The Commentariat -- Sept. 4, 2013
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Opening a three-day trip overseas at a delicate moment for his presidency, Mr. Obama challenged lawmakers and allies to stand behind his plans for a cruise missile attack on the government of President Bashar al-Assad in retaliation for what the Obama administration has concluded was a chemical attack that killed 1,400 people in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, last month." ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner said on Tuesday that he would 'support the president's call to action' in Syria after meeting with President Obama, giving the president a crucial ally in the quest for votes in the House. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, quickly joined Mr. Boehner to say he also backed Mr. Obama." ...
... Jonathan Allen & Jake Sherman of Politico: "While most top congressional leaders have vowed to back President Barack Obama in seeking authority to launch missile strikes, there's little evidence that they can -- or even want to -- help him round up the rank-and file-Republicans he'll need to win a vote in the House. Several lawmakers and aides who have been canvassing support say that nearly 80 percent of the House Republican Conference is, to some degree, opposed to launching strikes in Syria. Informal counts by Obama allies show that support in Congress for Obama's plans is in the low dozens." ...
... Here's the Washington Post's whip count. ...
... Tom Shanker & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Two cabinet secretaries [John Kerry & Chuck Hagel] who fought during the Vietnam War and a four-star general [Martin Dempsey] whose views on intervention were shaped by command tours in Iraq appeared before the Senate [Foreign Relations Committee] on Tuesday to argue the Obama administration's case for Congressional authorization to attack Syria over chemical weapons use." ...
... Lives hang in the balance, but John McCain found the hearing totally boring:
"Senator John McCain plays poker on his IPhone during a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing where Secretary of State JohnKerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey testify concerning the use of force in Syria...."
... ** UPDATE: Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reached an agreement late Tuesday on wording of a new resolution authorizing U.S. military force against the Syrian government. The resolution would permit up to 90 days of military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, beginning with 60 days and the option of 30 more pending President Obama's notification of Congress, according to a copy of the resolution provided by Senate aides." See further terms in story, which is a breaking story at this point (8:45 pm ET).
... The Times is liveblogging "developments in Washington and around the world on the deliberations about a possible military strike on Syria." ...
... Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "Americans widely oppose launching missile strikes against the Syrian government for its alleged use of chemical weapons, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that finds little appetite for military action across the country despite a growing drumbeat in Washington. Nearly six in 10 oppose missile strikes...." ...
... Ryan Lucas & Lori Hinnant of the AP: "France's government offers a preview Wednesday of what the Obama administration faces next week, as [French] lawmakers debate the wisdom and necessity of a military response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed hundreds." ...
Juan Cole: "Bombs are seldom the answer to geopolitical problems." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. ...
... Damned If He Does; Damned If He Doesn't. Dana Milbank: "Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is in a spirited debate -- with himself." First, Inhofe was against the President's "inaction," then last week he said the country was too broke for military intervention, now he writes he's against inaction. "As Inhofe's conversion on the road to Damascus indicates, Republicans don't like what Obama is doing in Syria -- whatever it is.... On Tuesday, House Republican leaders took steps to build support for authorizing the use of force. Still, they protected their right to criticize Obama when things go wrong. House Speaker John Boehner said he would support the resolution, but his office issued a statement saying, 'It is the president's responsibility to make his case.'" Majority Leader Eric Cantor: "ditto." ...
... Andy Borowitz (satire): "Appearing on the Fox News Channel, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told host Sean Hannity, 'If we're trying to send a strong message to [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad, I can think of no better way to do that than by defunding Obamacare.'" ...
... Maureen Dowd: "Once more, we see the magnitude of the tragedy of Iraq because the decision on Syria is so colored by the fact that an American president and vice president took us to war in the Middle East on false pretenses and juiced up intelligence, dragging the country into an emotionally and financially exhausting decade of war and an identity crisis about our role in the world.... It's up to President Obama to show Americans that he knows what he's doing, unlike his predecessor."
When not on his iPhone, John McCain chews up Fox "News" anchor-bigots like Brian Kilmeade. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link:
New York Times Editors: " The [federal government's] move to recognize all same-sex couples' marriages ... makes state bans on same-sex marriage look even more discriminatory." For instance, "Now that same-sex married couples are eligible for federal benefits under rules that don't apply to civil unions, New Jersey's insistence that civil unions are equivalent to marriage is plainly wrong."
"Summers the Shiftless." Paul Krugman: As Binyamin Appelbaum reported in yesterday's Times [linked in yesterday's Commentariat], "the rising odds of a Summers appointment to the Fed is already having a chilling effect on the economy. A Yellen appointment would clearly have represented something new at the Fed -- not just because she is, as Garrison Keillor used to say, a person of gender, but also because she has been a strong and consistent monetary dove, and took that position before it was fashionable. Summers, on the other hand, while he often expresses unconventional views when not in office, has a strong tendency to revert to conventionality when in office. And leaving Summers the person on one side, just think of the historical connections: can you imagine a stronger signal that the same old regime is staying in place than choosing a Robert Rubin protege at this late date? So the apparent decision to appoint Summers is a strong anti-regime-shift signal on Obama's part...." ...
... CW: the one thing we have learned about Obama is that he is a very conventional guy. When he says or does something that appears "liberal," it is only because that something is a policy liberals have been advocating since he was in knee-pants -- or before. When he was running for office, we could tell ourselves that his retro policies were political moves designed to win re-election. Guess what? He's still a retro kinda guy. Ergo, Fed Chair Larry. P.S. I don't think Summers the Shiftless will be feting Krugman the Wise any time soon.
Robert Levy, chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute, formerly known as the Charles Koch Foundation & still controlled by the Koch brothers, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that states' attempts to nullify federal regulations -- like federal gun laws -- violate the Constitution. "I fully support those who see risks in the expansion of federal power, particularly when it comes to intrusions on basic rights like gun ownership. However, to defend those rights, we can't begin by flouting the very document that inspires that fight in the first place: the Constitution." CW: Levy's piece surely will upset fellow libertarian Li'l Randy.
Craig Whitlock & Barton Gellman of the Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda's leadership has assigned cells of engineers to find ways to shoot down, jam or remotely hijack U.S. drones, hoping to exploit the technological vulnerabilities of a weapons system that has inflicted huge losses against the terrorist network, according to top-secret U.S. intelligence documents."
News Ledes
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Ariel Castro, the man sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, is dead. Castro was found hanging in his cell at 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, south of Columbus, said ... a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction." ...
... AP: Castro "is believed to have committed suicide, a prison official said."
AP: "The family of World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg will ask President Barack Obama for help in their quest to find out what happened to the Swedish diplomat who vanished after being arrested by Soviet forces in 1945. Wallenberg's niece, Marie Dupuy, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the family will present a letter to Obama at a memorial ceremony for Wallenberg that the president is set to attend Wednesday in Stockholm."
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Juan Cole weighs in saying the U.S. is no Lone Ranger and should put that six shooter away:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/on_syria_the_us_is_no_lone_ranger_and_should_put_that_six_shooter_away_20/
As much as I find gassing your own citizens abhorrent, far beyond the pale of any standard of decency (tho' as I said to my son yesterday, pretending that war can be in any way "civilized" is putting lipstick on the proverbial pig), I see the immense geo-political difficulties of controlling the behavior of rogue nations as more proof, if such were needed, that our shrinking world has not created institutions adequate to govern it.
Among the many problems Syria presents, our daily access to the horrors of its internal conflict may be the greatest. If we did not know how awful things were in Syria, we would not have the urge to "do something about it." But thanks to the way technology has shrunk the world, we do know; and when we see the people, the children, gasping and bleeding in color, the feeling of helplessness is hard to take.
We want to fix it...but without adequate institutions or mechanisms in place, we can't. The world needs one Big Mama or Papa to take the kids in hand, but it doesn't have one. A distant Uncle (Sam), already reviled by half the world for his heavy-handedness, just won't do.
Though it gravels me to agree with anything Rand Paul might say, I'm with him on this one. (But I take heart from my certainty he and I would disagree mightily about the proper future role of the UN).
More Benghazi stuff at the URL below. The study group (Sullivan) recommends moving the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Bureau up a level, to make it an Under Secretary function as opposed to its current Assistant Secretary level (i.e., from 4th rank to 3rd under the Secretary). This would supposedly give it the clout to provide proper security.
This type of movement is classic fed organizational problem solving -- moving a function up the org chart -- and doesn't work. But it does contribute to higher grades, bigger budgets, lengthening chains of command. In a fixed-resource budget situation, it also allows the elevated function to plunder other parts of an agency. Unimaginative, business as usual.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/3/exclusive-benghazireportdetailssecurityflawsatusdiplomaticposts.html
Good perspectives in article by Edward Wyckoff Williams in The Root. Talks about the paradox of Republican policy of war mongering vs their dedicated obstructionism of Obama. Also draws the nexus between people killed in Syria by gas and the far greater number killed in US by guns. We are anxious to act in Syria but don't have the impetus to act in our own country.
http://www.theroot.com/views/syria-and-irony-gop-obstructionism?page=0,0&wpisrc=root_lightbox
If we have laws on the books that don't apply to the rich, or the connected like the Wall Street banker/insurance types and we are frustrated by the lack of accountability that is understandable. If we have laws on the books that don't apply to despots who use poison gas on defenseless civilians, is it understandable and acceptable to not hold to account the elites who run the government because their victims aren't important enough?
And are we all as Americans perpetuating the 'Kitty Genovese' witness inaction?
If anyone here like me needs to be reminded of the history of Syria, Fouad Ajami's book on the Syrian Rebellion which came out in June 2012 and was reviewed by Dexter Filkins in the Times is most enlightening:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/books/review/the-syrian-rebellion-by-fouad-ajami.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper
Re: Plan "C"; Yesterday Ak pointed out that there is always time for a rethinking. Most people have trouble with two sides to a story; few if any want Plan "C".
OK; PD linked ( she has become a linkin' Lincoln, I remain the missing linkin') an article that exposed the chemical brokerages that sell to Assid. Plan "C"; those companies responsible for the sales to Syria can be sued by governments opposed to CW. Why not? You sell chemicals that are used to kill people, you pay... Oh, wait; gun manufacturers that make and sell guns and ammo are not liable for the carnage here in the States...never mind.
One year old shot and killed in baby carriage, outrage muted.
One thousand dead by gas in Syria, missile outrage.
The rest of the known world to US; YMBFK.
My two favorite news picks today:
“Super bowl champs Baltimore Ravens to promote Obamacare.”
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/super-bowl-champion-baltimore-ravens-to-promote-obamacare
“Georgia Governor receives kickbacks for obstructing Obamacare.”
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/04/the-real-deal-georgia-governor-receives-kick-backs-for-obstructing-health-care-reform/