My Senator, Ed Markey voted Present for the Syria resolution

[Capt. Obvious]

Newly-elected Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) raised a lot of eyebrows Wednesday afternoon when he voted "present" on a resolution to authorize military strikes in Syria, a position advocated by his predecessor Secretary of State John Kerry, who testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the very same day.

“A `no’ vote would have indicated I had sufficient information on which to base the decision. Which I did not," Markey explained after the vote, as quoted by the Boston Globe.

“I want to make sure I make an informed, correct vote,” he added. “The people of Massachusetts expect their senators to have analyzed all the facts, and I want to make sure I have all the facts before I cast that vote.”

The committee ultimately passed a revised authorization for military action in Syria, including new language effectively making regime change the goal of the intervention, by a margin of 10 - 7, with Markey voting present.

I'll take it

Present best described my view up until recently - torn between my anti-war views and my loyalty oath(TM).

Fuck that. No blood on my hands even if my guy is in the White House.

[denverbill]

1. That's a bit of a cop-out, but I can't say I blame him in this case.

He was just allowing it to get out of committee and to a full floor vote. If he votes 'present' there, that would be a bit more of a cop-out.

I'm still not convinced myself. The more I read, the more I believe it was the government which did this. The question remains though, who is responsible? It almost sounds to me like a lower level officer/official might have ordered the attack, in which case are we punishing the right people? I'm still not even 100% convinced it was the government, since the rebels had better reason to launch the attack.

My feeling is that the UN should impose an immediate cease-fire, send in UN peacekeepers, do a full investigation, and charge those responsible. If Syria refuses to impose a cease-fire or allow the peacekeepers in, then go the military route.