Headline: US troops on Syria border as Obama arms rebels

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Last edited Sat Jun 15, 2013, 11:55 AM - Edit history (2)

First thought?


corrected link:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3792180.ece

[DURHAM D]

1. On DU it is all Bill Clinton's fault !

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4. Hadn't run into that yet.

Kind of a stretch, isn't it?

[DURHAM D]

6. Not for some.

You know how it is...

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15. Yeah, I do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Not much of a stretch - Clinton was supporting McCain on Syria on Tuesday

Bill Clinton splits with President Obama on Syria

Bill Clinton told Sen. John McCain he agrees that President Barack Obama should act more forcefully to support anti-Assad rebels in Syria, saying the American public elects presidents and members of Congress “to see down the road” and “to win.”
...
“Some people say, ‘Okay, see what a big mess it is? Stay out!’ I think that’s a big mistake. I agree with you about this,” Clinton told McCain during an event for the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Manhattan Tuesday night. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t overcommit — like, as long as you don’t make an improvident commitment.”
...
“My view is that we shouldn’t over-learn the lessons of the past,” Clinton said. “I don’t think Syria is necessarily Iraq or Afghanistan — no one has asked us to send any soldiers in there. I think it’s more like Afghanistan was in the ’80s when they were fighting the Soviet Union … when President Reagan was in office (and) got an enormous amount of influence and gratitude by helping to topple the Soviet-backed regime and then made the error of not hanging around in Afghanistan” to try to cash in on the gains.
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If Clinton had ever blamed a lack of action because “there was a poll in the morning paper that said 80 percent of you were against it … you’d look like a total wuss,” he said. “And you would be. I don’t mean that a leader should go out of his way or her way to do the unpopular thing, I simply mean when people are telling you ‘no’ in these situations, very often what they’re doing is flashing a giant yellow light and saying, ‘For God’s sakes, be careful, tell us what you’re doing, think this through, be careful.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/bill-clinton-splits-with-obama-on-syria-92683.html

So it's not a stretch that Bill Clinton has been talking in similar terms to Obama. The question is whether Obama would pay him any attention.

[cali]

26. horseshit. no one is saying that. People are saying that Clinton should butt the fuck out.

and that he sure as shit should stop making the asshole comments about Obama being a wuss if he doesn't arm the rebels.

[premium]

2. Ruh Roe.

Is this true? Seems to be.

[loli phabay]

3. we will see those weapons again pointing at us.

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9. I hope not, but hard to escape that conclusion.

[femmocrat]

5. Oh sh*t.

But you have to admit, the headline is a bit alarmist.

[magellan]

7. Obama: "I do not foresee a scenario in which American boots on the ground in Syria..."

"...would be good for America or be good for Syria."

Wow. I'm so glad he didn't lie. The boots are on the ground in Jordan.

[840high]

8. hahaha.

[David__77]

10. The phrase "boots on the ground" is so annoying.

As if the US can escape having to pay a price by using proxy-terrorists, or merely killing people from afar. The funny thing is the the Syrian government is also not putting "boots on the ground" in many parts of Syria - it is trying to achieve its objectives through air strikes. Peas in a pod - EXCEPT, that the US has not moral right to interfere in Syria's internal war.

[magellan]

17. Yes, that annoys me too

So does the dishonesty about why we're interested in Syria. As if the use of chemical weapons is some new thing that we haven't ignored in the past (Saddam) when it suited us, and we aren't actually stoking a proxy war against Iran.

The dissembling really gets to me, though. "No boots on the ground in Syria". Sure, but they're right next door, ostensibly engaging in war games, and reports are that we'll be leaving F-16s and Patriot missile batteries behind. What else, I wonder?

US to deploy Patriot missiles, F-16 jets to bolster defense against Syrian attack, Jordan says

AMMAN, Jordan — The U.S. will send anti-missile batteries and fighter jets to Jordan at the kingdom’s request to boost defense capabilities in the face of an attack from neighboring Syria, Jordanian officials said Wednesday.

The equipment is being sent to Jordan as part of preparations for an annual joint military exercise, but the officials said some would be kept in the country amid fears that the civil war raging in Syria will spill over the border.

[NoPasaran]

11. Deranged pantsload

[flamingdem]

12. double load nt

[Erose999]

13. God dammit, not another fucking war. For fucks sakes, we're not even done with the last two yet.

[KamaAina]

14. "I don't know how World War III will be fought, but I do know how World War IV will be fought."

"With sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein

[moondust]

16. Uncle Mic needs a new market.

Old markets are drying up.

[Catherina]

18. First though- Lies and more lies.

maybe because I posted this in the LBN thread a little earlier but this was my first though

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19. Nobody else thought "wag the dog?" n/t

[railsback]

20. Why wag the dog?

Every single 'scandal' has fizzled on their own merits.

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21. Well, no, they haven't.

Can you tell me how the IRS deal was resolved? Why did Lerner take the fifth? Why did the IRS apologize in an orchestrated bit of theater where they planted a question? What did they apologize for? Was the IRS used to bully or intimidate or hinder groups that expressed dissenting political views? That would be a big deal if so. How was all that cleared up?

I'd be curious to know how the DOJ/AP+ snooping was dismissed as well.

And the NSA thing - that's been put to rest? Really? How?

I must have missed all of that. Catch me up.

[railsback]

22. Well, I suppose its up to you then

[YeahSureRight]

24. I love how those who have no skin in the game are always the first to cheer for war

So Mr President when will Sasha and Milia be joining up to fight for your policies?

For those that support the President on this....

http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces

Put your money where your mouth is or STFU!

[Bonobo]

25. First thought is that the US is almost surely giving arms to bad actors again.

And it will bite them in the ass. Again.

[cali]

27. of course it is. that's pretty much all there is to give it to.

[YeahSureRight]

28. I said to someone at work yesterday that we will be seeing another airliner crashing into

the new WTC in the next 10 years or so and they agreed and said arming the rebels was a bad idea and nothing good will come out of it.

America sure is doing a bang up job of creating new terrorists!

[BenzoDia]

29. Link is broken. But my first thought is don't send any of our guys in there.

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33. Fixed.

Don't know why original link stopped working.

[malaise]

30. First thought

Fuck No and then The Times is owned by Murdoch

[GeorgeGist]

31. Oops

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[bike man]

32. 'Twould be great if we could find a President who wasn't so eager to send people

to areas where they will be shot, maimed, killed.

Some thought a Nobel Peace Prize winner would be the one.