Obama is holding back his authority as commander in chief by ordering a congressional review of his plan for “limited action” in Syria. Limited action, in this case is defined as such: 1) Any “combat operation” executed by the US military in Syria is limited to a term of 60 days (after sixty days, Obama can have the operation extended by an additional 30 days with congressional approval) Questions: How does the US government define a single “combat operation”? How many combat operations can be run simultaneously, yet begin on staggered dates in order to perpetuate military action? 2) The plan for limited action calls for airstrikes and warship strikes, only. Obama has stated that there will not be US troops on the ground in Syria. Questions: With Assad’s military forces relocating into densely populated urban areas, how are US forces planning to “surgically” strike the “bad guys” with cruise missiles, fighter jets and drones? There will surely be massive civilian casualties. There are 4.5 million internally displaced civilians in Syria, and over 2 million refugees who have fled to already densely packed camps in surrounding countries. millions of civilians are among the multiple militant groups in Syria. Civilians can’t simply flee into the desert and hope that someone will bring them food and water. Does the American government think that destroying the Syrian infrastructure is going to help civilians? The civilians who survive our limited attacks will likely suffer starvation without humanitarian intervention on the ground from day one of the US strikes. Given the US government’s humanitarian reasoning justifying the military plan, You’d think there would be a plan for the Syrian people. There’s a military plan justified in the name humanitarianism, but there’s not a humanitarian plan.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 07:03:59 +0000