Letter to the Editor: Not the time for missiles in Syria

Should the missiles fly into Syria?

Following is in my opinion "spot on" analysis of the Actions of President Obama. What the Democrat Party has done is give this Nation a real Amateur as its President in both economic and foreign affairs. The following is from a good former Air Force pal and extremely smart Democrat. I wish the leadership in the Senate had the same intelligence as my Democrat friend!!!

“From my experience with community activists/organizers President Obama is following the threaten and bluff scenario recommended in the organizers manual and designed to make opposition fade away in fear that a public opinion will side with the organizer's position. He has never understood that he is now playing in a league where the opposition doesn't give a damn about public opinion and where many, if not most, of his opposition likes neither him nor his country. He also does not understand that many of our friends and allies are there for us only as long as we are financially sound and can pay for their help in some way. President Obama does not understand that his economic policies are putting us in a position that we can't make the ante for the international policy poker game. He needs to understand that he cannot continue to draw yellow lines in loose middle eastern sands while there is a high wind and think he will be taken seriously by anyone, much less radical Islamists who hate his guts for no other reason than he is an American.”

It is obvious to many of us who have military experience that sending in missiles or U.S. fighter/bombers into Syria without a “coalition of the willing” is mission with huge unintended consequences. If this mission is launched it will go down likely as an attempt by the President to “save face” and will result in failure to end the civil war. I fear if this mission is launched it will only further inflame Muslims against the West and the United States. The window has, for timely action, has been closed for a very long time. This time it will be wise to “stand down”!

Regards,

John Stiegelmeyer

Vinton

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RS September 19, 2013, 1:33 pm Dave, So. What is your point?

dw September 19, 2013, 12:21 pm As I recall, GW went to congress, successfully, twice, before we went into Iraq.

RS September 10, 2013, 12:22 pm Dick, The facts were from the UN before the Iraq War. While the UN was working in support of military intervention, the UN had sent in WMD inspectors and their job was not completed but did not find any in the areas they inspected. Colin Powell and his infamous speech at the UN laid out why it is was necessary. We now know that the intel he had was inaccurate to say the least. Before the weapons inspectors made their final report of not finding any WMD\'s, the Bush administration goes ahead anyway and invades Iraq leading UN Secretary Kofi Annan to say on September 16, 2004 in regards to the invasion, said, \"I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN Charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.\" To say that the UN backed the invasion is simply not true. Bush squandered a lot of support from the world community by going forward without at least getting the final report from the weapons inspectors. No matter what you think about Syria, these are the facts that occurred with Iraq. If you don\'t believe, look it up.

DS September 10, 2013, 11:02 am Let\'s stop looking at 0bama and look at Syria for a second. It is night and day difference from Iraq. First we have an ongoing civil war in Syria, not so before invading Iraq. Second, Assad is an Alawite Islamist and Saddam Hussein was a Sunni Islamist jihadist type. The rebels in Syria, al Qaeda, and Muslim Brotherhood are all Sunni jihadist type. The Sunni jihadist supported Hussein and now they support the rebels in Syria. Third, the rebels are committing as much war crimes as Syrian military and are linked with al Qaeda. Any strike against Assad and the Syrian military is a benefit to rebels linked to al Qaeda. Fourth we went to Iraq with a lot of support sans the UN. We have no one supporting a strike on Syria and Putin is making more sense than our leaders both Republican and Democrat. 0bama and Boehner should be fired.

JS September 9, 2013, 1:31 pm Rosemary, Finally you have addressed the issue I raise \"Should the missiles fly?\" I say no. We can not gain any advantage with a pincushion strike as B.O. has outlined. We can only further outrage radical Islamist. Oh and I don\'t get the Yada yada - sounds like your echo.

RS September 8, 2013, 10:51 am

JW September 7, 2013, 6:17 pm

RS September 7, 2013, 9:43 am John, Yada, yada, yada. You justg don\'t get it. If you are going to quote someone s being a credible source and we are to take that word as credible it has to be attributed. If you are not going to attribute it, don\'t use it!! or don\'t expect the reader to believe it. My Tea Party friend says, \"If John can\'t take it, he should not dish it out.\" I could not have said it better myself!!!

JS September 6, 2013, 10:40 pm Rosemary Why does it matter who this person is? Do you wish to harass him and his family - because he has a different viewpoint than yours? This person is an academic he has been a Superintendent of Schools in a Northeast area and an important leader in his community-during his military career he flew an aircraft that was not forgiving to ists crew members -- That is curage -- on not shown by our leader. He has not given me permission to use his name, but has given me permission to quote him. It should be obvious to any observant on looker that this person, President Obama, who the Democrat Party gave us as our President is ill suited for the job. Who is behind the \"curtain\" - those who remember the Wizard of OZ -- is it Valerie Jarrett? The one who supposedly prevented a decision on OBL (Osma Bin Laden) for six months before the Sec Def, and Sec State made this guy act, and why during the time line in the situation room did he retreat to another room to play spades while our soldiers were in peril? Criticize me all you want, but you still have not been able to answer the basic questions of the capability of the guy you supported to be our CIC. A limp appendage is a limp appendage! To be leader of the free world one must be taken seriously. As one writer has stated the apology tour did nothing to advance our posture. And, the reset button that H. Clinton presented did nothing as well. Good grief. Where are the critical thinking skills of our citizens? Regards,

RS September 6, 2013, 10:57 am John, Because you will not attribute those comments to someone, why would we want to give them credence. It is easy make up quotes and say someone said them. For instance I could say a Republican friend of mine said, \"John Stiegelmeyer doesn\'t know what he is talking about.\" Does that make it true? Well maybe it does!!

dw September 6, 2013, 9:12 am Randy - Last I checked there were 21 countries besides the US contributing military forces in Iraq in August of 2006. As I understand the Syrian situation, there are 9 supporting countries, non of which are willing to send military forces.

JS September 5, 2013, 8:41 pm

DW September 5, 2013, 10:45 am As stated many times before, BO is simply out of his league on most issues. In a small way, I feel sorry for him. Well said John! Oh, and on WMD\'s in Iraq......what do you think it was that Sadaam used on his own people?

JW September 3, 2013, 11:34 pm I have a slightly different opinion on the situation. We have a president, whether you like him or not, whether you voted for him or not. Who was elected, in part, on the basis that the World disliked or even hated US because of what had done in the past. Our allies would not support us and would question our opinions or actions. We were told this president would be different. He\'d be open with the people. He went around the world on an apology tour to get countries to like and respect us and to say sorry for what we\'d done. Then, he draws a line in the sand on Syria. It was bold and it was defined. We now have proof that chemical weapons were used, and we\'ve done nothing. (By the way, do you think the chemical weapons may have come from Iraq across a border we did not secure at the start of the Iraq war?) For over two weeks, we\'ve sat on our hands and looked for support from our \'friends\' to back us up. Our president is acting like a school yard bully who always brings his friends to a fight. He acts tough, but get him alone and he runs home crying for his mommy. A strong president would have had his alliances made well in advance. His friends by his side ready to fight. We have no support from our allies so we do nothing while the Arab League begs us to do something. Has this action made the World like us? No. Has it made other radical leaders afraid of us? NO! Will it stop another leader from doing something like this in the future? No. If we were going to do anything, it needed to be done immediately, not weeks after, or years for that matter, with the backing of our friends or alone. If we\'re not going to do anything, don\'t act like we will.

RS September 3, 2013, 4:55 pm

RB September 3, 2013, 3:19 pm Since you are the one saying we should not enter without a coalition of the willing I was pointing out that Bush hardly had a coalition. We should not go into Syria. We should not have gone into Iraq. We are still looking for WMD and the nuke fuel rod purchase was bogus. I prefer to call it \"cherry picking the evidence. I did support Obama but felt a need to point out that the American people elected Obama not democrats, and by a large margin.

JS September 2, 2013, 10:41 pm As I have said before those that support Obama will do so no matter what! Who launched the chem weapons? No one has said specifically that Assad or his military have done so -- was it the opposition -- to get the U.S. into the deal? If in fact al Qaeda or other Muslim extremist groups have done so to draw the U.S. into this conflict then surely as as the previous written has written yes let us go slow, but that is not what this POTUS has done. The line was drawn. But we are not sure who led our Pres to draw that line! For certain the left/progressives have lambasted G.W. for invading Iraq and Afghanistan for what they have considered inadequate intel. Why then is is right to launch missiles into Syria without any real explaination by our CIC as to the goal and the end point???

RB September 2, 2013, 1:22 pm The American people elected President Obama twice not the Democratic Party. I agree and hope we learned our lessons from not buying in to the coalition of the willing we had in Iraq. We had no business being there and the current President is being wise to proceed with caution.

Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Not the time for missiles in Syria

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