McCaskill Won’t Rule Out Putting Boots On The Ground In Syria
Source: TPM
PEMA LEVY 11:37 AM EDT, SUNDAY APRIL 28, 2013
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said Sunday that we should leave all options on the table with regard to the situation in Syria, including sending in troops.
"I don't think you want to ever rule it out," McCaskill said of putting boots on the ground in Syria on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Obviously, we don't want to do that unless it's absolutely necessary."
McCaskill cited the deteriorated situation in Syria as well as the potential involvement of Iran and Hezbollah as a reason to never say never.
Conversely, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), appearing alongside McCaskill, said he is willing to rule out sending in American troops. "I would go even beyond that, I would say no," Chambliss said, weighing in after McCaskill. "We don't need to put boots on the ground but we need to enable their neighbors, the neighbors of Syria, to bring some sort of peaceful resolution to this," he said.
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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mccaskill-wont-rule-out-putting-boots-on-ground
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You'll have to find the money FIRST, Sen. McCaskill. Since the wealthy own the companies that will benefit most from any military contracts for another war, they shouldn't have any problems with having their taxes raised to pay for it, right? 
Amnesty International: While it is clear that the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces, Amnesty International’s research points to an escalation in abuses by armed opposition groups, which have increasingly resorted to hostage taking and to the torture and summary killing of soldiers, pro-government militias and civilians.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/keep-international-pressure-against-abuses-syria-2013-03-26
We tended to see mainly the authoritarian governments, whose grip was never in doubt, even when they tolerated a controlled pluralism, cautiously independent print media, and a fragile civil society. What we undervalued were rising expectations on the demand side, which subsequently fired the 2011 upheavals, during which thousands of peaceful demonstrators gave their lives in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain.
Even in Syria and Libya—where the governments were among the region’s most brutal—human rights contestation picked up during the past decade.
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/arab-spring-unseen-thaw
Then we have the problem of Democratic presidents making speeches as if they actually cared what happens to people in other countries.FDR's 1945 inaugural speech:
We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger.
We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/fdr-fourth-inaugural/
JFK's inaugural adress in 1961:
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required ...
... a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation," a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm
Obama upon the arrival of the four bodies from the Benghazi attack
That’s the message these four patriots sent. That’s the message that each of you sends every day -- civilians, military -- to people in every corner of the world, that America is a friend, and that we care not just about our own country, not just about our own interests, but about theirs; that even as voices of suspicion and mistrust seek to divide countries and cultures from one another, the United States of America will never retreat from the world. We will never stop working for the dignity and freedom that every person deserves, whatever their creed, whatever their faith.
That’s the essence of American leadership. That’s the spirit that sets us apart from other nations. This was their work in Benghazi, and this is the work we will carry on.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/14/remarks-president-transfer-remains-ceremony-benghazi-victims
It's a tough combination. A brutal dictator, people who have had enough and a country which, sincerely or not, professes regularly to care what happens to people who work for freedom and human dignity.
