I clicked on the first link - a right-wing blog. Thanks so much.
Sy Hersh is about as dependable as mountain weather. Sure, he broke the Mi Lai story – and he also predicted seven of the last zero bombings of Iran.
The reason he’s sounding more and more like a conspiracy nut is that the fundamental basis of his theory doesn’t make a lick of sense: Obama wanted to attack Syria so evidence was forged but nobody cared about the evidence? And that the geniuses in Turkey are the ones who are pulling our strings? Huh? This is getting to be some Lyndon LaRouche sounding nonsense, like when he used to say that Queen Elizabeth is the biggest drug dealer in history because Hong Kong.
That’s great. Thanks for your summary. You should start a blog.
If the blog were to feature half-baked conspiracy theories about the United States, I know it would be guaranteed a certain amount of traffic.
That’s an odd percetion about a piece that describes how the Joint Chiefs persuaded the president to not attack Assad’s regime - Erdoğan’s administration did its best to get Obama over his absurd red line (‘please make me relevant!’), and got quite close.
If Arms Control Wonk is what you consider ‘a right-wing blog’, then we have a problem.
Sure, and the CIA convinced Carter not to release the real evidence of the space aliens buried at Area 51.
Nothing screams right wing blog to me. It’s certainly not straight up punditry.
Do you normally cite unsubstantiated reporting to base your big chance to take a shot at Obama on?
Meanwhile, reality is settling in providing much discomfort for this forums’s gaggle of scoffers:
Syrian chemical arms at Italian port in 2-4 weeks, says OPCW
15th consignment in Latakia, about 7 left to go
16 APRIL, 17:16
So back on September 9, 2013, the Americans said that they wanted Syria to turn over all of its chemical weapons within a week. That would have been September 16, 2013.
Syria agreed to turn over all of its chemical weapons. They agreed to have this completed by February 6, 2014.
It’s now April 17, 2014. There are still chemical weapons in Syria. The date for completing the removal has been moved back multiple times. The current Syrian promise is it’ll be done by the end of April.
You relied on unsubstantiated reporting to support a congressional authorization for war against Iraq. What has
I’m simply saying that media reports indicate that Obama’s red line and Putin’s agreement to eliminate chemical weapons do not seem to have not had any effect on Assad’s ability to use chlorine gas. Is it your view that these reports are simply fabricated?
Oops – I meant to type, “What has changed your perceptions of the reliability of information you previously relied on to support the authorization of war?”
You were asking “What has changed your perceptions of the reliability of information you previously relied on to support the authorization of war?”
Nothing has changed in my perceptions. The AUMF on Iraq was voted on in October of 2002. At that time Saddam Hussein had not allowed UN Inspectors to return to finish the UNSC Resolutions that had been passed with regard to Iraq. Iraq was in violation of international law.
Press reporting on that fact was accurate and authorizing war if Saddam Hussein did not allow inspectors back in was justified in my view. The problem with the final decision to invade was that Saddam Hussein had in fact allowed the inspectors to return and Iraq also offered the US and UK to send the US Military, FBI and CIA to also come in to look for WMD alongside the UN Inspectors. After The inspectors were permitted to return all the Administration’s intelligence about WMD was to be provided to the UN inspectors and verified or dismissed. The reporting I believed in Late February and early March 2003 told me that the UN inspectors had found nothing in material evidence of evidence of lack of cooperation that would justify calling an end to inspections and therefore a justification for war.
Do you have any evidence that Iraq had UN inspectors inside Iraq on or prior to October 10 2002? I did not rely on unsubstantiated reporting at all. Can you tell me what you are talking about.
And yes. This latest reports I’ve seen is that this is being reported as unsubstantiated as to which side used it. It has not been verified that it was the Syrian side that launched an attack using a filled cylinder with chlorine gas. Perhaps it came from the government side. Perhaps not. Its a little early to take a shot at Obama over that in my view.
I believe you are referring to Kerry’s statement that brought Putin and Assad to the TV Cameras to jump on the chance to avoid US air strikes.
Anyone knowledgeable and realistic would know that a thousand tons or more of CW could not be destroyed or removed in one week. The whole process started with that offer… but the signed deal (CW treaty and UNSC Resolution) left it up to the UNSC, OPCW and Syria to work out a target date for complete removal. And that date has always been June 30 of this year.
They are at 70% complete. There have been some delays. But its not like Syria is bringing them out of hiding somewhere every time they transport them to the Latakia for shipment out to sea. The OPCW has inventoried the entire stockpile.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa.
Jesus fucking Christ on a popsicle stick. Putin is bulldozing his way through the Ukraine with virtually nobody to stand his way. He doesn’t give one wit about Obama.
What is it a sign of when one laughs hysterically at a factual statement a concrete reality. Putin last Fall and to the present day did and does in fact care to not see Syria be bombed for as little as a few days of brief punitive strikes by the USA and perhaps France.
Putin cares when Obama threatens to bomb something or somebody of interest to Putin. That is now a historical fact.
And what territory or what regime was Obama supposed to bomb or threaten to bomb after the legislative leaders in Crimea decided to separate from Ukraine on or around February 24 2013? And with that ‘political uprising’ representing the majority of the population of Crimea also requesting that their ‘revolt’ and their militia’s be backed by Putin and the military of the Russian Federation how can it be said that Russia was ‘bulldozing’ through Crimea? There is no bull-dozing going on in Mainland Ukraine by Russia. Why would you thing there is?
Perhaps you could post a factual statement and we could see.
Syria agreed to turn over all its chemical weapons by Feb. 6. It is now April 19. They have not done what they said. Instead, people continue to die from chemical weapons in Syria. Therefore, there is no sense in which this can be called a “masterful” deal. So the title of the OP is non-factual as well, as is practically every word you have posted (and reposted, and re-reposted) in the thread.
So, apart from allowing people to continue to be killed by chemical weapons, missing all its deadlines, and making Obama look weak and foolish and raising Putin’s prestige, it is a heck of a deal.
Regards,
Shodan
It also made some of us wish Hillary Clinton was still Secretary of State but that one might have skipped you.
80%.
[ Copyright violation removed. ]
Out of curiosity, do you know how much chlorine gas has been handed over or destroyed by virtue of this masterful agreement?