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Kerry: Time is not right for US move against Syria
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said Thursday the violent crackdown by Bashar Assad's regime in Syria should not be tolerated, but the world must respond "in a responsible way", Associated Press reported.
| 'Responsible' is the progressive code word for not using the icky military in a situation that would tend to go against the interests of progressives, like liberating a long-suffering people... |
Kerry said there are stark differences between the situation in Syria and in Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, at the time the United States and others intervened, and that Assad has stronger air defenses. Asked about U.S. intervention, the Democrat said: "Is that the right thing to do tomorrow or the next day? I think not," he said in a nationally broadcast interview.
| Remember, he's the senior senator in foreign relations because Bumblin' Joe got kicked upstairs... |
Kerry told CBS television's "This Morning" show that Washington "can't just jump up some morning and say, 'Let's go and drop some bombs on Syrian tanks.' "
| We could, actually, no one would stop us, least of all the Syrians. Even Vlad Putin would get out of our way if he saw we were serious. But we're not. |
The senator also said he believes Russia and China gave Assad "a kind of get-out-of-jail card" when the two countries vetoed a U.N. effort to force him out.
| Mr. Kerry just had one of his twice-a-day moments... |
Kerry's Senate colleague, Republican John McCain, has called for the United States to arm the Syrian opposition forces and lead an international coalition with airstrikes against Assad's regime to end the slaughter. But that proposal has drawn little support in Congress, the Obama administration or among the Republican presidential candidates.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a separate interview that the decision by Russia and China is "costing them mightily" in terms of reputations in the international community.
"We're all outraged" by what's happening in Syria, she said. But Rice said the distinction between the situation in Syria and in Libya is that "there's not the clear-cut unified opposition (in Syria) that controls a clear piece of territory."
In an interview on MSBNC, Rice said the United States is trying "to ramp up, to the extent possible, economic pressure on President Assad."
"The best answer to this is not more arms. It's not air strikes against a very complex and capable air defense," she said, adding that "we don't think it's appropriate to put American boots on the ground."
Posted by: Steve White 2012-03-09 |
