Seems to me this might be one of them there cases of no-matter-what-Obama-does-he-will-be-wrong kind of things. Apparently recalling our diplomatic team and letting the UN deal with it is not enough for Mr. Romney. He suggest two things. Putting pressure on Russia to stop selling weapons to Syria. Um, yeah. Is Syria seriously out of rifles or something? Or somehow lacking in the number of rifles so much that is Russia stops selling them weapons they will suddenly stop shooting people? The second one is another classic. Arm the opposition. Yes, Romney suggests arming, or working with intermediaries to arm the opposition. Really? Should we really involve ourselves in another quagmire in the Middle East? Have we not (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up enough there already that we should get even more involved? Ridiculous there Mitt. How about for once we do not involve ourselves at all in the inner workings of another country? How does that sound Mitt? How about we let the UN deal with it? How about we start using diplomacy and simply freeze Assad's assets and cut diplomatic ties? In my opinion, Mitt's responses are nothing more than intentional adversity for no reason otehr than to appear different than the president. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/29/romney-slams-obama-on-syria-as-u-s-expels-diplomats/ Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said Tuesday he welcomed the decision to expel Syrian diplomats from the United States, but that President Barack Obama was weak in his handling of the troubled nation. "I welcome the expulsion of Syrian diplomats by the United States and other partner nations," Romney wrote in a statement. "But it only underscores the need for more assertive measures to end the Assad regime. President Obama's lack of leadership has resulted in a policy of paralysis that has watched Assad slaughter 10,000 individuals." Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker On Tuesday the United States, along with seven other countries, announced they were expelling Syrian diplomats after a massacre over the weekend in Houla. Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Canada joined the U.S. in the coordinated move. The U.S. State Department decided to expel the Syrian charge d'affaires, two State Department officials told CNN. Zouheir Jabbour was called to the department Tuesday morning and was told that he and his family have 72 hours to leave. He has been the top Syrian envoy in the United States since the ambassador, Imad Moustapha, was called back to Syria in October in a response move after the United States said it was pulling its ambassador out of Syria. Romney has said in the past that Obama, along with his national security team, are weak in dealing with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In his statement Tuesday, Romney said the U.S. should put pressure on Russia to stop dealing weapons to the Syrian government. "We should increase pressure on Russia to cease selling arms to the Syrian government and to end its obstruction at the United Nations," Romney wrote. "And we should work with partners to arm the opposition so they can defend themselves." In the White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Jay Carney said arming the Syrian opposition could lead to more trouble. "The concern is that further militarization of the situation in Syria could lead to greater chaos, could make it harder to achieve the political transition that the Syrian people deserve," Carney said. "The nature and shape of and membership of the opposition is still something that we and our partners are assessing and that is another consideration that has to be acknowledged when efforts like that are undertaken." Romney said over the weekend that the United States needed to take on a bigger role in Syria, writing the killings in Houla signaled it was time for intervention. "The Assad regime's massacre of civilians in Haoula-many of them young children-is horrific," Romney wrote in a statement Sunday. "After nearly a year and a half of slaughter, it is far past time for the United States to begin to lead and put an end to the Assad regime."
Republicans are going to be for intervening in Syria so long as Obama is against it. The second that he actually does something they are going to become the biggest doves in history.
Imam Obama is always. ALWAYS on the wrong side. And he'll be on the wrong side here too. McRino is on the wrong side but he'd darned near senile himself. It's too late for Syria. It's too late for the middle east. If we can just now contain them we'll be doing good except for those nuclear weapons.
Romney's line of reasoning is kind of silly anyway, if in fact, we're funneling arms to the rebels. We can't demand Russia to stop aiding Assad if we're aiding the opposing side.
Hillary givin' `em what for... Russia contributing to potential Syria civil war - US 31 May 2012 - Hillary Clinton: "The Syrians are not going to listen to us. They will listen maybe to the Russians, so we have to keep pushing them"
I don't get Romneys Foreign Policy *expertise* ... he draft-dodged the Viet Nam War to go to France ... the country that essentially got us into the Viet Nam War ...
Mitt is completely off-base if he thinks that Putin's going to listen to any of our "demands". He will do what he feels like doing. He's a strong man in Russia, a "Koba", and if we attempt to force his hand he will do the opposite. He knows we're not going to war with Russia and will just go about his business like Mitt never said anything to him at all. Putin took a country on its knees, a country that had forgotten it's own soul, a country run by gangsters and now you can't drive anywhere in Moscow where there aren't Tesla's speeding by and men wearing Gucci. He's not going to listen to threats from Romney.
CIA Steering Arms To Syrian Opposition... CIA said to aid in steering arms to Syrian opposition June 21, 2012 - CIA officers are helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters will receive automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and antitank weapons being funneled across the Turkish border, according to The New York Times.
Maybe they're just funneling those arms we gave them back over to the Syrians in a multi-decade gun walking...
Marshal started a thread on it in the Latest World News section. The U.S. and several other countries (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar) have been working out an arms arrangement for the rebels. Quite frankly, it seems that a lot of the neighboring countries want to see Assad gone.
