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In an incredible display of bipartisan blindness, leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties have now declared their support for President Obama’s proposal for action against Syria. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) stated on Tuesday, “I’m going to support the president’s call for action. I believe my colleagues should support this call for action.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons “cannot be ignored.” She added, “Humanity drew the red line, not President Obama.” She stated, in a moment of almost unbearable irony, that the UN was acting far too slowly, and should not hold up action. She then invoked the foreign policy wisdom of her 5-year-old grandson to support the potential strike: “My five-year-old grandson, as I was leaving San Francisco yesterday, he said to me, Mimi, my name, Mimi, war with Syria, are you yes war with Syria, no, war with Syria. And he’s five years old. We’re not talking about war; we’re talking about action. Yes war with Syria, no with war in Syria. I said, ‘Well, what do you think?’ He said, ‘I think no war.’ I said, ‘Well, I generally agree with that but you know, they have killed hundreds of children, they’ve killed hundreds of children there. ‘ And he said, five years old, ‘Were these children in the United States?’ And I said, ‘No, but they’re children wherever they are.’”
House Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) also came out in support of Congressional authorization to use force in Syria: “I intend to vote to provide the President of the United States the option to use military force in Syria. While the authorizing language will likely change, the underlying reality will not. America has a compelling national security interest to prevent and respond to the use of weapons of mass destruction, especially by a terrorist state such as Syria, and to prevent further instability in a region of vital interest to the United States.”
The sudden consensus forming around giving President Obama authority to use military force in Syria willfully ignores the president’s own views on Syria. Obama has said that he will not authorize action aimed at regime change; he has suggested that action will be limited in scope and duration; he has articulated no actual end goals of engaging in military action.
In reality, there are three paths the United States could take in Syria: yes, no, and the worst possible option. “Yes” would mean action strong enough to either disarm the Syrian regime or replace it completely, providing a credible threat to Iran regarding her own nuclear weapons program but risking an al Qaeda takeover in the country; “No” would mean watching from afar as Syria continues to remain an internal struggle; “Worst Available Option” would be getting involved just enough not to achieve a decisive victory – just enough, as White House officials were quoted last week as saying, to avoid mockery of President Obama.
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