So, its go hard or go home
Patrick Porter weighs in; the title is longer: Hitting Assad is unwise. But if done, it should be a punch, not a slap:http://wp.me/pLP3q-iS
What your allies say - this time in Iran
As Iran has been the victim of CW, with large losses, some outsiders expected the official reaction to the allegations would be different. Instead, possibly more telling, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani appears to have his own views on the Assad regime, which was reported and quickly amended by the official news agency. So what did he say:
Quote:
The people have been the target of chemical attacks by their own government and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners......The people of Syria have seen much damage in these two years, the prisons are overflowing and they’ve converted stadiums into prisons, more than 100,000 people killed and millions displaced show the plight of Syria more than ever before.
Link:http://eaworldview.com/2013/09/iran-...er-syria/#rafs
The local news site facing criticism has the original video of the speech.
They're aren't the only thing we should be worried about...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
graphei
That's why I worry about them.
...we need to worry about all those ells in your hovercraft.
Quote:
هاورکرافت من پر مارماهى است
Sorry, I know, serious topic, but just couldn't help it:D
Intelligence - what's it good for?
In one screen:
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The US, Britain and France are in broad agreement that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an attack near Damascus last month. Syria has blamed rebels for the attack, and Russia says it has 'a good degree of confidence' that it was an 'opposition provocation' – although neither Moscow nor Damascus have publicly produced any evidence to support their claims. This is how the western countries' separate intelligence reports compare:
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/gra...red?CMP=twt_gu
A properly translated Der Spiegel story on German intelligence:http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-920123.html
A Post Mortem of previous stand-off "punishments
I'm not sure of the value add by any US strike as a supposed punishment of the Assad regime.
This Article provides a commentary on the apparent results of prior attempts to "punish" bad actors in the region.
I cannot comment on the source, but I will note that writers discussing punishment say that punishment has the following goals--deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, reparation, and retribution/revenge. I'm not sure how launching a number of TLAMs at Syria meets any of them.
What point are you trying to make?
WM, in the article you cite is the following:
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..., Shi’ite Muslim suicide bombers blew up US Marine and French barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines and 58 French paratroopers. President Ronald Reagan pulled forces out of Lebanon in February 1984. Lebanon’s civil war raged on until 1990.
So there appears to be a price for inaction, six years of civil war. The good news for us was, it was not our war.
In the case of bin Laden the limited actions we did take led to a different result for the U.S.
Quote:
Analysts and historians say “Operation Infinite Reach” was interpreted by bin Laden, who reportedly joked that the attack killed only camels and chickens, as evidence that the United States lacked the stomach for confrontation with his forces. In October 2000, the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole was hit by an al Qaeda suicide attack while it refueled at port in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 American sailors. A year later, the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington killed nearly 3,000 people.
In this case our actions were too weak to deter our enemy and we suffered for it.
So there is a fine line here. Looking back it is easy to see what worked and what didn't. Looking forward is another matter.
As for the five purposes of punishment, deterrence would be the one we are most interested in. Remember that there are two other considerations with punishment. First, deterrence works not only against the perpetrator, but it also can have an effect on others who would take a similar course of action. The second point is that there is a correlation between the time lag from the time the crime is committed and the time the punishment is administered. The longer the period between, the less it is apt to work. Perhaps that only applies with children and common criminals, but it is worth considering.