Tag: Assad

Ever Deeper in the Syrian Morass

On By Norbert HauptIn WarLeave a comment

President Obama is sending “less than 50” U.S. Special Forces into Syria. That’s boots on the ground, and in contrast what he just proclaimed he would not so not too long ago.

Syria is in a mess of a civil war. The Russians are dropping bombs on behalf of the teetering Assad regime. ISIS is beheading people in the name of God. The rebels are going after ISIS and Assad. Iran is messing with things.

All we can possibly achieve is getting more Americans killed – for nothing. Don’t tell me we are doing this to keep our country safe. Don’t tell me we are doing this so I can have my freedom. Really, what are 50 American soldiers in Syria going to accomplish?

There is no solution to this mess. Therefore we should distance ourselves. Let the Russians spend their money that they don’t have. We should not be posturing.

Syria is country whose people are fleeing. Their president is a coward who is willing to allow millions of his citizens to lose their livelihoods and their homeland. He is willing to sacrifice his people’s lives so he can stay in power. He should have resigned and gone into exile with his pile of money years ago and left his people alone.

People are not there to serve their presidents. Rather, presidents are there to serve their people.

Assad is willing to drag the world through the morass with him. He does not get it.

Syrian Girl in Syria Survived Air Raid by Syrian Military

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities1 Comment

Syrian Girl1
[Credit: GettyImages]
This girl survived the raid. Twenty other civilians were killed.

And the Syrian president/dictator Assad goes on 60 Minutes and says that his people love him.

What a country!

Not So Good 60 Minutes for Obama

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Political5 Comments

Tonight’s 60 Minutes was masterful reporting of the Syria conundrum our nation is in. First there was an interview with Bassar al-Assad by Charlie Rose. To get Assad on 60 Minutes, knowing that it is international television, I found to be a genius coup of CBS. How could anyone not watch? Assad spoke in surprisingly good English for an Arab leader. He is a medical doctor with post-doctoral studies in London at the Western Eye Hospital, specializing in ophthalmology. I assume that’s where he learned his English, which he speaks with a strange-sounding lisp. I wonder if he lisps in Arabic? If anyone knows, please comment and set us straight.

After the Assad interview, which was taped last Sunday, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Obama, recorded a few days later.

Charlie Rose never asked Assad point-blank if he had ordered the chemical strikes, but he did ask many other tough questions. I don’t claim to have sufficient insight into the complex politics of the Syrian crisis. But if he ordered chemical strikes against his own people, of course I condemn it. But I must say with a considerable amount of shame, overall, Assad looked better tonight on international television than Obama did.

I can’t believe I just wrote this.

By the way Obama handled the Syrian crisis, he has damaged his presidency and he has made the United States look weak. I don’t profess that I might have done a better job myself. This whole thing is a mess. But right now, whether anyone else could have done a better job, Obama looks like a fool. Where are his foreign policy advisers? Where is his Henry Kissinger when he needs him? Obama needs somebody of Kissinger or Scowcroft caliber to tell him: “Mr. President, you’re fucking this one up big time!” Obama needs help, and fast.

It was a good thing that 60 Minutes closed out the hour with a stale report on marijuana in Colorado. What if they had got Putin on as the third piece? It would have been utter disaster for Obama.

Right now our government is stumbling on the world stage. Obama does not look ready for the job. This is not a good thing to happen to a president in his 5th year in office. Syria might have killed Obama’s legacy. When I voted for him, I thought he had it in him to be a great president.

Right now, I am embarrassed for him.

No More Wars

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries4 Comments

The world has to listen to American saber-rattling once again. This time it’s Obama who has got himself into the unenviable position of having drawn a line in the sand which has subsequently been crossed. What to do?

We are not learning from history. We get involved in foreign countries that:

  1. We don’t understand
  2. Don’t respect us
  3. Don’t want us there
  4. See us as the imperialists which we obviously are.

Then we kill many innocent people by using massive and blunt weapons (of mass destruction).

Afterwards, we try to rebuild nations amidst enemies of all creeds.

Above all, we’re spending billions of dollars we don’t have, money you and I pay in taxes every month.

We did it in Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya – and those are only the ones I can think of right now.

We just need to stop messing with the problems of other countries that we can’t fix and don’t understand.

Of course, to be fair, I have contradict myself here:

Hitler could easily have been stopped in the years between 1935  and 1939, when the British, the French and the U.S. were dilly-dallying, trying to stay out of a war that could easily have been prevented by ousting a dictator, a war that eventually cost over 50 million lives.

Is the right solution to oust another dictator?