Every American MUST see this testimony RE: Syria.

[Genghis_Sean]

Last edited Sun Sep 8, 2013, 12:54 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/07/samantha-powers-case-for-striking-syria


Unfortunately, I fear most of America is too lazy, apathetic, or engaged in the Miley Cyrus fiasco to be bothered to watch more than half of this, but I think it's exactly what's been missing from the Syria debate: a nuanced, point-by-point analysis of the risks vs. rewards of action vs. inaction. I don't think anyone should be allowed to even have an opinion until they've heard her speak. Please give her at least ten minutes so that you're opinion is an informed one.

Edit: Odd. On my screen the link was visible, but it wasn't appearing. Let's try this.

[leftstreet]

1. Who are you talking about?

[Little Star]

2. Did you forget the link?

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Welcome to DU!

We need a link to said testimony in order to be able to comment on your Original Post (OP).

[pinboy3niner]

5. What's the frequency, Kenneth?

[Logical]

6. A link? A name? A hint? Anything??? n-t

[leftstreet]

11. If you weren't a 'lazy apathetic American,' you'd wouldn't need links

[David__77]

7. This post is brilliant. Thank you.

...

[PearliePoo2]

8. "so that you're opinion is an informed one."

Too rich...
BTW...there's no "there" there...

[postulater]

9. I don't have an opinion on whatever it is she is not

Speaking about.

Even after I have not heard it!

[Junkdrawer]

13. LOL

[99Forever]

10. You provided no link or testimony.

And just so you are aware, I'd venture to guess that most people on this forum are at least as "informed" as you are and likely more so. What I personally "know" about "the Miley Cyrus fiasco" was force fed to me and I had not even one bit of passing interest in it. Careful swinging that broad brush.

[L0oniX]

12. Fascinating. I just watched "The Amazing Invisible Video Man" on Netflix. n/t

[Igel]

14. Ah, Powers.

The scholar who condemned every genocide. Except the one that was happening in South Sudan--until it was a political issue. Then she discovered what had been happening for years. As though it just began.

Choices have consequences. But only good ones, if they're her choices; only bad ones, if they're choices she disagrees with. Not that she discounts the bad consequences--like the S. Sudan genocide, she's simply unable to see them. You can't discount what you don't see.

Lots of choices led to the use of chemical weapons in al-Ghouta a couple of weeks ago. Some by Assad. Some by the rebels. Some by Obama. Some by Russia. Only other's bad choices matter. Not doing nothing to oust Assad early on wasn't a bad choice; it's missing from her dataset. Doing things to assist the rebels wasn't a bad choice; it was a good choice, and that it's led to 100k dead (if the estimates are right) and a large(ish?) contingent of jihadis on "our side" are consequences missing from her dataset.

Partial data = wacked conclusions.

Take her conclusion that chemical weapons are the most heinous kind of warfare. Now, try to use chemical weapons like the US used nuclear weapons in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Suddenly dropping A-bombs is, by Powers' own words, less heinous. She's doing advocacy reasoning. She knows what her point is and instead of logic and scholarship she's using rhetoric. They're not the same, and any attempt to conflate the two is foolishness. Or she's a dolt. Lots of professors rise to positions of prominence not because of their great acumen but because they say what people want to hear.

Apart from the tearjerking and "everybody agrees" and "something must be done" arguments, she also misses connections. The first is to show that the commander of some forces up north are connected by a functioning chain of command to the guy who ordered that the chemical weapons be used in Damascus. Otherwise it's just "let's do something--doing nothing is a bad choice." Otherwise you have a rogue commander, and hitting Assad where it hurts will create *more* rogue commanders by weakening the power structure. Unless we hit the chemical weapons stockpiles--then, of course, any deaths are still Assad's fault for having the weapons that are illegal in international law ... if you signed the treaty. Syria didn't. But since a sovereign country failed to do what Powers wants, we should bomb it.

[cali]

15. I watched Power make her shitty case for war the other day.

She can fuck off with her war mongering.