Good Luck To Our Bargaining Chips In Syria

The NY Times notes a major reason the deployment of US Special Forces to Syria was announced yesterday:

The move was meant to bolster diplomatic efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Friday reached an agreement in Vienna with countries with opposing stakes to explore “a nationwide cease-fire” and ask the United Nations to oversee the revision of the Syrian Constitution and then new elections. The accord represented the first time all the major outside participants had agreed on the start of a political process to bring the war to an end.

I have no doubt the US felt obliged to show our friends and foes that we were still a player in Syria. The irony of John "Army of Ghengis Khan" Kerry being the Secretary of State backing this is inescapable. Obviously Obama is reacting with no real plan and no real commitment. My goodness - just three weeks ago Putin's commitment of Russian resources was described by Obama as a sign of weakness, so what is Obama's troop deployment today? And just as with the "plan" to train and equip rebels outside of Syria, if this latest scheme doesn't work Obama will be the first to disavow it.

We know the Times reporters will hit Kerry with this - how do you ask a man to be the first man to die for a mistake?

AND WHILE WE ARE HERE: The antiwar movement was much more about changing parties than changing policies. Now that we have that charming Nobel Prize Laureate in the White House the antiwar people can sit at home and stick pins in their Dick Cheney dolls. Hillary is OK with the current new deployment and Bernie is not pounding the table against it; I guess the pollsters and focus groupers need a day or two to help them figure out what they think.

And yes, it was too much to hope that Hillary would describe Obama's latest as politically motivated "mumbo-jumbo".

Comments

[sbw]

Try again ... Zeroth!

[sbw]

[OT Already] Watching the World Series, it came to mind that when they do the docufiction of Pete Rose’s life, it is a perfect role for Danny Devito.

[henry]

Does horsehead show up for comic relief in those talks?

[GMax]

Wait for it. Any day now, there will be a Code Stink lead million manpersonhood march complete with preprinted International Answer/World Cant Wait signs...

[GMax]

Almost forgot. Plenty of Free Mumia posters ( preprinted natch ) as well...

[Rick Ballard]

Happy Birthday, Pagar!

[Jeff Dobbs]

And giant puppets, Gmax. Can't have an anti-war protest without giant puppets.

[Rick Ballard]

Wretchard is excellent again today.

[Jack is Back!]

Man, has Chelse hit the skids this year. Worst start ever for a defending champion of the BPL. Lose today 3-1 to Liverpool.

BTW, anyone who wants to see the two best Rugby teams in the world slug it out - New Zealand v. Australia for the World Cup championship is on NBC at 12:30pm today from Twickenham, London, the home of rugby.

I am going with the All Blacks by 12 pts. Last time they met back in August they won by close to 30pts. Domineering stuff.

[Janet]

from the Wretchard link -"That’s for the president to know and for everyone else to guess. As David Burge (Iowahawk) wrote in regard to the president’s new announcements “the most exciting thing about going into war in Syria is solving the mystery of what side we’re on.”

Happy Birthday, Pagar!!! Lots of love to you!!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The Week in Pictures; Scary Halloween Edition

[Jack is Back!]

Iggy,

Bad link. Goes to a blank JOM screen. At least on my 'puter.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The Week in Pictures; Scary Halloween Edition. Or is it?
Click to find out.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Part of a comment at Wretchard's;

He [Obama] reminds me of John Cleese's Basil Fawlty caricature; the man who simply did not have the talent or the personality for the job of hotel manager, who couldn't admit the tiniest mistake when he made one, who held anyone who disagreed with him in contempt, and who attempted to sweep under and weasle his way out of every one of those tiny mistakes until the situation magnified and reality would call him on it. But it is the media that is supposed to present him with that reality and this wont end until the media is disgraced also. Lets hope this week was a turning point-there is that word again.

[narciso]

They have jumped the gun with the trump bashing in that selection.

They had Fox and Lloyd reprise their roles on the Kimmel show with the obligatory buff/ trump riff.

[narciso]

We have gone down an alternate 2015, though, Alex keaton would have noticed. The location of the airliner crash and recent events, suggest something other than mechanical error

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The tawdriness of Hillary Clinton

[Rocco]

Does this make Ambassador Stevens the first casualty of the Syrian War?

[rse]

HB pagar.

Thanks for the link anonamom. Forwarded it to red to send to the biochem exemplar who is at a college up sbw's way with a name reminiscent of toothpaste.

MM-that February link on the previous thread on Inviting Jihad by Criticizing Islam reinforced something I have been working on this morning out of UNESCO.

My reaction to what I was reading from a meeting this summer was that it was one way and an invitation for the invasion we are seeing. Then I got to the end after recognizing all the related ed initiatives and saw the backgrounds of the speakers and 'experts' at the meeting.

After concluding I was on the money, that this is about the West unilaterally disarming mentally and throwing open its coffers until all is gone, I took a break. Came to JOM and saw that link. It was quite clear from bo's statements that he and Jeh are getting there talking points from unesco in addition to cair.

I am thinking my mental break now will have to be the grocery store.

[Pagar a bacon, ham and sausage supporter]

Thanks to all.
JlB, I am still looking.

[Skoot]

It does in my book, Rocco.

From: Cheryl Mills
To: H
...Alternatively, you can email me at my work email: millscd@state.gov.
As a reminder, government email is maintained as federal records.

Obstruction much? "No, we wasn't tryin' to hide nuttin, your honor."

[clarice]

Rick, he is--can't decide who I adore more--Wretchard or Iowahawk.

[Stephanie]

Happy birthday, pagar!

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Happy Birthday, dear pagar! Make it a good one.

...and here's to St. PUK who knew the power of laughter.

[Jane]

It's so easy to miss PUK.

[Man Tran]

Glasater and Caro,

After many moons, I finally signed up for Netflix so we could watch Longmire. About two minutes in on our HDR tv, I guessed that the cinematography had to be done with Jennard's RED cameras. Sure nuff (LUN), and they are using some new tools for post production that apparently work well with the expanded capacity of the medium.

The techies doing the tweaking are really exploring the corners of the envelope. Reminds me of seeing a remastered print of Citizen Kane at the Ohio Theater about thirty years ago that looked like it was done by Ansel Adams.

[Cecil Turner]

The location of the airliner crash and recent events, suggest something other than mechanical error

And ISIS is claiming responsibility.

Still, if reports of it being at cruising altitude and the pilot reporting engine trouble are correct, it seems unlikely to be a shoot-down (unless ISIS has more advanced systems than they're given credit for, and even then you'd expect a different report from the pilot).

[clarice]

Am I the only one who ever flew Aeroflot? It was appallinghttp://www.jacdec.de/airline-safety-ranking-2015/

I take it this is a newer version.

And it was an air bus--they have dreadful safety records IIRC

[Jack is Back!]

New Zealand playing their brand of "total Rugby" and no one can even come close. Really is amazing how domineering they can be. 50-3 in test matches since their last world championship 4 years ago. Even the Pats can't beat that.

Hard men playing other hard men at full speed and contact. Love it.

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

JiB @ 1:12 - no trigger warning?

[narciso]

So why would they use such of a service to go to sharm al sheikh

[caro]

ManTran, great and discerning eye on the cinematography.

I have been playing around with Hipstamatic on my iPhone. It is a camera app with many lenses and types of film to play with. Fun.

Happy, happy birthday, Pagar.

[narciso]

There was a recent Michael dobbs novel that presented just a scenario with An unexploded missile.

[glasater]

Man Tran-

Thanks for that article re MTI and Red camera.

When I grow up... :-) I would love to play with all that 'stuff'!

And for Caro, we just had a terrific seminar using iPhone camera(s) and lenses from a fellow who really knows his stuff. Other than shooting with a really long lens the iPhone is truly the way to go.

[clarice]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/31/hillary-clinton-warned-not-blame-benghazi-youtube-video/

[Aya Toljah]

This 50-person deployment is just a head-fake to distract from Obama's latest scheduled Unconditional Surrender in Vienna to the Supreme Leader.