President elect, Obama can spend the rest of his term golfing away and flying on Air Force One feeling good and happy and away from the pressure which he now believes is becoming untenable.As the President elect, Obama can spend the rest of his term golfing away and flying on Air Force One feeling good and happy.
As the President elect, Obama can spend the rest of his term golfing away and flying on Air Force One feeling good and happy.
As the President elect, Obama can spend the rest of his term golfing away and flying on Air Force One feeling good and happy.
What do you say?
Ziad K. Abdelnour is Founder & President of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon – America’s Pro- Lebanon lobby – and co-Author of Ending Syria’s Occupation of Lebanon.
