Posts
Putin
Wins Again As Obama Puts Attack On Hold
20
September, 2013
UPDATE
from Reuters
French draft UN security council resolution would give Syria 15 days to make complete declaration of entire chemical arms programDraft would demand immediate UN inspections of all sites based on Syria’s chemical weapons declaration
Would threaten Syria with further necessary measures in the event of failure to comply (via Reuters)
Starting
just 1 minute late, the President begab by unapologetically conjuring
images of WWI and WWII and stuck to the line that "we
know" Assad was responsible for
killing his own people with Sarin. Then moved to fear-mongery over
what Iran might do, adding that he was very much for strikes. But, in
giving Congress the hot potato he knew decision would be difficult.
The US military does not do 'pin pricks' and a "targeted"
strike will send a message to Assad. While
recognizing the need for a diplomatic solution, Obama made it clear
that those efforts would follow a military strike.
But then, after all the angry banter, he then backed down and said,
will work for peaceful solution by putting
the strike on hold and
will bring a resolution to UN. Ending
on a more aggressive note, he warned Republican and Democrat
lawmakers to rethink their opposition to the strikes should they be
needed.
Summation
of President Obama's Speech
*OBAMA
SAYS SYRIA IN MIDST OF `BRUTAL CIVIL WAR'
*OBAMA SAYS HE HAS `RESISTED CALLS FOR MILITARY ACTION'
*OBAMA SAYS USE OF CHEMCIAL WEAPONS CHANGED SITUATION IN SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS CHEMCIAL ATTACK VIOLATED `BASIC RULES' OF WORLD
*OBAMA SAYS `WE KNOW THE ASSAD REGIME' RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACK
*OBAMA SAYS DICTATORS DEPEND ON WORLD TO `LOOK THE OTHER WAY'
*OBAMA SAYS CHEMCIAL ATTACK IN SYRIA DANGER TO U.S. SECURITY
*OBAMA SAYS FAILURE TO ACT WOULD `EMBOLDEN' IRAN
*OBAMA SAYS HE HAS AUTHORITY TO ORDER MILITARY STRIKES
*OBAMA SAYS HE KNOWS ANY MILITARY ACTION WILL NOT BE POPULAR
*OBAMA SAYS HE WILL NOT PUT U.S. TROOPS INTO SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS HE WILL NOT PURSUE LONG AIR CAMPAIGN
*OBAMA SAYS MILITARY STRIKE WILL BE `TARGETED'
*OBAMA SAYS `EVEN LIMITED STRIKE' WILL SEND MESSAGE TO ASSAD
*OBAMA SAYS DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS WOULD FOLLOW MILITARY STRIKE
*OBAMA SAYS HE WOULD PREFER PEACEFUL SOLUTION
*OBAMA SAYS HE'S SEEING `ENCOURAGING SIGNS' ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS `TOO EARLY TO TELL' IF RUSSIA PROPOSAL WILL SUCCEED
*OBAMA SAYS HE'S ASKED CONGRESS TO POSTPONE VOTE ON STRIKE*OBAMA CALLS FOR PAUSE IN AUTHORIZING MILITARY STRIKES ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS WORKING ON TO BRING RESOLUTION TO UN ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS U.S. MILITARY WILL KEEP PRESSURE ON ASSAD
*OBAMA SAYS U.S. CAN ACT `WITH MODEST EFFORT AND RISK'
*OBAMA SAYS HE HAS `RESISTED CALLS FOR MILITARY ACTION'
*OBAMA SAYS USE OF CHEMCIAL WEAPONS CHANGED SITUATION IN SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS CHEMCIAL ATTACK VIOLATED `BASIC RULES' OF WORLD
*OBAMA SAYS `WE KNOW THE ASSAD REGIME' RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACK
*OBAMA SAYS DICTATORS DEPEND ON WORLD TO `LOOK THE OTHER WAY'
*OBAMA SAYS CHEMCIAL ATTACK IN SYRIA DANGER TO U.S. SECURITY
*OBAMA SAYS FAILURE TO ACT WOULD `EMBOLDEN' IRAN
*OBAMA SAYS HE HAS AUTHORITY TO ORDER MILITARY STRIKES
*OBAMA SAYS HE KNOWS ANY MILITARY ACTION WILL NOT BE POPULAR
*OBAMA SAYS HE WILL NOT PUT U.S. TROOPS INTO SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS HE WILL NOT PURSUE LONG AIR CAMPAIGN
*OBAMA SAYS MILITARY STRIKE WILL BE `TARGETED'
*OBAMA SAYS `EVEN LIMITED STRIKE' WILL SEND MESSAGE TO ASSAD
*OBAMA SAYS DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS WOULD FOLLOW MILITARY STRIKE
*OBAMA SAYS HE WOULD PREFER PEACEFUL SOLUTION
*OBAMA SAYS HE'S SEEING `ENCOURAGING SIGNS' ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS `TOO EARLY TO TELL' IF RUSSIA PROPOSAL WILL SUCCEED
*OBAMA SAYS HE'S ASKED CONGRESS TO POSTPONE VOTE ON STRIKE*OBAMA CALLS FOR PAUSE IN AUTHORIZING MILITARY STRIKES ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS WORKING ON TO BRING RESOLUTION TO UN ON SYRIA
*OBAMA SAYS U.S. MILITARY WILL KEEP PRESSURE ON ASSAD
*OBAMA SAYS U.S. CAN ACT `WITH MODEST EFFORT AND RISK'
Pre-Obama:
S&P 1680.75, 10Y 2.9625%, JPY 100.25, Gold $1365.50, WTI $107.08
Initial
reaction positive - risk-on...
Post:
S&P +2.5, 10Y +0.5bps, JPY +0.25, Gold -$5, WTI -$0.20
but
quickly that is fading back to unch - in everything but WTI Crude...
The
Obama Wordcloud sends a clear message
Full
transcript:
My
fellow Americans, tonight I want to talk to you about Syria, why it
matters and where we go from here. Over the past two years, what
began as a series of peaceful protests against the repressive regime
of Bashar al-Assad has turned into a brutal civil war. Over a hundred
thousand people have been killed. Millions have fled the country. In
that time, America has worked with allies to provide humanitarian
support, to help the moderate opposition and to shape a political
settlement.
But I
have resisted calls for military action because
we cannot resolve someone else's civil war through force,
particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The
situation profoundly changed, though, on August 21st, when Assad's
government gassed to death over a thousand people, including hundreds
of children. The
images from this massacre are sickening, men, women, children lying
in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping
for breath, a father clutching his dead children, imploring them to
get up and walk. On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome
detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons and why the
overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off limits, a
crime against humanity and a violation of the laws of war.
This
was not always the case. In World War I, American GIs were among the
many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe. In
World War II, the Nazis used gas to inflict the horror of the
Holocaust. Because these weapons can kill on a mass scale, with no
distinction between soldier and infant, the civilized world has spent
a century working to ban them. And in 1997, the United States Senate
overwhelmingly approved an international agreement prohibiting the
use of chemical weapons, now joined by 189 government that represent
98 percent of humanity.
On
August 21st, these basic rules were violated, along with our sense of
common humanity.
No
one disputes that chemical weapons were used in Syria. The world saw
thousands of videos, cellphone pictures and social media accounts
from the attack. And humanitarian organizations told stories of
hospitals packed with people who had symptoms of poison gas.
Moreover,
we know the Assad regime was responsible. In
the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad's chemical
weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area they where they
mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they
fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighborhoods
that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.
Shortly
after those rockets landed, the gas spread, and hospitals filled with
the dying and the wounded. We know senior figures in Assad's military
machine reviewed the results of the attack. And the regime increased
their shelling of the same neighborhoods in the days that followed.
We've also studied samples of blood and hair from people at the site
that tested positive for sarin.
When
dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look the
other day until those horrifying pictures fade from memory. But these
things happened.
The facts cannot be denied.
The
question now is what the United States of America and the
international community is prepared to do about it, because what
happened to those people, to those children, is not only a violation
of international law, it's also a danger to our security.
Let
me explain why. If
we fail to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using
chemical weapons.
As
the ban against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no
reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using them. Over
time our troops would again face the prospect of chemical warfare on
the battlefield, and it could be easier for terrorist organizations
to obtain these weapons and to use them to attack civilians.
If
fighting spills beyond Syria's borders, these weapons could threaten
allies like Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
And
a failure to stand against the use of chemical weapons would weaken
prohibitions against other weapons of mass destruction and embolden
Assad's ally, Iran, which must decide whether to ignore international
law by building a nuclear weapon or to take a more peaceful path.
This
is not a world we should accept. This
is what's at stake. And that is why, after careful deliberation, I
determined that it is in the national security interests of the
United States to respond to the Assad regime's use of chemical
weapons through a targeted military strike. The purpose of this
strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to
degrade his regime's ability to use them and to make clear to the
world that we will not tolerate their use. That's my judgment as
commander in chief.
But
I'm also the president of the world's oldest constitutional
democracy. So
even though I possessed the authority to order military strikes, I
believed it was right, in
the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take
this debate to Congress. I
believe our democracy is stronger when the president acts with the
support of Congress, and I believe that America acts more effectively
abroad when we stand together.
This
is especially true after a decade that put more and more war-making
power in the hands of the president,
and more and more burdens on the shoulders of our troops, while
sidelining the people's representatives from the critical decisions
about when we use force.
Now,
I know that after the terrible toll of Iraq and Afghanistan, the idea
of any military action, no matter how limited, is not going to be
popular. After
all, I've spent four and a half years working to end wars, not to
start them. Our troops are out of Iraq, our troops are coming home
from Afghanistan, and I know Americans want all of us in Washington,
especially me, to concentrate on the task of building our nation here
at home, putting people back to work, educating our kids, growing our
middle class. It's no wonder, then, that you're asking hard
questions. So let me answer some of the most important questions that
I've heard from members of Congress and that I've read in letters
that you've sent to me.
First,
many of you have asked: Won't
this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One
man wrote to me that we are still recovering from our involvement in
Iraq. A veteran put it more bluntly: This nation is sick and tired of
war.
My
answer is simple. I
will not put American boots on the ground in Syria. I
will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan. I will
not pursue a prolonged air campaign like Libya or Kosovo. This would
be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective: deterring the use
of chemical weapons and degrading Assad's capabilities.
Others
have asked whether
it's worth acting if we don't take out Assad. As
some members of Congress have said, there's no point in simply doing
a pinprick strike in Syria.
Let
me make something clear: The United States military doesn't do
pinpricks.
Even
a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation
can deliver. I don't think we should remove another dictator with
force. We learned from Iraq that doing so makes us responsible for
all that comes next. But a targeted strike can make Assad or any
other dictator think twice before using chemical weapons.
Other
questions involve the dangers of retaliation. We
don't dismiss any threats, but the Assad regime does not have the
ability to seriously threaten our military. Any other -- any other
retaliation they might seek is in line with threats that we face
every day. Neither Assad nor his allies have any interest in
escalation that would lead to his demise. And our ally Israel can
defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakable
support of the United States of America.
Many
of you have asked a broader question: Why
should we get involved at all in a place that's so complicated and
where, as one person wrote to me, those who come after Assad may be
enemies of human rights? It's
true that some of Assad's opponents are extremists. But al-Qaida will
only draw strength in a more chaotic Syria if people there see the
world doing nothing to prevent innocent civilians from being gassed
to death. The majority of the Syrian people and the Syrian opposition
we work with just want to live in peace, with dignity and freedom.
And the day after any military action, we would redouble our efforts
to achieve a political solution that strengthens those who reject the
forces of tyranny and extremism.
Finally,
many of you have asked, why
not leave this to other countries or seek solutions short of force?
As several people wrote to me, we should not be the world's
policemen.
I
agree. And I have a deeply held preference for peaceful solutions.
Over the last two years, my administration has tried diplomacy and
sanctions, warnings and negotiations, but chemical weapons were still
used by the Assad regime.
However, over the last few days, we've seen some encouraging signs, in part because of the credible threat of U.S. military action, as well as constructive talks that I had with President Putin. The Russian government has indicated a willingness to join with the international community in pushing Assad to give up his chemical weapons. The Assad regime has now admitting that it has these weapons and even said they'd join the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits their use.
It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments, but this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad's strongest allies.
I have therefore asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. I'm sending Secretary of State John Kerry to meet his Russian counterpart on Thursday, and I will continue my own discussions with President Putin.
I've spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies -- France and the United Kingdom -- and we will work together in consultation with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the U.N. Security Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.
We'll also give U.N. inspectors the opportunity to report their findings about what happened on August 21st, and we will continue to rally support from allies from Europe to the Americas, from Asia to the Middle East, who agree on the need for action.
Meanwhile, I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails. And tonight I give thanks, again, to our military and their families for their incredible strength and sacrifices.
My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security. This has meant doing more than forging international agreements; it has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world's a better place because we have borne them.
And so to my friends on the right, I ask you to reconcile your commitment to America's military might with the failure to act when a cause is so plainly just.
To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor, for sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough.
Indeed, I'd ask every member of Congress and those of you watching at home tonight to view those videos of the attack, and then ask, what kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas and we choose to look the other way?
Franklin Roosevelt once said, "Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideas and principles that we have cherished are challenged."
Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used.
America is not the world's policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong, but when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.
That's what makes America different. That's what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
However, over the last few days, we've seen some encouraging signs, in part because of the credible threat of U.S. military action, as well as constructive talks that I had with President Putin. The Russian government has indicated a willingness to join with the international community in pushing Assad to give up his chemical weapons. The Assad regime has now admitting that it has these weapons and even said they'd join the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits their use.
It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments, but this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad's strongest allies.
I have therefore asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. I'm sending Secretary of State John Kerry to meet his Russian counterpart on Thursday, and I will continue my own discussions with President Putin.
I've spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies -- France and the United Kingdom -- and we will work together in consultation with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the U.N. Security Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.
We'll also give U.N. inspectors the opportunity to report their findings about what happened on August 21st, and we will continue to rally support from allies from Europe to the Americas, from Asia to the Middle East, who agree on the need for action.
Meanwhile, I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails. And tonight I give thanks, again, to our military and their families for their incredible strength and sacrifices.
My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security. This has meant doing more than forging international agreements; it has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world's a better place because we have borne them.
And so to my friends on the right, I ask you to reconcile your commitment to America's military might with the failure to act when a cause is so plainly just.
To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor, for sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough.
Indeed, I'd ask every member of Congress and those of you watching at home tonight to view those videos of the attack, and then ask, what kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas and we choose to look the other way?
Franklin Roosevelt once said, "Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideas and principles that we have cherished are challenged."
Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used.
America is not the world's policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong, but when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.
That's what makes America different. That's what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Meanwhile...
while Tech stocks are pricing in the lack of war for the 6th straight
day, the news that the China Mobile announcement from AAPL is not
coming
may
not encourage follow-through on the BTF13YH...
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