Puppet War in Syria

[Townsend]

Why do we keep doing this?

Haven't Syria and Russia been boyfriend/girlfriend for years?

Obviously your mind has been blown.  Maybe have a chocolate.

[Conan71]

Why do we keep doing this?


Got no problem with Putin taking the lead and pulling President Obama out of the embarrassment he would otherwise face from Congress, but it seems he's not done with us, and the media is willing to give him as much of a platform as he desires.  There is blood in the water and Putin is an experienced shark.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=0

http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/321859-criticism-of-putins-op-ed-builds-among-lawmakers

Putin is #WINNING and we look completely lost. 

Freekin amateur hour in the US!

With this "crisis", Obama has finally proven what many of us have known about him since his inauguration:

[Gaspar]

With this "crisis", Obama has finally proven what many of us have known about him since his inauguration:

Well this is fairly harsh but accurate:

We have a president heedless of his duty to uphold the Constitution by keeping the government within its confines, disdainful of international law when it fails to suit his purposes, and contemptuous of a Congress he once controlled when it feels the heat from the American people who have had enough of being lied to and tricked into wars. The American people have come to realize that war is the mother's milk of big government: It kills innocents, increases taxes or borrowing, diminishes personal freedom, and unleashes irrational fears and hatreds, and the government continues to grow.

While all of this has been consuming us, the federal debt is approaching $17 trillion and Obama wants to borrow another trillion, the NSA has been exposed as spying on every computer and every mobile phone in the country for the past two years at the insistence of the Obama administration, and the fiscal bankruptcy of Obamacare is now just below the horizon.

Does the president really expect the American people to approve his bombing and killing just to avoid his personal embarrassment? Or is it his professional incompetence he wants to hide?

http://reason.com/archives/2013/09/12/obamas-incompetent-and-unconstitutional

[Gaspar]

Chuckle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-sdO6pwVHQ

[Gaspar]

Good news!  Russia's Lavrov says that he has persuaded Kerry to solve the Syrian problem "professionally" instead of through war.  Syria has agreed to sign a chemical weapons ban and both Russia and Syria have agreed to continued negotiations in Geneva.

Meanwhile Russia is increasing it's fleet to 10 battle and missile cruisers to monitor the situation.

Cooler heads prevail.

Unfortunately the CIA has begun it's gun running operation to the rebels.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/cia-starts-shipping-weapons-syrian-rebel-fighters/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/politics/syria-arming-rebels/

Meet the rebels.  
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/06/20348901-not-one-of-bad-guys-but-syrian-rebel-group-proclaims-anti-american-bent?lite
Quote from Elizebeth O'Bagy the researcher sited by Kerry and McCain during the Obamawar push:
“I have also reviewed a Facebook site … that purports to be associated with the al Aqsa (Islamic) brigades,” she stated in the affidavit. “The facebook site does not appear to be particularly jihadist in orientation, and posts videos associated with groups that are all affiliated with the Free Syrian Army.”
They don't look particularly Jihadist on their facebook page, do they?

[guido911]

[heironymouspasparagus]

Well this is fairly harsh but accurate:

We have a president heedless of his duty to uphold the Constitution by keeping the government within its confines, disdainful of international law when it fails to suit his purposes, and contemptuous of a Congress he once controlled when it feels the heat from the American people who have had enough of being lied to and tricked into wars. The American people have come to realize that war is the mother's milk of big government: It kills innocents, increases taxes or borrowing, diminishes personal freedom, and unleashes irrational fears and hatreds, and the government continues to grow.

While all of this has been consuming us, the federal debt is approaching $17 trillion and Obama wants to borrow another trillion, the NSA has been exposed as spying on every computer and every mobile phone in the country for the past two years at the insistence of the Obama administration, and the fiscal bankruptcy of Obamacare is now just below the horizon.

Does the president really expect the American people to approve his bombing and killing just to avoid his personal embarrassment? Or is it his professional incompetence he wants to hide?

You are like that cell phone commercial where the guy is introduced to the customers and he is always answering one question off...you are always posting one President off....

....had enough of being lied to and tricked into wars by the "one off" President...yeah, you know who it is....

NSA - well you at least got one significant digit right...but rather than 2 years, it is 20 + years NSA has been doing this stuff....

"One off" President got the American people to bomb and kill to get paybacks for Daddy's embarrassment, so yeah, I guess that is kind of almost accurate....

"One off" President wanting to hide his ignorance...absolutely!  Maybe that's why he just took attention off of that by giving the German Chancellor her massage!  

Perspective...it's always 20 to 1 with the RWRE...focusing, compulsing and convulsing over 1 item while ignoring the 20 (or 50!  or 100!!).  Mote in one's eye versus the beam in the other...

[Vashta Nerada]

9/9/2013:

REPORTER: Is there anything at this point that his government could do or offer that would stop an attack?

JOHN KERRY: Uh, 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 a full and total accounting for that.  But he isn't about to do it, and it can't be done, obviously.




 “Putin is angry. He thinks the United States doesn’t take him seriously or treat Russia as a major player. Okay, fine, that’s how he feels. If I were president, I’d get in a room with him and say, ‘Look at the slaughter going on in Syria. You can stop it. Do it, and I’ll see to it that you can get all the credit. I’ll tell the world it was you who saved the innocent children of Syria from slaughter. You’ll be an international hero. You’ll go down in history.’ Hell, Putin would go to bed thinking, ‘That’s not a bad offer.’ There will still be plenty of other issues I’d have with Russia. But instead of looking for one huge deal that settles everything, you take a piece of the problem and solve it. Give an incentive for good behavior. Show the other guy his self-interest. Everybody has an ego. Everybody needs dignity. And what
does it cost? You get what you want you give up nothing.”
-- FOX News chief Roger Ailes



And I get that Fox opposes a Syria peace plan because its modus operandi is to foment dissent in the form of a relentless and irrational contrarianism to Barack Obama on all things democratic, to advance its ultimate objective of creating a deliberately misinformed body politic whose fear, anger, mistrust, and discontent is the manna upon which it sustains its parasitic succubus-like existence. 
-- Jon Stewart

[guido911]

Since "chess" has been batted around as the game so many leaders in the Syria issue are playing, I figured Garry Kasparov's tweet should end this meme:

I wrote it about chess & business, but it applies to Obama & Syria: If you change your strategy frequently you don't really have one.

[guido911]

On the rabid right wing front, Dennis Kucinich is interviewing Assad.

[AquaMan]

Why I like John Stewart,

"And I get that Fox opposes a Syria peace plan because its modus operandi is to foment dissent in the form of a relentless and irrational contrarianism to Barack Obama on all things democratic, to advance its ultimate objective of creating a deliberately misinformed body politic whose fear, anger, mistrust, and discontent is the manna upon which it sustains its parasitic succubus-like existence."
-- Jon Stewart

And its working actually. Saw the most disgusting bumper sticker in modern times the other day, "I love my country. But I fear our government".
This way the guy gets to be a patriot and a conspiracist at the same time.

[guido911]

Why I like John Stewart,

"And I get that Fox opposes a Syria peace plan because its modus operandi is to foment dissent in the form of a relentless and irrational contrarianism to Barack Obama on all things democratic, to advance its ultimate objective of creating a deliberately misinformed body politic whose fear, anger, mistrust, and discontent is the manna upon which it sustains its parasitic succubus-like existence."
-- Jon Stewart

I heard/saw Stewart's rant. I was thinking the same thing about his M.O. when it came to Bush. Another thing, in a time where the president has been f'ing up like crazy with his public comments and handling the Syria issue, why in the hell is Stewart talking about Fox freakin News? He did the same smile recently with respect to Michelle Bachman's comments in Egypt. Hey, look over here. Can't make my BFF Obama look bad. Even his picking on Obama's decisions is done with kid gloves. He also kinda forgot to mention Obama's own party (and his former officials) balking at the Syria plan. Bring back Jon Oliver. Funnier, and more balanced.

[AquaMan]

Think of Stewart like people thought of Will Rogers back in the 30's. He is a comedian and looks to both parties and all players for material. He simply gets better material from the conservatives, t-partiers and Republicans. But his best bet is to stay non aligned and use them all. Obama is by nature pretty good material.

Think of Fox as modern day Pravda.

[Gaspar]

Think of Stewart like people thought of Will Rogers back in the 30's. He is a comedian and looks to both parties and all players for material. He simply gets better material from the conservatives, t-partiers and Republicans. But his best bet is to stay non aligned and use them all. Obama is by nature pretty good material.

Think of Fox as modern day Pravda.

I agree with your analogy about Stewart to some extent, but Pravda was the Soviet government's newspaper.  Stories were initiated and approved by the soviet leaders in order to control the perception of the people.  Can you think of any news sources in the US that do that today? 

The good news for the media, is that many have gotten burned both economically and ethically for the failures behind their collusion with administrations that seek to modify the narrative, and have begun to report news again with less political filtering, or outright fabrication.

There are comedic examples on both sides, and typically the instant gratification crowd and those with limited understanding of politics, economics, or government will turn to those sources for their news, not in an effort to be informed, but to gain fodder for shallow ridicule.

I like comedians, but rarely admire them for their political analysis, because their ultimate goal is to entertain, not inform.  Laughter is typically devoid of thought, because by definition it requires the mind to be confused between narratives.

George Carlin once said in an interview (paraphrase because I cannot find the quote) 'Comedy is a trick of the mind, a joke is simply a story with two different endings.  The audience assumes one ending, but the punch-line reveals the other hidden ending.  The brain realizes it was tricked and the result is laughter.'

From a political standpoint, humor (ridicule) offers a powerful tool in shaping the minds of the least informed, distracted or the young.  From Tina Fey's very effective portrayal (and ultimate definition) of Sarah Palin to as far back as 400bc when Aristophanes relentlessly ridiculed the Athenian statesman Cleon, comedians have been powerful weapons of political destruction.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Think of Stewart like people thought of Will Rogers back in the 30's. He is a comedian and looks to both parties and all players for material. He simply gets better material from the conservatives, t-partiers and Republicans. But his best bet is to stay non aligned and use them all. Obama is by nature pretty good material.

Think of Fox MSNBC as modern day Pravda.

FIFY.