DOMESTIC SECURITY AND THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR CRISIS: An essay about American national credibility

The Obama Administration wants to convince us citizens and members of Congress that the United States will have no credibility if it does not take military action in Syria.  This attitude begs the question, “Does the United States have credibility these days?”

Consider.   The Obama Administration

1  still supports a secret gulag on the edge of Cuba.

2  still bans Habeas Corpus for terrorist cases in Cuba.

3 on the record supports killing of Americans on foreign soil with no due process of law.

4 uses drone sometimes on civilians in Afghanistan. 

5 uses the National Security Agency to peeks into emails

6 uses the NSA to catalogs all telephone calls

7 uses NSA and Central Intelligence Agency for domestic intelligence on American citizens.

8  still supports secret courts. 

The last 4 items make it appear as if the Obama Administration has the worst case of governmental paranoia since the days of Stalin . . . .


NATIONAL CREDIBILITY

How does any of this make our government credible?  I believe they do not.   Most of the American public looks the other way mostly without comment.   

We should have learned from The Great War of 1914-1918 was that chemical warfare did not work well as a military strategy against armies.  However, it kills off civilians all to well.   Obviously, international law should ban these weapons.  Obviously the Syrian regime should not have used them on people.   The big question now is – how will expanding this war stop the weapons?

How will expanding the Syrian War into a bigger and longer conflict involving the Russians and the Americans and the Iranians improve the lives of the average Syrians either in the short run or the long run?  I believe it will not.  

The Bush and Obama administrations have both utterly abused the US Army and Marines.  They have both overworked and underplayed them.    The administrations ignored the sex abuse scandals until it became too big to ignore.   They assigned huge campaigns to groups too small.   Not enough funding.   Not enough funding for veterans physical and mental health care issues.  Not enough oversight on private contractors that made fortunes off of political misery.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations and their military-industrial complexes took advantage of the political gridlock between Republicans and Democrats in Congress.  Those administrations reduced and undercut Bill of Rights as a result.  Now the administration wants to use the political gridlock of Republicans and Democrats to guilt them into authorizing a Middle Eastern War Whether Congress can bestir itself and do the right things remains for us citizens to observe.  

Most of the public have colluded with the administrations to abuse the military.  At public functions, we cheer for the troops and then think “we support our troops.”   Then we look away.  Only a small percentage of American families provide the soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen for the American military.   The rest just clap hands for soldiers before the game. 

Credibility this is not. 


THE CALL TO ACTION

Congress should stop letting administrations take advantage of it, its gridlock and the U S Constitution.

1  Vote against military adventures in Syria, no matter how noble it may look on the surface. 

2  Close the secret gulag on the edge of Cuba.

3  Restore Habeas Corpus for prisoner cases in Cuba.

4  Stop the killing of Americans on foreign soil with no due process of law.

5  Stop the uses of military drones. 

6  Curtail NSA’s peeking  into emails and cataloging all telephone calls.

7 Curtail NSA and CIA domestic spying.