Alexandra Mudrats/ZUMA Press/Newscom Secretary of State John Kerry has emerged—perhaps erupted is a better word—as the Obama Administration’s strongest advocate for punitive air strikes against the Assad regime. With his impassioned speech to a global audience at the State Department last Friday, Kerry pleaded for humanitarian intervention in Syria. (That, of course, was before President […]
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) both endorsed military action in Syria yesterday, but it’s unclear whether President Obama has sufficient support in Congress for a resolution authorizing such action. House and Senate hearings this week give Members of Congress an opportunity to question the Obama Administration on Syria and […]
As US President Obama continues to mull his options over a potential military intervention in Syria, Syrian state media is upping the ante, publicizing a list of “targets” that the Syrian military could target with “long-range missiles” in the event of a US-led attack. Aerial photos of the purported targets were released by state media, including strategic military positions […]
Having carelessly established a “red line” for intervening in the Syrian civil war without a clear strategy or appropriate course to protect U.S. interests, the President has now dumped the whole mess in the lap of Congress. It is appropriate for the President to consult Congress, but he has a tall order in convincing many […]
FOX News reported this morning that President Obama is “prepared to act alone” with regard to a military strike against Syria. Obama administration officials told The New York Times on Thursday, that the attack would be “limited” and that “eroding support would not deter Mr. Obama in deciding to go ahead.” Included in that “eroding support” is the […]
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the White House had “no smoking gun” linking the Assad regime directly to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week. The Times stated that the administration was already trying to downplay public intelligence presentation expectations. Administration officials said any such expectations would “not contain […]
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) is sending a letter to President Barack Obama criticizing his level of consultation with lawmakers about potential military action against Syria and demanding a clear explanation of any mission in advance of its start, The Wall Street Journal reports. Separately, 114 House lawmakers—some 97 Republicans and 17 Democrats—have signed […]
By Robert Spencer American military intervention in Syria is likely to begin this week, and one thing we know amid the general confusion is that the objective is not to oust Bashar Assad: White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday: “I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change. […]
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem vowed on Tuesday that his country will defend itself in case of any Western military strikes against it. “We have two options: either to surrender, or to defend ourselves with the means at our disposal. The second choice is the best: we will defend ourselves,” Muallem said in a televised […]
Obama’s war machine – it’s the biggest, the baddest, the bulliest in the history of America. And it appears ready to fire up even hotter. Are we about to go to war in Syria? It would certainly seem so. Not a declared war, but one of those international police actions apparently intended to punish a […]
