BY WILLIAM KRISTOL, WEEKLY STANDARD
The Obama administration’s Syria policy is bad enough, and this State Department press release from this morning is just pathetic:
Massacre in al-Bayda
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 4, 2013The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of al-Bayda, Syria. Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy.
We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people. As the Assad regime’s violence against innocent civilians escalates, we will not lose sight of the men, women, and children whose lives are being so brutally cut short.We call on all responsible actors in Syria to speak out against the perpetration of unlawful killings against any group, regardless of faith or ethnicity. Those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of human rights law must be held accountable.
In sum: “The United States is appalled….We extend our deepest condolences….We strongly condemn….We will not lose sight….We call on all responsible actors….Those responsible…must be held accountable.”
If the government of the United States is unwilling to do anything but present to the world the sorry spectacle of justice without a sword or justice unwilling to use the sword, surely it would be better to say nothing. If the Obama administration is, as Churchill put it in November 1936, “decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent,” then it should have the decency to keep silent rather than engage in such pitiable and contemptible posturing.
I am appalled that anyone reads what Bill Kristol writes. He is a member of the NeoCons (others are Rumsfeld and Cheney) who celebrated at a dinner party at Cheneys on the evening of the U.S. attack on Iraq, that they had been able to convince the U.S to go to war in a country that did not threatened us and on which phony information was used to convince us peons it was a good idea.
They also wanted to bring democracy to Egypt. How did that work out, Mr. Kristol?
I can just see Obama’s wonderful State Dept. coming back to the families of the victims of the first nuclear attack with their sincerest condolences. Remember, he has Israel’s back.
‘There is no separation between “church and state” in islam’
Or as Samuel P. Huntington put it, “In Islam, Caesar is god.”
@ Canadian Otter:
The split between Shia and Sunni is of an eschatological nature, otherwise both have the same goal, the universal Caliphate. There is no separation between “church and state” in islam, there are no “seculars” or “fundamentalists”. They are all following the tenets of MainStreamIslam. What varies is the degree of violence with which they defend or advance their belief system.
The Religion of Peace website has this note:
In 2007 Islam and Judaism’s holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days. Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries during this time… while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize.
Not bragging, just pointing to the fact that, just like the Nazis, the world is victimizing the most brilliant, civilized, and productive group in the whole history of mankind.
Political correctness prevents people from mentioning the fact that Islam has been from its very beginning a cult where violence is the answer to everything, from expansion of territory to settling issues of “honor”. ~~~ http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/ cites 20,799 Islamic attacks (not victims, but attacks) since September 11, 2001. That does not include wars or private acts of violence within families or between clans that do not make the news. ~~~ That’s why it is so absurd for the world to blame the dispute between Arabs and Jews as the cause of Muslim violence and terror. Violence is mandated by the koran. ~~~ Sacrificing Israel would change nothing for the better. On the contrary, without the Palestinian issue Muslims would be even more aggressively at each others’ throats. To say nothing of their ongoing war against the west that is many centuries old. Their violent nature cannot be changed. Besides, their splits between Shia and Sunni, secular and fundamentalist, plus the existence of other smaller sects guarantees that the killing will never stop.
Actually, Israel should work to tilt the balance in favor of Assad and the Alawites, but destroying any significant stocks of biological or chemical weapons which otherwise might fall into the hands of the Hezbollah in Lebanon, or Hamas in Gaza, or, worst of all, the competing gangs Islamic fanatics now contending to overthrow Assad’s regime.
But the most important reason for such a pro-Assad and pro-Alawite tilt on Israel’s part is that Russia has significant naval interests in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including a base on the Syrian coast. Such a tilt, would be the clearest of all signs that the State of Israel has no intentions of allowing itself to be treated as Washington’s permanent puppet.
In general, Israel’s permanent foreign policy should be to balance its relationships among the USA and Canada, Germany, the remainder of the Eurobloc, Russia, China, Japan and India, with close ties to Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, the pravoslavci (Eastern Orthodox) nagions in southeasgtern Europe (Serbija, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Makedonija) and possibly a couple of South American states whose policies are not influenced too strongly by internation Islam.
Always spread your bets.
Arnold Harris
Moiunt Horeb WI
With all due respect to William Kristol –
The US and Israel should stay out of the Syrian conflict. There are no pro-Western forces in the Syrian opposition.
Quite put simply, we neither want the Assad regime nor its opponents to win. A Muslim Brotherhood regime in Damascus would be a disaster for Western interests. Assad is scarcely an improvement but least the Syrian dictator is a known quantity.
What we should hope for is both sides fight each other forever and that they both lose!