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Obama, Syria,and Assad-The Threat of War;Here We Go Again

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By Doshon Farad
On Dec.4th, President Obama issued a warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad concerning intelligence reports of his government creating chemical weapons. The social unrest in Syria, which has been attributed to the nearly two year old Arab Spring, has garnered worldwide attention for quite some time now. Bashar's government has been accused of killing thousands of innocent civilians. This accusation has forced many Syrians to flee to other countries.

While addressing the annual Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) symposium held at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., the president made it very clear to Assad that the use of chemical weapons is "totally unacceptable". He continued by saying,

"The World is watching. If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences, and you will be held accountable."

Here's my spin on it: The part of the president's statement from his remarks yesterday that really caught my attention was when he asserted:

"We will continue to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people -- engaging with the opposition " providing them with the humanitarian aid, and working for a transition to a Syria that's free of the Assad regime."

Oh really?

This morning as I watched CNN, I listened to an "expert" who the host identified as an ex-CIA officer (his name escapes me now) said that he was "certain" that Assad would mix chemicals to kill his own people.

I say, "Here we go again!"

Am I the only one noticing a pattern here? I hope that President Obama is wise enough to learn from the errors of his predecessor. And that is, dragging us into another very costly war as a result of "confirmed" intelligence sources that claim the existence of biological weapons of mass destruction that are possibly imaginary.

President Obama's statements are the same ones that President Bush made to justify invading Iraq. And now more recently the Obama Administration is saying the same thing about Syria and Iran. These same types of claims i.e. "He's a mad man", "He's killing his own people" also resulted in the overthrow and eventual killing of Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi.

This past election, the economy was the number one concern for Americans. Can we really afford to go to war again, especially with a country that has not attacked us? If you have billions of dollars for soldiers and weapons, then surely you have it for the thousands of homeless shelters that are closing across the country.I would like to know when the U.S. government is going to stop playing the World's police officer and manage its own affairs. It's very remarkable to hear our government always cite human rights violations and lack of democracy as a pretense to go to war with those nations who don't seem to operate in collusion with its policies.

I say this because our government didn't make any attempts to militarily overthrow the South African regime during apartheid. By the time America became a military superpower in the 1940s, the South African government had been guilty of human rights violations for centuries and well into the late 1980s, right before Nelson Mandela had been freed from prison.
America has yet to cite the human rights violations against its own citizens i.e. Native Americans, African-Americans, and the poor. The amount of homelessness and poor children, mainly black, brown, and red- occupying the streets of this very wealthy nation is horrifying. Why isn't this being aggressively addressed by the Administration as a human rights violation?
It appears the only time the U.S steps in to "intervene" in another country is when there's a vested interest such as resources or a political advantage.

This is the one of the main reasons why so many people across the globe hate America. We saw this particularly when Bush Jr. went to war with Iraq and Afghanistan. How many times did we see people in other countries burning U.S. flags and hear them shouting, "Death to America!" during Bush's tenure? The hatred towards this country isn't because of our freedoms and civil liberties as many would claim. It is because of this nation's constant meddling in the affairs of others. Unfortunately most Americans are unaware of the horrific things that our country does in the name of democracy.

Mr. President, I respectfully warn you in humility to leave Syria and President Assad alone. If he is a murderous dictator the way that you allege, allow the Syrian people to overthrow him. This same advice also applies to your handling of Iran.
The invasion of these two countries would only result in more hostility towards America from our neighbors in that region.
Now for those of you who support a military offensive into Syria and say it is our responsibility to establish freedom and democracy -the usual sales pitch- throughout the World, I have a question for you: When African-Americans were being oppressed during the two centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and being brutalized by law enforcement officers during the civil rights protests, would a foreign government have been justified in invading America?

Just something to ponder.

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Doshon
Farad is a staff writer for Your Black World, Your Black Bloggers, and
The Movement Magazine. He contributes to several other publications.
He's also a broadcast journalist. He can be followed on twitter
@doshonfarad. And on Facebook
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