Massive use of chemical weapons in Syria, 1,429 killed including 426 children

[Bluebook]

War it is

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/world/middleeast/text-of-kerrys-statement-on-chemical-weapons-in-syria.html?_r=0

[Bluebook]

Full text

Well, for the last several days President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria. And today I want to provide an update on our efforts as we consider our response to the use of chemical weapons.

What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.

The meaning of this attack goes beyond the conflict on Syria itself. And that conflict has already brought so much terrible suffering. This is about the large-scale indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilized world long ago decided must never be used at all, a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else.

There is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons. There is a reason the international community has set a clear standard and why many countries have taken major steps to eradicate these weapons. There is a reason why President Obama has made it such a priority to stop the proliferation of these weapons, and lock them down where they do exist. There is a reason why President Obama has made clear to the Assad regime that this international norm cannot be violated without consequences. And there is a reason why no matter what you believe about Syria, all peoples and all nations who believe in the cause of our common humanity must stand up to assure that there is accountability for the use of chemical weapons so that it never happens again.

Last night, after speaking with foreign ministers from around the world about the gravity of this situation, I went back and I watched the videos -- the videos that anybody can watch in the social media, and I watched them one more gut-wrenching time. It is really hard to express in words the the human suffering that they lay out before us.

As a father, I can't get the image out of my head of a man who held up his dead child, wailing while chaos swirled around him, the images of entire families dead in their beds without a drop of blood or even a visible wound, bodies contorting in spasms, human suffering that we can never ignore or forget. Anyone who could claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass.

What is before us today is real, and it is compelling.

So I also want to underscore that while investigators are gathering additional evidence on the ground, our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense. The reported number of victims, the reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, the firsthand accounts from humanitarian organizations on the ground, like Doctors Without Borders and the Syria Human Rights Commission -- these all strongly indicate that everything these images are already screaming at us is real, that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regime has the capacity to do this with rockets. We know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from those very places where the attacks took place. And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses.

We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead.

Our sense of basic humanity is offended not only by this cowardly crime but also by the cynical attempt to cover it up. At every turn, the Syrian regime has failed to cooperate with the U.N. investigation, using it only to stall and to stymie the important effort to bring to light what happened in Damascus in the dead of night. And as Ban Ki- moon said last week, the U.N. investigation will not determine who used these chemical weapons, only whether such weapons were used, a judgement that is already clear to the world.

I spoke on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem, and I made it very clear to him that if the regime, as he argued, had nothing to hide, then their response should be immediate: immediate transparency, immediate access, not shelling. Their response needed to be unrestricted and immediate access. Failure to permit that, I told him, would tell its own story.

Instead, for five days the Syrian regime refused to allow the U.N. investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systematically destroying evidence. That is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. In fact, the regime's belated decision to allow access is too late and is too late to be credible.

Today's reports of an attack on the U.N. investigators, together with the continued shelling of these very neighborhoods, only further weakens the regime's credibility. At President Obama's direction, I've spent many hours over the last few days on the phone with foreign ministers and other leaders. The administration is actively consulting with members of Congress, and we will continue to have these conversations in the days ahead. President Obama has also been in close touch with the leaders of our key allies, and the president will be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons.

But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny.

Thank you.

[Berkut]

Yeah, I have to reluctantly agree. This is not about trying to come up with a policy that has some chance of improving the situation in Syria anymore.


The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

nothing learned since 1979 in other words.

[Bluebook]

Yeah, I have to reluctantly agree. This is not about trying to come up with a policy that has some chance of improving the situation in Syria anymore.


The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

I agree. That statement is actually the most logical, well-reasoned and compelling argument for war I have seen since.. I dunno, ww2?

The case for declaring war against Syria is much stronger than even the case against Iraq in Gulf war 1 back in 1991 in my opinion. And lets face it, gw1 was a pretty solid case too.

[The Minsky Moment]

Assad is not going to make the al-Qaeda types go away; on the contrary, his brutality and Western hypocrisy in tolerating that brutality have helped al-Qaeda grow rapidly on the ground in Syria.  The ordinary Sunni in Syria is not a radical Islamist terrorist, but when the only people that stand up to protect them from atrocities are radical Islamists, it should not be surprising that those types grow in influence.  The policy to be adopted toward Syria IMO is obvious: he is a very bad guy who will stop at nothing, he is a key hinge point in the Iran-Hezbollah axis, he is our enemy and we (the West) should be against him.  As to what that should entail, there is plenty of room for argument.  But he is not the enemy of our enemy.  He is the enemy of all breathing humans in his country who are not Alawite and who object to his iron fist.

[Bluebook]

I mean, if we are not ready to go to war over this, then what the hell is worth going to war over? This is pretty much as close as ww2-type-evil that you get..

[Eddie Teach]

The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

nothing learned since 1979 in other words.

If Obama hadn't made the line in the sand remarks you might have a point. But whether the regime in Syria is better or worse is of considerably less importance than the ROTW respecting America. So while gassing his own people isn't the same level of provocation as overrunning our embassy and taking our people hostage, it's still something that needs to be dealt with.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

nothing learned since 1979 in other words.

Assad as has been mentioned is backed by the worst of the worst, there's little material difference to me between al-Qaeda backed groups and Hezbollah and Iran backed groups. Aside from 9/11, which was a spectacle more than anything, Iran is actually a far bigger threat to us than al-Qaeda will ever be. That being said, there still remains little viable option for the U.S. to do anything in Syria that will work to our benefit.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The line in the sand was stupid. The only logic I can find to support action in Syria is if we can do so in a way that undermines Russia's efforts. So that might mean supporting the Saudis, who have been trying to support the portion of the rebels who aren't Iran/Hezbollah/Russian backed nor al-Qaeda affiliated.

[OttoVonBismarck]

If we do attack I hope that we hit the Russian SAM equipment they sold Assad just to prove a point. I'd also hope that if we do commit to funding one side, we do so on the condition that if that side wins power they are required to expel Russia from its naval facility in Tartus.

[Maximus]

The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

nothing learned since 1979 in other words.

This from the guy who hasn't learned anything since 1498.

[Berkut]

Would be interesting to see Obama actually ask for a DOW.

Not really a good idea, but interesting.

[crazy canuck]

The Assad regime has to go. Better a fundy Islamist terrorist regime than let a recognized government get away with using chemical weapons.

nothing learned since 1979 in other words.

Assad is in no way shape or form a creature of US foriegn policy.  Syria has been the enemy of the US and the rest of the West for many decades.  In short, you are channelling Marti with that analogy.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The Saudis have actually tried for years to flip Assad from being Iran/Hezbollah backed to being closer with them (and they were willing to funnel billions to his regime in exchange for that expanded influence--making Syria similar to Jordan in its relationship with uber-wealthy Saudi Arabia), but he rebuffed them at every attempt. They've now been working diligently to see Assad overthrown.

The Middle East is turning into an interesting region with Saudi Arabia actually being anchored in the region itself and having a State oil company worth upwards of $700bn they basically can write blank checks and are interested in having influence throughout the region...at the same time you can see Iran (aside from the disparity in oil wealth Iran is a larger and more powerful country than S.A. in most respects) with its fingers all over the Middle Eastern pie.