9.07.2013

Spinning the Syrian War

Shady PR operatives, pro-Israel ties, anti-Castro money: Inside the Syrian opposition’s DC spin machine | Mondoweiss:

A nice list of "War on Syria" supporters here on the open letter to Obama to intervene in Syria.

Karl Rove and Obama on the same side of an issue?
August 27, 2013

The Honorable Barack Obama                                         
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has once again violated your red line, using chemical weapons to kill as many as 1,400 people in the suburbs of Damascus.  You have said that large-scale use of chemical weapons in Syria would implicate “core national interests,” including “making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies [and] our bases in the region.”  The world—including Iran, North Korea, and other potential aggressors who seek or possess weapons of mass of destruction—is now watching to see how you respond.

We urge you to respond decisively by imposing meaningful consequences on the Assad regime.  At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons.  It should also provide vetted moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition with the military support required to identify and strike regime units armed with chemical weapons.

Moreover, the United States and other willing nations should consider direct military strikes against the pillars of the Assad regime.  The objectives should be not only to ensure that Assad’s chemical weapons no longer threaten America, our allies in the region or the Syrian people, but also to deter or destroy the Assad regime’s airpower and other conventional military means of committing atrocities against civilian non-combatants.  At the same time, the United States should accelerate efforts to vet, train, and arm moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition, with the goal of empowering them to prevail against both the Assad regime and the growing presence of Al Qaeda-affiliated and other extremist rebel factions in the country.

Left unanswered, the Assad regime’s mounting attacks with chemical weapons will show the world that America’s red lines are only empty threats.  It is a dangerous and destabilizing message that will surely come to haunt us—one that will certainly embolden Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons capability despite your repeated warnings that doing so is unacceptable.  It is therefore time for the United States to take meaningful and decisive actions to stem the Assad regime’s relentless aggression, and help shape and influence the foundations for the post-Assad Syria that you have said is inevitable.

Sincerely,
Ammar AbdulhamidDr. Robert Kagan
Elliott AbramsLawrence F. Kaplan
Dr. Fouad AjamiJames Kirchick
Michael AllenIrina Krasovskaya
Dr. Michael AuslinDr. William Kristol
Gary BauerBernard-Henri Levy
Paul BermanDr. Robert J. Lieber
Max BootSenator Joseph I. Lieberman
Ellen BorkTod Lindberg
Ambassador L. Paul BremerMary Beth Long
Matthew R. J. BrodskyWilliam J. Luti
Dr. Eliot A. CohenDr. Thomas G. Mahnken
Senator Norm ColemanDr. Michael Makovsky
Ambassador William CourtneyAnn Marlowe
Seth CropseyClifford D. May
James S. DentonDr. Alan Mendoza
Paula A. DeSutterDavid A. Merkel
Dr. Larry DiamondDr. Joshua Muravchik
Dr. Paula J. DobrianskyAmbassador Andrew Natsios
Thomas DonnellyGovernor Tim Pawlenty
Dr. Michael DoranMartin Peretz
Mark DubowitzDanielle Pletka
Dr. Colin DueckDr. David Pollock
Dr. Nicholas EberstadtArch Puddington
Ambassador Eric S. EdelmanKarl Rove
Douglas J. FeithRandy Scheunemann
Reuel Marc GerechtDan Senor
Abe GreenwaldAmbassador John Shattuck
Christopher J. GriffinLee Smith
John P. HannahHenry D. Sokolski
Dr. Jeffrey HerfJames Traub
Peter R. HuessyAmbassador Mark D. Wallace
Dr. William InbodenMichael Weiss
Bruce Pitcairn JacksonLeon Wieseltier
Ash JainKhawla Yusuf
Dr. Kenneth JensenRobert Zarate
Allison JohnsonDr. Radwan Ziadeh
Ambassador Robert G. Joseph


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