Syria

CBS News Analyst Pamela Falk gave a very good explanation this morning of the difficulties the United States is facing regarding taking any kind of action against the Assad regime in Syria because of its use of chemical weapons.  She pointed out that there still are over a thousand United Nations personnel there and that any kind of an aerial attack would surely kill some innocent civilians.  Falk also said that Assad has the backing of Russia and Iran and that the forces arrayed against Assad are more and more coming under the control of Al Qaeda.

Yesterday, Former UN Ambassador John Bolton explained that when President GW Bush pursued the terrorist forces that thought they had a safe haven in Afghanistan into Iraq, after declaring war on us on 9/11/2001, he did it with the help of a coalition of over two dozen nations.  President Obama is not getting any support from any other nation to fulfill the promise he made over a year ago that he would take action against Assad if he used chemical weapons against his people. President Obama is somewhat in the same kind of a box King Herod put himself in when he promised the daughter of Herodias that he would give her anything she asked for, including half of his Kingdom, following the dance Salome performed that thrilled him.  Little did President Obama know the kind of impossible situation he would be in a year later to fulfill the promise he made when Assad would do exactly what he was warned not to do.

One of the questions I have is: Where was the same kind of revulsion being expressed when Saddam Hussein killed between 3000 and 5000 people in Kurdistan in 1988?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

I hope President Obama weighs very carefully the kind of consequences there might be if he takes action against Syria only because he feels he has to make good on a promise similar to the way Herod did when he gave Salome the head of John the Baptist to save face before a house full of dinner guests.  Assad has threatened to attack Tel Aviv as a reprisal if the United States takes action.  Who knows what might develop from that?