What about Syria?  That’s the cry you’ll start hearing in the news soon.  Likely on Fox News and a few others quietly, but it’ll come soon.  For those not in the know, in the last two months there have been over 1,000 deaths of “uprisers” in Syria at the hands of Syrian Security Forces.  Reports convey stories of tanks, snipers and shelling being used by the Syrian government against the opposition.  Human rights groups have claimed that over 25 children have died directly at the hands of the Syrian forces.  But there’s no NATO push for immediate “kinetic action”.  President Obama hasn’t launched a single strike against the country in order to slow or impede the attrocities. 

But GorT, why attack the President on the “kinetic action” in Libya and then, in essence, attack his non-action with regards to Syria?  Simply put, consistency in message and action.  If we are to take the President’s rationale for participating in the NATO action at face value, we should be able to make the same case for our involvement in Syria.  But there are some roadbumps with that.  First, the Russians have advised us to not take action in Syria as we did in Libya.  They will use their UN Security Council veto powers to block any UN sanctioned action.  Some believe that this is a pendulum-swing reaction to the Libya effort – where some feel that NATO went too far in trying to protect a sovreign nation’s citizens from brutality.  Second, Obama is in a precarious position.  His stated “plan” for Libya was to participate for “days, not weeks” in the “kinetic action”.  One might argue that launching missile-carrying drones is kinetic action.  As mentioned before, the House had two bills (with one passing) caling for the White House to explain itself per the War Powers Resolution.  “When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to actAmericans are doubting the decision and beginning to question it in the face of the killings in Syria.  Nuances of a UN veto are lost on the general public and consistency reigns.  This is only exacerbated by the lack of clear messaging coming from the White House with regards to both situations.  Third, it gets more complicated now that assertions are coming from Israel that al-Assad is paying farmers to encroach the Israeli border with Syria.

For those against the high spending of the war in Iraq, note that the cost of American action in Libya has reached $550M so far.  Are you denouncing the spending in Libya?  Those against the deaths of innocents in Iraq as a part of our action there, are you denouncing the actions in Libya?  Syria?  Some codify the Obama Doctrine as such (at least for Libya): “[W]hen our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act,” said Obama. “That’s what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.”  Again, are these values different for Syria? Yemen?  Ivory Coast?

Of course, you could don your tin foil hat and buy into the “we went into Iraq and Libya for the oil” conspiracy theories but I think it’s easier to just understand that (1) Obama’s decree that he would lead the most transparent administration is a joke – it’s not even clear what his plan is (if it exists) for Libya and (2) we will continue to experience the Obama Amateur Hour with more thrills like this.  Next up: Yemen.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.