Time to focus on Syria

For the last month, Obama and the Obamacrats have tried to stay as far as possible from events in Syria. If Obama "led from behind" in Libya, he has been trying to lead from another planet when it comes to Syria. The US bombed Libya when Gaddafi was using jets to bomb his own people into submission. President Obama made clear that the USA would not wait for the slaughter before acting to help save the Libyan people. For the past month, the apologists have made clear that the situation in Syria was different. First, they said, the army had not been unleashed on the people who were protesting. Then, when the Syrian army had snipers killing those in the marches, we were told that the level of violence was on a different scale than was the case in Libya. When the Syrian army deployed tanks into various cities and ratcheted up the level of killing, we were told again that the level of violence in Libya was much worse. Now comes word that the Syrian army is carrying out random shelling of Homs and other nearby cities. According to reports, there are no specific targets; government forces are just shelling the population to terrorize them into full submission. In other words, the level of killing in Syria is now just as high, as haphazard, as criminal and as horrifying as it was in Libya before the US took action.

So the question becomes inevitable. What is US policy? As of now, president Obama has chosen not to tell the American people whether or not he plans to do anything. He is too busy basking in the afterglow from the bin Laden killing. Unfortunately, that does not solve anything in Syria.

The fall of Assad in Syria would end Iranian influence in a Sunni majority country. It would isolate Hezbollah so that there would no longer be a conduit for arms to that terrorist group. It would close the entry into Iraq for those who want to attack US forces or Iraqi government troops. It would be another staggering blow to worldwide terrorism. Mr. president, perhaps you could share with the American people what you think we should do, if anything. The stakes are too high to ignore this.

Do not get me wrong. I am not calling for American intervention. That may be called for, but I think we need to hear first from the president to understand what our national strategy will be. I am just saying that the doubletalk put out there until now has to end. We need a straight explanation from Obama as to what the US position is with regard to Syria, Assad and his murderous thugs.