An Analyst
Dear Brave Syrians:
Nobody cares more for your sufferings than the compassionate peoples of the USA, whose President I have the honour to be. We want to help you in your hour of need by toppling the brutal short-sighted ophthalmologist dictator Assad. But I sincerely request you to do your bit to help the US, especially the Congress, in implementing this noble endeavour.
About 100,000 Syrians have died in the fighting in your country over the past two years or more. Unfortunately, most of them have been killed by conventional means such as bullets, mortars, high explosives etc.
While it is not pleasant to see limbs separated from bodies, and brains scattered all over the place, this kind of stuff happens in warfare
ever since gunpowder was used at the Battle of Crecy 1346. So I’m sorry to say that there is little shock value in reading about or seeing people dying from conventional arms.
But what has really shocked me, many Americans and other citizens in the world is the sight of 1400+ people including 400 or so children killed on 21 August 2013 in a Damascus suburb by gas. We have established this to be Sarin (nerve gas) from independent sources (Israeli and Saudi intelligence which have more clout in Syria than our CIA, whose credibility after Iraq is not all that hot). We don’t know yet for sure who’s used Sarin. All indications point to Assad though naturally he has denied using it, blaming the opposition. He would, wouldn’t he? Getting the truth from him is like extracting tooth without gas!
These 1400+ deaths are more useful than the 98,000 previous deaths because of their shock and emotional value in stirring the conscience and morality of all right thinking peoples of the world, as my Secretary of State John Kerry has so eloquently pointed out.
British did it in 1920
As you know, international law bans using chemical weapons. It’s the US’s legal and moral duty to uphold the law. This duty holds true even though our most-allied ally United Kingdom is accused, baselessly in my view, of using poison gas against Kurds in Iraq in 1920.
The accusers cite as evidence the indomitable Winston Churchill’s War Office minute of 12 May 1919: “I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. … It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachyrmatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.”
I’m sure you will agree that this is unjust defamation of the stalwart British Lion who stood alone against Hitler and saved western and world civilisation.
When Saddam used mustard gas against Halabja Kurds in March 1988, it’s not appropriate to say that he was merely following the Whitehall precedent. Nor is there any basis for the nefarious suggestion that the US under Reagan encouraged Saddam to use mustard gas against Iranian troops by supplying satellite intelligence and chemical ingredients through the CIA (Willam Casey, Director).
I’m unaware whether these bits of history or blowback against the arguments made by Tony Blair for going into Iraq in 2003– played any role in the House of Commons rejecting on 29 August 2013 PM Cameron’s proposal to join my country in bombing Damascus.
But I can assure you that the US doesn’t have any such gaseous skeletons in its war closet and has clean and sanitary hands where chemical warfare is concerned.
Use of gas in Vietnam
Any comparison of Sarin in Syria with the use by US military of Agent Orange one of the herbicides and defoliants that were part of its chemical warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971– is inaccurate.
The US always observes the rules of war when fighting. Thus, Agent Orange was used selectively and with great care to flush out insurgents who were terrorising innocent civilians. Vietnamese estimate that 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects as a result of its use are unreliable and unrealistically high.
I can assure you, dear Syrian citizens that we will not do what the UK’s Royal Air Force pioneered in Iraq: terror bombing of civilians in 1923-24. One practitioner of this art was Wing Cdr. later Air Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris. He firebombed Hamburg (24 July 1943, 29,000 dead including 8,000 children) and Dresden (February 1945, 25,000 dead) in World War II, when the PM was Churchill, who’s closely associated with some novel techniques of air war.
I take my commander-in-chief responsibilities seriously. But I’m a committed constitutionalist. That’s why, instead of behaving unilaterally, I have requested Congress to debate the issue and give me authority to launch a limited number of pinpoint strikes by Tomahawk cruise missiles.
I would love to get UN approval. But those pesky Russians who have no value for human lives or rights as their depredations in Chechnya show will use the veto to block my initiative. So that path is closed. But the Arab League on 1 September 2013, prodded by enlightened Saudi leadership, has rushed to my rescue by urging the international community to take action against the Syrian government. What better endorsement for action can I have than from Assad’s fellow Arabs? Is it not my honourable duty to implement the goal of these brave Bedouins?
I am confident Congress will give approval. After all, why would they hobble my attempts to protect US national security by curtailing presidential powers to launch military strikes anywhere anytime? US credibility is at stake.
Law doesn’t apply to US
The US has the burdensome responsibility to maintain law and order worldwide as the sole superpower. As Henry Kissinger told Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1973 (Yom Kippur War), the normal rules of international law doesn’t apply to the US. It makes its own rules. A superpower’s lot like a policeman’s is not a happy one. I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to act earlier as I dearly wanted to. But rest assured, I shall keep my word and not let you down. The Tomahawks are going to fall soon in surgical fashion against Assad’s assets.
Trust me, no civilians will be hurt nor their sleep disturbed. Following the surgical drone attacks, I am not called Surgeon General for nothing. This title means a lot to me. I won’t sully this at any cost.
And yes, if you do get killed before T (for Tomahawk) Day, please ensure it’s by gas and not by bullets. That will immeasurably strengthen my case to protect you.
Cordially,
Barack Obama
Source: Weekly Holiday
