Cory Booker Walks Back Opposition To Military Intervention In Syria
After making an impassioned case earlier this week against another war, the senate candidate defers to Obama’s judgement. “I expect that the president will clearly delineate what the strategic objectives are,” says Booker. posted on August 31, 2013 at 8:05pm EDT
LONG BRANCH, N.J. — On Wednesday, Cory Booker’s position on military intervention in Syria was clear: He opposed it.
In an interview on HuffPost Live, Booker said that he was “profoundly war weary”; that the United States “should not be going to war” or “unleashing missiles”; and that he disagreed with President Obama, his biggest booster, on whether the use of chemical weapons automatically requires a military response.
“I’m not drawing the red line that I know the Obama administration did,” he said.
Booker, the Newark mayor and frontrunner to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate this October, is already a Democratic Party star. And he emerged that day, somewhat unexpectedly, as one of the party’s biggest names resisting action in Syria — just as Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were readying an aggressive case to do the opposite.
But by Friday, as the White House made a public push for a strike on Syria, Booker softened his anti-war language and emphasized that, as a candidate, he does not have access to the intelligence briefings offered to sitting members of Congress.
By Saturday morning, after the administration declassified information about the gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people last Wednesday, Booker said his “default position [was] peace and non-violence always,” but suggested that he’d wait to see “what the president decides.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/cory-booker-walks-back-opposition-to-military-intervention-i
Wow-rubber stamp time…Cory, Cory, Cory.
This not time for a quick response. Everyone is waiting to get more information on the use of international illegal Gas weapons !!!
McCain says a vote against would be catastrophic….sounds like he has the bipartisan support he needs outside of a few crackpots.
sorry but McCain is one of the “crackpots” and btw does that include all the Democrats that oppose?
The Al-Assad Government NOT Responsible for Chemical Attack – AP Reporter Confirms
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State announced last week that the US intelligence community had “high confidence” data to support the US “assumption” that the Assad government was behind the chemical attacks two weeks ago. Reminiscent of Colin Powel speaking in front of the UN Security Council in 2002/2003 stating that “The US intelligence community has high confidence that Saddam possesses WMD,” Kerry’s statements to the world’s media last week again shows that the US Intelligence community is again playing games on the world stage by making false claims that will only produce a war that no country can afford to fight.
It was a former Iraqi Nuclear scientist, Khidir Hamza, that supplied the information for the invasion of Iraq but he knew nothing about Iraq’s WMD capabilities and he later admitted that he had lied just for the money – it was only Hamza’s “intel” that Powell used in his presentations to the UN Security Council and it was his “intel” that was used by the US and the UK to go to war in Iraq. Neither the US nor the UK verified his information – they just went ahead and invaded Iraq – and they didn’t even verify Hamza’s intel or Hamza himself !!! What does that say?????
So the big question that you have to ask is why would Assad launch multiple chemical weapons on his own people? He would have known that the international community would come down on him – I believe that he is a lot smarter than people give him credit for. We know that he is a supporter of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon but do people understand why he supports Iran??? Do people actually know that Iran has suffered more deaths and illnesses from WMD than any other country outside of Japan? During the Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam launched full scale chemical attacks against Iranian front line troops, the US and the UK stopped the UN from bringing Saddam to trial over his actions – it was only when chemical weapons were launched against the Kurds in the early 1990’s that both countries criticized Saddam.
But if we look at the people who supplied Iraq with the capabilities to build and launch WMDs during the war with Iran, you will see that France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK and the US all provided Saddam with the materials and the launching capabilities because they wanted Iran whipped so hard that it would take decades for the Islamic state to recover. But that ended up not being the case because nobody claimed victory from that war. The WMD attacks by Saddam resulted in most Mideast nations supporting Iran and hating Iraq – which they saw as being a puppet of the West. It was during these years that strong ties were formed between Syria and Iran.
Now today in Syria, what has emerged is the fact that it was a Saudi Prince, Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan that actually supplied the rebels with the chemical weapons, through a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha that were used in the attacks in the suburbs of Damascus. The report was issued by Dale Gavlak, who has reported for the AP, BBC and NPR.
Bandar was US-educated and has strong connections to the CIA who view him as a very important ally in the war against terror. In the words of some of his Saudi intelligence colleagues “the CIA love him!!!!”
Bandar delivered the weapons to the rebel groups that are vehemently opposed to Assad without any notification that they were in fact chemical weapons and without any handing or firing instructions – hence the fact that dozens of rebels were killed in a tunnel where they were storing the weapons.
It has also been reported that the Saudis have been paying the rebel leaders huge salaries and they are known to despise Al-Assad.
The father of a rebel who was killed in what’s now being called an accident by many in Ghouta and Damascus said: “My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim. The father said at least 12 rebels including his son were killed by the chemical weapons.
So what have we learned about this – the US intelligence community cannot be trusted. The Saudis, much like on 9/11 are playing a very dangerous game which even though they have been caught cheating at, will go unpunished and lastly, that we can’t believe the global mainstream media outlets because again, they are dancing to the theme of war that will only result in total all-out war in the Mid-East that will involved all nations not only the UK, France, and the US but also Russia and China who are sure to come to the defense of Syria.
I am not a supporter of Assad – but I don’t believe that the world should be thrown into a war that will result in no winners but lots of losers. I also don’t want innocent soldiers from the US, the UK or France been led to their deaths based on assumptions and lies.
AP reporter confirms
Does the AP have any remaining credibility?
Don’t you worry #4, their all falling into line.