Posted on 09/05/2013 7:05:42 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
If the House voted today on a resolution to attack Syria, President Barack Obama would lose — and lose big.
That’s the private assessment of House Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides who are closely involved in the process.
If the Senate passes a use-of-force resolution next week — which is no sure thing — the current dynamics suggest that the House would defeat it. That would represent a dramatic failure for Obama, and once again prove that his sway over Congress is extraordinarily limited. The loss would have serious reverberations throughout the next three months, when Obama faces off against Congress in a series of high-stakes fiscal battles.
Several Republican leadership aides, who are counting votes but not encouraging a position, say that there are roughly one to two dozen “yes” votes in favor of military action at this time. The stunningly low number is expected to grow a bit.
But senior aides say they expect, at most, between 50 and 60 Republicans to vote with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who support the president’s plan to bomb Syria to stop Bashar Assad from using chemical weapons on his people. That would amount to less than one-third of the House Republican Conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I became a BDSer in the 4th quarter of 1999, when I became aware that Bush had amassed a $70 million dollar war chest, to be come president of the United States. I didn’t see him as a Conservative, and I wasn’t thrilled that he was going to be sucking all the oxygen out of the room the following year.
Sadly he lived down to my expectations. And sadly there are those today who will still argue he was a better president than Ronald Reagan. Yes, seriously, I’ve had people make that argument to me on this forum. Who cares what he handed off to Obama. Who cares what damage it did to both trust in Conservatism and Capitalism.
As for the war in Iraq, I see it different than I do a potential war in Syria. For the most part Assad’s regime had settled into a known entity. Christians were left alone within Syria. His shenanigans with known terrorist groups seemed rather subdued. He was serving as a proxy for Iran, but things could have been a lot worse. Today we may be seeing how it could become worse. We just don’t know.
The point is, Assad was a fairly well known entity. He wasn’t overtly supporting terrorists. He wasn’t making threats against the West. He wasn’t spouting off against Israel every few days, making it look like he was ready to pounce.
He wasn’t threatening any of his neighbors.
Contrast this with Saddam Hussein. Hussein had either invaded or committed acts of war against Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. His invasion of Iran cost over one million lives. His purges inside his own nation had cost 10s if not 100s of thousands of lives. He had already been involved with the United States in one war, and he was violating no fly zones as well as shifting his armed forces back and forth into areas near his borders with other nations. He was paying $25,000 to any family whose member had carried out a terrorist act against Israel. He was making public statements in support of terrorist groups carrying out acts of terrorism against the United States. He did have either Chemical or Gas WMD munitions on his soil. Those were uncovered at one point after our invasion and his removal. There was a large convoy that carried cargo of some sort out of Iraq into Syria prior to his removal. The chemical attacks taking place now, may have been former Iraqi WMDs.
Hussein was therefore a coiled snake that needed to be taken out. We couldn’t take a long term chance he would fund terrorists against us, or arm them with something devastating in the process.
I haven’t seen anyone make the case that Assad is anything close to what Hussein was. That and the fact the rebels are made up of al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers, causes us to believe there is no win possible in Syria. Let them beat each other to a pulp. Thin the herd.
In conclusion, I supported Bush entering Iraq. I know there are decent arguments against it too. I don’t see what is taking place now in Syria to be remotely the same as what was taking place in Iraq. The dynamics are quite different. In Iraq we had the possibility that a stable government could rise out of the ashes.
In Syria, whichever side wins, it’s going to be problematic. There’s no viable resolution there. We should definitely take a pass.
Bingo! I agree Jim.
I am pretty sure we didnt invade Iraq over its attacks on Iran, which was ~ 20 years earlier. And few in the US shed a tear for Iran in those days.
Saddam wasnt invading anyone in 2001.
In fact once no WMDs were found the Bush bots resorted to Obama-speak, it was those atrocities inside Iraq that was the real reason..
Pretty much the same idea after that, break a country and create a huge mes.
We went to Iraq on behest of our Saudi Masters.
The Mccain-Grahamnesty democracy-invasion map goes Afghanistan>Iraq>Syria>Iran, of course they were hot on bombing Libya too.
That is why they want amnesty so bad, new recruits for land invasions who would get a shortcut to citizenship for joining.
Isnt it nice that they have those private visits with Obama to discuss this?
It would in ironic is the US helps AQ on 9-11. I bet the Muzzies would get a big kick out of that.
Hows the war of Terror going? We lost that as soon as the morons in the USA elected Obama.....
Seems so. And it looks like they are involved with this one too.
But at least they helped pay for in the first limited invasion 1991.
The GWB one 2001 left us with both the bill and the causalities and the mess.
The people this admin wants to help are disgusting psychopaths...
But then again, it should be no surprise. Psychopaths help each other out all the time.
No Syrian ever called me “Cracka!”
McCain and Grahamnesty held out their vote till they could get a clause put in that allows Obama to help ‘the rebels’. Its so nice them fighting on Obama's side.
Speaking of our friends the Syrian rebels, over on the Dem channel they are upset over that video showing the Rebels executing captured Syrian troops, after beating them of course.
I think they are going weak kneed on their master Obama.
But Rev Al is sticking with Obama, a true follower.
“...McCain and Grahamnesty...”
Ever the good little lapdogs, rolling over and peeing on their own bellies on demand for the Dems.
I fervently pray they get thrown out of office and sent packing... traitor garbage.
LOL
I would go back further, we never should have helped overthrow the government in Libya in the first place.
Recall under Bush they gave up WMDs and allowed inspectors in and were behaving since(a plus for Bush) , and this is how Obama/Hillary/McCain/Grahamnesty repayed them.
‘Giving a monkey hand grenades’
Think progress now shows 217 (a majority) House members voting No or leaning No!
They only show 44 members Yes or leaning Yes.
It’s going to fail big time!
Larry, you and grumpy cat are starting to merge in my minds-eye. Right on! Right on.
Sarah Palin is right: let them fight; Allah will sort them out. It's not worth one drop of American blood.
.
- From what I hear B Hussein 2 has lost most Baracks and Hispanics on attacking Syria (but only for two days) yet not wanting Assad removed
- Even (D-NY) “Red” Wrangle has come out strong against B Hussein 2 on his Syria (revised 50 times by BO himself) “Send A Message” plan
- All kneel before the Muslim Clown.....
.
Given that almost the entire rest of the world and about 99% of U.S. voters oppose the insanity of the U.S. violently injecting itself in a civil war between two Muslim factions in a country in which neither the U.S. nor the rest of the world has much strategic interest, going to Congress was simply a ploy for Obama to try to save face, since Obama knew Congress would never approve this. Now Obama can say: “Not my fault. I WANTED to bomb Syria, but Congress won’t let me. It’s THEIR fault. I’m blameless. As usual. Because I’m perfect and never make mistakes. Ever.”
Yes I have noticed. She hasn’t been out there at all. The only time I saw her was on MLking day and she looked mad that she had to be there.
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