Bashar Don't Like It: Rock Damascus

M2RB:  The Clash

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that craazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the Shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

“We're going to war with Syria...Obviously, Obama’s not going to want to get entangled in anything this year with the election looming. But get ready for the march to Damascus, or at least bombs over Damascus, in 2013.”

By Michael Tomasky

You need to be following this if you aren't. These new Russia developments are profoundly alarming.This is a question of when, not if, in my view.

In 1982, Assad pere massacred 20,000 of his own people in Hama. We did nothing. The main reason, I think, was the Cold War. Syria was then a Soviet ally, and in those days of very high tensions (before Gorby) you didn't go around kicking up dust that might potentially turn nuclear. An ancillary reason was that the belief that preventing slaughter was part of the advanced world's job existed only on the human-rights fringes in those days. The scales, then, were tilted about 90 percent toward "direct threat to national security" and 10 percent to "responsibility to prevent mass death."

We live in a different world. The difference can be overstated. I would not say it's now 90-10 in the other direction. Or even 50-50. But it's more like, in my estimation, about 65-35 national security to humanitarian responsibility. That's a considerable change. The development of the "responsibility to protect" doctrine in recent times may have nudged the scales a bit further.

In sum, I don't believe that we live in a world anymore where a Hama can happen and the Western powers do nothing. More than 14,000 have died in Syria so far, says the anti-government Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The difference between that and Hama is that the current slaughter is happening slowly. But one of these days, and perhaps wth the aid of Russian attack helicopters, the regime will really cut loose. And the West will have to do...something.

 

With all the usual caveats about not knowing what will come next, we'd be well rid of Assad. Hezbollah might collapse, without Syria as a conduit for arms from Iraq. Lebanon might be able to breathe free air. Iran would find itself more isolated. All depending on what comes next, of course, which is a big question, but the potential upside of a post-Assad Syria is great indeed.

I should note that Israel sees things differently, taking a devil-we-know approach, and obviously Israel's interests are going to be taken into account to some degree by any US administration. But the US has different interests here. Assad is indeed a threat to US security, albeit an indirect one, because of his alliance with Iran. Combining that with the humanitarian impulse will likely outweight Israel's concerns.

So some version of war is looking more and more inevitable to me. I'd say next year, under either Obama or Romney, something will happen. That's another thing to think about--whether you want Secretary of State John Bolton calling these shots. He'll be pushing at the same time to get Georgia into NATO, a disastrous policy that will destroy that organization, which is to say he'll be itching for war with Russia anyway so we might as well get on with it and start the new Cold War.

But I disgress. This is serious stuff. Obviously, Obama's not going to want to get entangled in anything this year with the election looming. But get ready for the march to Damascus, or at least bombs over Damascus, in 2013.

Sophie:

Michael Tomasky is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE Progressive and Obama Firster. He makes excuses for Obama for EVERYTHING.

Isn’t it interesting how Tomasky, an ardent opponent of the Iraq war, which one can conceivably argue was a national security/economic interest, is now talking about war and R2P in a country aligned with Iran & Russia where there is NO national security/economic interest? In fact, our entry could trigger a wider regional war.

Pretty ironic….and hypocritical.

I wonder what Glenn Greenwald will say? I know what he said about the hypocritical Left in this AMAZING piece:

The Despical, Hypocritical “Obama-Firsters”

Finally, before anyone starts throwing around the label "neo-con," I have to say unequivocally that I adamantly oppose the United States become involved in Syria.  Such action would violate the Mo Doctrine (Mo is a nickname):

THE MO DOCTRINE

1) The United States should only get involved in conflicts abroad where there is a direct and imminent threat to the nation and its security.

2) The United States should stay out of civil wars.

3) If war is declared upon us, CRUSH, and I mean  C-R-U-S-H, the enemy.

4) Fight to win or stay home.

5) The United States has an abysmal record of siding with despots and propping up tinpot dictators.  Know your enemy, your "ally," recognise self-determination, and MYOB.

6) Unless the United States is under attack or imminent threat of attack, the President must get Congressional approval for all actions involving military operations abroad pursuant to Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 11 and the War Powers Resolution Act.

7) When people want to  kill each other, let them.

Rock the Casbah - The Clash

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The Sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

[Chorus:]
The Shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The Shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that craazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the Shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

[Chorus:]

Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

[Chorus:]

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way

As soon as the Shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the Shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

[Chorus:]

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.