dilloduck
Diamond Member
The fact of the matter is, AnCap is right. The ruling elites are doing things for the financial elites, the corporate elites, the military-industrial complex, and the Zionist lobby. They AREN'T doing these things for the American people. If they were, they would discuss policy out in the open. They aren't. The press is distracting us with every story you can think of under the sun. And truthfully? None of these stories are worth a damn.
This issue and the spiraling debt and crippling budget crises we're in are the two biggest political issues this nation is facing right now. How many threads do we see on this forum about either of them currently? One issue could lead us into WWIII, the other could lead to a Second Revolutionary War. But the MSM has completely distracted the average low information citizen. And now, Congress is going home till September, no closer to solving the financial/budgetary mess, and on the other hand, letting the Administration have free reign to play war in the middle east.
For Congress, its classified is new equivalent of none of your business
WASHINGTON The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reportedly gave its approval last week to an Obama administration plan to provide weapons to moderate rebels in Syria, but how individual members of the committee stood on the subject remains unknown.
There was no public debate and no public vote when one of the most contentious topics in American foreign policy was decided outside of the view of constituents, who oppose the presidents plan to aid the rebels by 54 percent to 37 percent, according to a Gallup Poll last month.
In fact, ask individual members of the committee, who represent 117 million people in 14 states, how they stood on the plan to use the CIA to funnel weapons to the rebels and they are likely to respond with the current equivalent of none of your business: Its classified.
Those were, in fact, the words Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the committee, used when asked a few days before the approval was granted to clarify her position for her constituents. She declined. Its a difficult situation, she said. And, Its classified.
The government works because of a chain of oversight, Harper said. Secrecy gets in there and it breaks those chains. So the public cant oversee Congress. Congress cant oversee the executive branch. Within executive branch agencies, oversight breaks down. Its utterly corrosive of democratic processes that we otherwise take for granted.
Refusing to state an opinion on a classified matter robs people of the chance to objectively assess whether an elected official is representing their interests.
Nobodys opinion is classified, said Aftergood. There may be specific facts or details of either military operations or intelligence sources that are properly classified, but ones opinion about current events or about preferred outcomes is absolutely not classified.
And to say that it is is disingenuous or dishonest.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/30/198097/for-congress-its-classified-is.html#storylink=cpy
Some back ground. . .
Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-to-send-4000-troops-to-aid-president-assad-forces-in-syria-8660358.html
More recent developments. . .
US Military Intervention In Syria Could Start In Jordan
For the last two years, the bloody conflict in Syria has careened toward a tipping point.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we may be there.
The timing of this is a little bit crazy:
A deputy national security advisor has announced that the White House believes the Bashar al-Assad regime used chemical weapons against the rebels in Syria.
The Pentagon has proposed a plan that would arm and train the rebels, as well as instill a limited no-fly zone over Syria.
And 4,500 U.S. forces are a stone throw away, in Jordan, conducting a training exercise with Jordanian forces.
President Obama said last year that if Syrian president Bashar al Assad used chemical weapons, it would be a red line that would precipitate direct U.S. intervention in the conflict.
That would change my calculus, Obama said. That would change my equation.
Presumably the situation in Syria now meets the criteria for U.S. military intervention.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-syria-chemicals-no-fly-2013-6#ixzz2arBMIgtO
And probably the MOST important article you can read on the topic:
Syrian Opposition Prepares Political and Military August / September Campaign
http://nsnbc.me/2013/07/07/syrian-opposition-prepares-political-and-military-august-september/
Palestinian Intelligence Source Indicates Build-Up for Military Campaign in August September 2013. An nsnbc source with close ties to the intelligence service of a Syria based Palestinian faction reports, that there are strong indications for a preparation of a renewed military campaign against Syria in August or September 2013, and that it is highly probable, that Western, Arab and Israeli Forces will be playing an active role. The current, relative calm in Syria is reportedly deceptive and tied to attempts to increase the different insurgents forces and militia´s interoperability, communication, and the attempt to build a more centralized command and liaison structure.
PKK Troops, Photo James Gordon
Iraq: Reportedly, more than 17.000, battle-hardened, well-armed PKK fighters, which have recently withdrawn from Turkey are ready to deploy to Syria from the Kurdish administrated Iraqi region near Irbil on short notice. Analysts have predicted the evolution of a Kurdish front through Iraq since peace negotiations between the Turkish administration of Prime Minister Erdogan and PKK leader Öcalan indicated that the PKK would withdraw from Turkish territory.
There are also reports about increased al-Qaeda activities in the Iraqi Syrian border region. Many of the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents are coming from Saudi-Arabia, and are crossing into Iraq along well established smuggling routes in the Anbar province.
On Saturday, border patrols from the army of Iraq eliminated four prominent al-Qaeda leaders and arrested four others, who were attempting to infiltrate into Syria through the al-Qaem area in the al-Anbar province. Four SUVs were destroyed, several car bombs were dismantled. Iraqi border patrols also uncovered a weapons cache and a workshop for car bombs in the Lazqa valley, near the Syrian border.
Jordan: Although official reports state, that no more than 700 or 1.000 U.S. troops have remained stationed in Jordan after the end of the annual, 19 nations military exercises in the Hashemite Kingdom, the actual number of U.S. troops, including special forces, is reportedly significantly higher, and may be as high as 2.500 in addition to those who remained to service the U.S.´s Partiot Missile Systems in Jordan and the remaining F-16 fighter jets, their pilots and necessary maintenance and logistics crew.
After the end of the Eager Lion exercises, U.S. President Obama stated:
Our troops will stay there, until the security situation has changes so much, that their presence is no longer needed.
^^^^^^^ It's all here