Jason Ditz / Antiwar.com – 2013-08-26 01:01:39
US, Britain and France Agree to Attack Syria Within Two Weeks
US, Britain and France Agree to Attack Syria Within Two Weeks
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(August 25, 2013) — Discussing the matter in a 40 minute phone call on Saturday night, President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed in principle to start attacking Syria within the next two weeks. France, long calling for such a war, is also reportedly in on the idea.
British officials familiar with the situation say that they didn’t rule out seeking UN support for the war, but also don’t expect to actually get that support, and are prepared to ignore the UN and attack anyhow.
The initial attacks are expected to center almost entirely around missile strikes on “command and control” areas, from the US warships which have been moved into the area in the past few days.
Britain is said to be particularly eager to get the attacks going quickly to avoid having to deal with the prospect of parliament voting on the war, and possibly preemptively rejecting the attack. They are also hoping to keep the first strikes very limited to justify not consulting parliament ahead of time.
Limited strikes seem to be the preference of US officials as well, as many are reluctant to see Syria’s rebels actually swept into power by the attacks, even though they seem entirely comfortable to commit themselves to protracted military involvement in the nation.
The question of war debate in the US seems to be entirely beside the point, after President Obama managed to get the US into a Libyan War without even the obligatory after-the-fact Congressional authorization. The polls show the American public still opposed to war as well, but that clearly doesn’t matter to the administration.
Syria Accepts UN Inspectors, US Spurns Call as ‘Too Late’
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(August 25, 2013) — Hoping to stave off the latest Western threats to invade, the Syrian government has agreed to let UN inspectors into Jobar, the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack. The quick response has been condemned as “too late” by US officials.
The US position is flat out bizarre, as they were making much of UN inspectors arriving last week to inspect alleged attacks that happened several months prior, but are suddenly outraged at a deal that only took a few days to reach.
The reason for this split is because the inspection can only harm their case for invasion. Officials have already insisted they are convinced of Syria’s guilt, and evidence to the contrary could spoil the adventure.
That Syria was so eager to get inspectors into place suggests that the allegations against them are false, and Britain is already preparing the international community for the tests to show that by arguing that the results are probably “tampered with.”
Russia too seems to be anticipating this result, and is urging the US to “wait” on its invasion until the UN’s inspection results come in. Instead, the war plans are moving forward at a rapid pace, and any UN results will almost certainly come long after the war has started.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
