Thank Goodness, the French are with the US, . . .

I can imagine. Wait, scratch that. I can reminisce.

It was just a few short years ago when our country decided to invade Iraq. I recall there being lots of disagreements on this board...with people like me saying it was not a good idea....and many of our firendly resident conservatives responding with phrases like..
"you hate the troops", or
"you want to surrender to the terrorists", or
"you shouldn't question the president in the midst of war", or
"you condone Sadam Hussein using WMD on his own people", or
(my personal favorite) "We have to get them before they get us!"


I dont know what is more amusing. Reminiscing about those exchanges or seeing those same people now preaching abotu surrendering to the terrorists !

You missed one:

"Better to fight them over there than over here"

In 1988, the US supplied logistical support to Iraq, which we knew they were then going to use to deliver chemical death to Iranian soldiers.

So if we wants to show that we truly abhor chemical weapons, we should round up every surviving American who knowingly took part in that and turn them over to the Hague for prosecution as war criminals. Of course that could never happen, because when when it benefits us, Americans are cool with WMDs. Because America is so awesome.

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that his country has asked Syria to transfer control of its chemical weapons to international monitors in order to prevent a U.S. military strike.
Lavrov also called on Syria to sign and ratify the Convention on Chemical Weapons, which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons, including the nerve gas that the government of President Bashar al-Assad is accused of deploying outside Damascus last month, killing more than 1,400 civilians."

Ref: The Washington Post

The Washington Post updated this story at 13:58PM; it now reads:

"The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said it welcomed a Russian proposal to avert U.S. military strikes by having Damascus turn over control of its chemical weapons to international monitors.

The statement by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Moscow offered the first indication that a diplomatic solution may be possible to the international standoff that has evolved since apparent chemical weapons attacks on rebel-held suburbs outside Damascus on Aug. 21."

It seems President Vladimir Putin is angling for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Wait, what chemical weapons? Putin said John Kerry's accusations were a lie.

Hmmmm. Maybe the little chat at the G20 summit went better than initially reported.

pjstroh needs to do better at keeping Secretary John Kerry's "accusations" straight.

Al-Qaeda in Syria

From The Wall Street Journal:
" . . . Russian President Vladimir Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of lying to Congress over the presence of militant group al Qaeda in Syria.
' 'They are lying, of course, in an ugly way', I watched the debates in Congress. A congressman asks Mr. Kerry: ‘Is al Qaeda there?’ He says: ‘No, we are telling you responsibly that they’re not,’ ' Mr. Putin said in televised remarks at a meeting with human rights activists Wednesday."

Apparently Secretray Kerry reads neither The Wall Street Journal nor The New York Times:
"The lone Syrian rebel group with an explicit stamp of approval from Al Qaeda has become one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, posing a stark challenge to the United States and other countries that want to support the rebels but not Islamic extremists."


Sarin Gas Attack

So far as DonDiego knows President Putin has not accused Secretary Kerry or President Obama of lying about the existence of the chemical weapons, . . . although he has expressed a difference of opinion as to who is responsible for releasing the most recent sarin-gas attack

Ealier, also from The Wall Street Journal:
"Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West against taking one-sided action in Syria but also said his country 'doesn't exclude' supporting a United Nations resolution on punitive military strikes if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people.
'From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces, the regular armed forces, which are on the offensive today and in some areas have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off, that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons while realizing quite well that it could serve as a pretext for applying sanctions against them, including the use of force,' [President Putin] said.
[President Putin] noted that even in the U.S., 'there are experts who believe that the evidence presented by the administration doesn't look convincing, and they don't exclude the possibility that the opposition conducted a premeditated provocative action trying to give their sponsors a pretext for military intervention.' "


It seems President Putin is playing chess, while President Obama and Secretary Kerry are a checker-board tag-team, . . . and pjstroh is engaged in a game of jacks with at least two missing.

Yep, Putin's kicking butt. And if he "wins," and Assad and Obama go along with his plan, it will mean:

No American casualties.

No "message sending" bombing and deaths.

Zero wasted on multi-million dollar ordinance.

and worst of all...

No Mission Accomplished aircraft carrier photo-op.

How awful! Because you know bragging rights about who's winning and who's losing, who's up and who's down, really is the important thing. Just like in high school.

Perhaps Obama should give Putin his Nobel Peace Prize. It looks like Putin is currently doing more to deserve such an award than Obama ever has.

Or a Mission Accomplished banner!

Maybe one day you'll surprise the entire world and actually respond to something instead of deflecting from it.