Administration Makes Syria Policy Off the Cuff

OMG these people really are bad. I mean, what a three-ring circus. Are they just so full of themselves that they think they can say whatever they want and don’t have to discipline their speech to hew to an actual policy?

Obama, you remember, drew a red line off the top of his head committing us to military action against Syria. And now Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Syria a splendid opportunity to delay, confuse the issue, and confound the United States.

Asked at a news conference today in Britain if there was anything Syrian President Assad could do to avoid an attack, Kerry mused, “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.”

Kerry’s own spokeswoman described this as a rhetorical exercise rather than a proposal, according to the New York Times.

But the Russians, who practice diplomacy like an art form and love to confuse issues, could barely contain their delight. They decided, with rational thought that somehow eludes U.S. leaders, that what the Secretary of State says is in fact U.S. policy. And so Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was meeting in Moscow with Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, offered Russia’s kind assistance in corralling Syria’s chemical weapons. Moallem said Syria “welcomes” Russia’s proposal.

So now, completely by accident, a very serious alternative to bombing Syria has emerged. The opportunity here for mischief and delay is unlimited – Oh, we’re rounding up the weapons, but this takes time, and of course UN inspectors must confirm, and – wait – aren’t there a few more? . . .

Pretty wicked:

Tsar Bomba

The original, November 1961 A.E.C. estimate of the yield was 55–60 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as 50 Mt. Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Supreme Soviet of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield). Although simplistic fireball calculations predicted the fireball would impact the ground, the bomb's own shock wave reflected back and prevented this.[9] The fireball reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane and was visible at almost 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away from where it ascended. The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 64 kilometres (40 mi) high (over seven times the height of Mount Everest), which meant that the cloud was above the stratosphere and well inside the mesosphere when it peaked. The base of the cloud was 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide. All buildings in the village of Severny (both wooden and brick), located 55 kilometres (34 mi) from ground zero within the Sukhoy Nos test range, were destroyed. In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero wooden houses were destroyed, stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 kilometres (170 mi). The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero. A shock wave was observed in the air at Dikson settlement 700 kilometres (430 mi) away; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 kilometres (560 mi).[10] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage at even greater distances, breaking windows in Norway and Finland. The seismic shock[verification needed] created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.[11] Its seismic body wave magnitude was about 5 to 5.25.[9] The energy yield was around 8.1 on the Richter scale but, since the bomb was detonated in air rather than underground, most of the energy was not converted to seismic waves. The TNT equivalent of the 50 Mt test could be represented by a cube of TNT 312 metres (1023 feet) on a side, approximately the height of the Eiffel Tower.

I do believe you have it right. I thought and wrote the same thing last night.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3064533/posts?page=93#93

I heard Kerry’s statement yesterday morning...who knew they’d pick it up and run with it?

I would just caution the many thoughts & comments regarding how amazingly Putin seems like the ‘leader’ here. Syria’s defeat and Damascus’ destruction is inevitable.

Yes, there are many blessings and many horrors being in this waiting time.

>>>The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero. A shock wave was observed in the air at Dikson settlement 700 kilometres (430 mi) away; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 kilometres (560 mi).[10] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage at even greater distances, breaking windows in Norway and Finland. The seismic shock[verification needed] created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.[11] Its seismic body wave magnitude was about 5 to 5.25.[9] The energy yield was around 8.1 on the Richter scale but, since the bomb was detonated in air rather than underground, most of the energy was not converted to seismic waves.<<<

In short, just a wing of bombers armed with a cruise missiles equipped with a full-yield warheads like that are enough to ruin Japan or UK.

Well, that didn't take long:

Krauthammer on US-Syria fallout: Chances of Israeli strike on Iran are double

"And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him."

Iran will get nuclear weapons, I'm afraid, and will use it/them.

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