Obama, Syria, Chemical Weapons and Simple Logic

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has passed by 10-7 the draft resolution giving President Obama limited authority to use military intervention, but not American ground troops, to limit and degrade the capability of the al-Assad regime to use chemical weapons against Syrians. The authority is limited in time unless renewed. And even this watered down authorization is criticized because many members of Congress and most Americans - as well as a great majority of Europeans and some world leaders - oppose any military intervention in the Syrian civil war. ~~~~~ Let's review which world leaders are opposing military intervention. (1). Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes any intervention as dangerous and meddling. According to the New York Times, from 2000 to 2010 Russia sold $1.5 billion worth of arms to Syria, making al-Assad Moscow’s seventh-largest client. During the current Syrian civil war, Russia threatened to veto any sanctions against the Syrian government, and continued to supply arms to the regime. Putin has consistently opposed any foreign intervention. On June 1, 2012, in Paris, while French President Hollande was calling for al-Assad to step down, Putin echoed the argument of the al-Assad regime that anti-regime "militants" were responsible for much of the bloodshed, rather than the shelling by Syrian forces and the civilian killings attributed to al-Assad. Why should we believe Vladimir Putin? (2). China is opposed to any military intervention in Syria. China has systematically suppressed political opposition leaders, jailing them, removing them from political positions, and even charging a renowned artist with tax evasion and placing him under house arrest as a way of silencing him. China controls access to tbe internet, preventing Chinese citizens from unfettered access to it. China has gulag-like prisons where politically incorrect Chinese are held in forced-work conditions. China is engaged in crimes against humanity in its decimation of the Tibetan people and their Dalai Lama-led Buddhist religion. Why should we believe China? ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is not comfortable to watch the spectacle of an American President who is generally indecisive in foreign affairs matters, who has ignored Congress, disdaining to include them in his policy decisions until now when he needs them to provide legitimacy for his desire to stop chemical attacks on Syrian civilians - he needs them because he has not bothered to form the international relationships that would have made achieving his goal much more likely. But, if we consider that the horrendous use of mustard gas during the First World War by Germany, and very late in the war by Britain using confiscated German stocks, led to the international Geneva Protocol of 1925 that prohibited the use of poison gases, including mustard gas, during warfare, known as chemical warfare, and if we consider that this kind of warfare was also prohibited by the later Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which also prohibits the development production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons. And, if we consider that chemical weapons have been employed in virtually every type of conflict, including interstate wars (Iran-Iraq), civil wars (Yemen), terrorist attacks (Japan), and by individuals (US). If we consider that rather than violating a rarely crossed "red line," Syrian gas reflects a fatal pattern. BUT, if we consider that the number of states possessing chemical weapons and the size of their stockpiles is diminishing because, unlike the toothless Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, there is a strong organization dedicated to the pursuit of universal chemical disarmament : the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW - located in The Hague). OPCW's 189 member-states agree not to use, stockpile, manufacture, or distribute chemical weapons and to open themselves to inspections. The results are astonishing: the OPCW has verified the destruction of 80% of the world's known stockpiles of chemical weapons, with programs underway to eliminate almost 100% of chemical weapons stockpiles. Only Syria, Egypt, North Korea, Angola and South Sudan are not signatories to the treaty. ~~~~~ Why do we need to know this now? Because President Obama has, as usual, picked the wrong argument. It is certainly necessary to eliminate al-Assad's chemical weapons stockpiles. But, a warning "shot across the bow," as Obama calls his proposal, will not accomplish that. Only the elimination of the al-Assad regime will make that possible. So, President Obama has led Congress, the American people and the world down a garden path. Shots across the bow would be a fireworks display meant to put a star in Obama's crown. Either we accept John McCain's correct evaluation and become involved in a "no-boots-on-the-ground" policy to oust the al-Assad regime --- or we stay home, watch al-Assad's next atrocity on CNN and elect a Congress that will step up to the position of world leadership that America finds itself in, whether its people like it or not. If not we?...don't even ask "who"...there is nobody out there. Nobody.