Posted on 08/13/2011 1:57:43 PM PDT by tobyhill
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, put himself on a direct collision course with Washington yesterday after sending in tanks to crush anti-government protests in his country's main port city.
Armoured vehicles rolled into the palm-lined streets of Latakia, on Syria's Mediterranean coast, less than 24 hours after the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, issued a direct warning to Mr Assad to "immediately stop the violence".
By yesterday afternoon, phone lines and internet lines to Latakia had been largely cut off, but activists said spoke of "intense" gunfire rocking city for at least an hour and a half during the morning, with at least two people killed.
The continued aggression by Damascus against pro-democracy campaigners will make it all the more likely that Washington will now call explicitly upon President Assad to step down, something it has so far avoided for fear of being seen to interfere in Syrian affairs.
A decision on whether to make such a demand – which would further restrict President Assad's room for manoeuvre – is expected to be made by President Barack Obama this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
pat robertson ran an investigation on the 700 club last week
that revealed iran was involved with 9/11.
I wish Assad wouldn’t do that.
He may p*ss off Bambi who will then take it out on the country while congresscritters stand on the sideline in silence.
Yoohoo, oh Hillary....
Funny, how Assad is so fearless of zero he doesn't even pretend to call the protesters anti-revolutionaries, or some some such nonsense used by socialist, communist, totalitarian regimes against anyone protesting their rule.
99.99% of the people don’t even know whats going on.
They don’t realize what a punk Obama is.
Obama is impotent and incompetent. He once said he would only fight “smart” wars. Yea, that Libya thing is going so well for him.
“They both expressed horror at the brutal reaction of the Syrian regime to legitimate protests, particularly during Ramadan,” a No 10 spokesman said
The only thing Obama is in horror of is his poll numbers!!
I think Assad will go before Qaddafi.
As much as I don’t care for Assad, we have no dog in this hunt.
For all we know right now, Iran is puppeteering the creation of a United States of Iran on the backs of the Islamic Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.
Why make a fool out of yourself over an issue like this? Well, there’s no reason unless you’re a nine year old 60 pound weakling inside, and you got your nose out of joint for no good reason.
Assad doesn’t listen, because Obama has already destroyed any credibility he ever had.
If I were an enemy of the U.S., I would consider the doors wide open right now.
This bastard is going to get us all killed. At least then someone will finally burst through the doors in Hawaii, and verify what this punk ass America hater has been all along.
Yeah, remember the "days not weeks" line?
Still shaking head ;(
They don't. Y'know, it's in foreign policy and the increasing lack of respect for the U.S. that I find Obama most like Carter. But . . . then there's the economy. Gee. This really is a repeat of the seventies, isn't it.
Well, without the good music, of course.
Most of these despots know the US won't take any significant action on the scale that will really hurt them or commit the US long term as in Afghanistan or Iraq (The current administration does not want to deal with the political cost more than anything else). At most, the US will simply take some symbolic action, try to avoid ground combat, minimize risk/exposure, not commit to anything long term, try to achieve political top cover through multinational institutions like the UN or NATO... The US is acting like a typical Euro nation and for the despot in the middle East that means “green light” and full speed forward may that be building a nuke in Iran, crushing demonstrators, aiding terrorists...
Most of the world operates on the lowest rungs of Maslows hierarchy. Much of the world does not share an inclusive, egalitarian and secular approach to society like we do and the leaders rose by force, only respecting power and force themselves. Most of the world has little to no democratic principals at work and indeed they are in name only republics or democracies with little true rule of law at work inside them. The threshold to violence is low, cultural acceptance of corruption high, these societies often see the world in terms of religion, race, tribe and sex (i.e. Rwanda where one tribe kills another, Suddan is a civil war where Muslims are trying to take over...).
They are not concerned when our politicians and leaders appeal to high values. They are not concerned about international laws, conventions or treaties. They care little about political isolation. They care little about economic isolation and even if thousands die because of some embargo the despot cares little as long as he has his power and wealth. So what is left? The club.
The State Department is actually a noble institution and if all listened, truly wanted to negotiate and compromise, if all had some higher values and valued life as much as we do, if all followed through with their promises and didn't have mutually exclusive interests and a zero sum approach, they would be the lead on most conflicts in this world. But unfortunately there is a reason why the DoD over the last 200 years has steadily grown and become the primary tool for conflict resolution in vast parts of the planet.
This is drivel to a Qaddafi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsL9p2qXDa0&feature=related
I’m more worried about Turkey going bad ass in that area. They are awfully quiet these days and have some decent numbers to back up any play they may want to make in that region.
American’s laugh at him also, it keeps us from crying about him...
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