Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Has The President Relinquished His Power?

The Russian suggestion that we might want to back off our strike plans if Syria will turn their chemical weapons over to the world community may well have rendered this article moot.  However, it is being published here anyway, because what is written is important if Syria doesn't follow procedures to give up the weapons.

There is a lot of speculation as to whether the President will go ahead with the plans to strike Syria even if Congress votes no on the issue. Apparently some Presidents act anyway, even after a negative vote.  Though some Congressmen wish the President had not had such a right, they are probably wrong.  But, even if he did have such power, I believe he relinquished it when he asked Congress for a vote of confidence on the issue.

There was already a lot of talk these days about impeachment.  Much of it is pure hot air -- more conservative propaganda meant to win the next Presidential election.  But, should the President receive a no vote from Congress and then strike anyway, that might just lend cause to proceed with the threat.

Members of Congress have to listen to their constituents.  They forget often enough that they were elected to represent our wishes not their own agendas.  A lot of U. S. citizens do not want to meddle in Syria.  Should they not be heard?

Much as the President would like for everyone to forget his speaking about line drawing, he did say there would be consequences for the use of chemical weapons, and we do remember.  So, almost a century ago the world set a fuzzy red line about the use of chemical weapons.  For some time, the world has done nothing about their use.  Remember Sadam Hussein and mustard gas?   Now our President believes the United States is responsible to punish one country which used them.  And where is the rest of the world?  Mostly holdouts who are planning to be dropouts on this issue.  If this is a world's fuzzy red line, then the world should take action, not one major power along with a handful of little ones.  This might be a good time to develop some rules and procedures that would be used by the entire world community every time someone used them.  Then there would not be a situation like this for any country objecting to their use.

The President might want to sit back and review a few facts while congress debates a potential vote.  Not many individual people in the Middle East are our friends.  They have no problem coming to our country to study in our universities and some of them stay and earn a stack of dollars.  But, on the whole, they resent our power and our strength.  Some of them even hold clandestine meetings plotting the demise of Americans.

One news program showed a Syrian saying that if we bomb Assad's part of Syria, we will be starting World War III.  Can you assure us he is not right?  Can you promise that Assad figuratively flipping the middle finger at the President was not meant to start just such warfare?  Alone, they may not have the might, but they seem to have the support of Iran, Russia and Iraq (letting Iran fly supplies over to Syria).  Now the latter is a case in point.  After all the money and deaths over their country, where do they get off letting Iran use their air to help Syria?

We are war weary and broke.  We see no good coming from another war, especially when there seems no immediate threat to our country.  I liked the days when we didn't fight unless we were attacked first.  What happened to them?

I hate to sound unsympathetic, but I am feeling crass right now.  Were these really innocent civilians that died, or were they American haters?  Were any of them already our enemies?  Muslim Brotherhood?  Future jihadists?

Is our intel correct this time?  Or is the intelligence community setting up conditions for another unfavorable and unnecessary war?  No matter how desirable it might be to have a democracy in Syria, that should be their choice and their war, not ours.  Is it possible the rebels orchestrated the use of the chemical weapons to provoke us to action -- similar to the lies told to us by a member of Hussein's administration and his former mistress?  And why were we chomping at the bit to act before the report from the team that entered Syria to check if they were used? 

Horrible though I know you will find this, Mr. President, Syrian children may not be so sweet and innocent as American children, especially yours.  Think carefully before defying Congress if they eventually hold a vote and the answer is no.

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