In what portends a tough upcoming summer and perhaps far more violence than we'd like to see, today we got this from the UN Security Council:
Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that backed an Arab League plan to “facilitate” a political transition in Syria.
Thirteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favor today of a proposal by Western and Arab countries to end the bloodshed in Syria. Russia and China, two of the five permanent council members with veto power, blocked its passage.
Notice the language - "a proposal to end the bloodshed."
Uh huh. And how did they intend to do that given that the resolution....
The draft that was voted on by the council said there should be no “prejudging the outcome” of the political process and that “nothing in this resolution authorizes” military action, responding to Russian concern that last March’s UN authorization of all necessary measures to protect civilians was used to bring down Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.
Yeah. So we were just going to ask nicely for the Syrian government to stop slaughtering people?
Folks, the armwaving and nonsense has reached a fever pitch. Those who intend to and do kill understand exactly one form of coercion when it comes to making them stop -- more and bigger guns.
That's it. You either credibly threaten to shoot them or you actually shoot them. Nothing else does a thing other than make noise, because once you've decided you're going to use military force then that's all there is left.
As for Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton's expression of "disgust" let me point out that America has a long history of propping up and installing dictators as well. Mubarak anyone? Or how about The Shah? Russia is not the first and won't be the last to veto a resolution against a nation where they have a military presence (cough-US-cough!) and as such we have scant room to complain here.
Yes, this is a civil war. Yes, it is likely to continue, even escalate and get out of hand.
Yes, it's our (and Russia's, and China's) fault, but more ours than Russia's, as we (the United States) are the ones that turned the fine folks there into gazillionaires by refusing to develop our own energy resources despite having the ability to do so over the space of 30 years, and thus flooded a part of the world that has been unstable for more than 2,000 years with lots of money -- some of which inevitably found its way into arms.
Disgusted, yes. I'm disgusted.
But when it comes to hypocrisy nobody does it better than America in this part of the world.
