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Open Letter to Rep. Susan Davis: Vote No on Syrian War!

Citizens Oversight (2013-09-04) Ray Lutz

This Page: https://copswiki.org/Common/M1380
More Info: War Profiteering

Ray Lutz
1010 Old Chase Ave
El Cajon, CA 92020

Sept 4, 2013

To: Rep. Susan Davis
2700 Adams Ave San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 280-5353

Dear Rep. Davis:

I am hoping that you will listen carefully to my concerns as one of your constituents.

The proposed attack on Syria is imminent. Fortunately, President Obama has decided to allow the U.S. Congress to vote on the matter. I am directing you to represent my position on this issue by VOTING NO. Please do not support any new war effort in this area! Let me explain why:

  1. The chemical attack is unproven. That's right, despite all the talk that there is no doubt, etc. there is still a great deal of doubt about whether this attack happened and who was behind it. Before any U.S. intervention should happen, we must know this well beyond circumstantial evidence. It should not be just beyond a reasonable doubt. We should be damn sure it happened, and know exactly who, why and how.

  2. Even if it did happen, we don't know who did it. I have heard talk that the insurgents may have been behind it. But even more troubling is the possibility that the U.S. government is behind it, either through some black-ops activity by the CIA, hired mercenaries or some other group, and this may be a "false flag operation." It would not be the first time, as almost every recent war was instigated by a situation that was contrived by our side and blamed on the other group, just to get us into the war.

  3. But let's assume that we have it right, and Assad did the chemical attack. I don't see how a drone missile attack will help matters. If everything goes well, we will take out infrastructure of the regime and hurt them a little bit. But to what end? They will be hurt and perhaps make it more difficult to operate their government and services for the people. But unless those drones hit the chemical plants, it will still be a simple matter to continue to use the chemical weapons. And in no time, they will repair their infrastructure, and the only people who are hurt are the civilians.

  4. And one of the most dire consequences that may occur in such an attack, is if the chemical plants are hit. Drones can blow up a factory or cache of such weapons, but they do not disappear into thin air. If we hit them, then that act will disperse the chemicals and kill tens or hundreds of thousands of people. The only weapons that have a chance of taking out the chemicals are bombs that burn extremely hot and can undo the chemicals that are used, or at least we hope they will. And even if we think we can use such a bomb on the plant, there is great risk that it will not work perfectly and civilian deaths will be astronomical.

  5. But let's assume we are successful in avoiding the chemical warfare caches. Assad can just release some chemicals anyway and blame it on us. Absolutely, I predict this will happen if we do this. And if you vote for it, you are voting to kill tens of thousands of Syrians one way or the other.

  6. Even if everything goes according to plan and we are absolutely right, we are worse off by doing this. We are farther from peace. Talks are not happening. Things will get only worse.

  7. Military intervention means we are willing to go all the way. That means we have to be willing to take over Syria. Unless we intend to do this, we should not engage in any partial attack.

So what SHOULD we do?

  1. The US should provide evidence of the chemical attacks to the UN; call on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the perpetrators; and refer such violations to the International Criminal Court.

  2. The Obama administration should try to work with Russia and China to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention. If the US fails in this, while acting diplomatically and transparently (without a unilateral attack), Russia and China would find themselves globally isolated on this important issue.

  3. The US should stop using countries like Syria as proxies against Iran. We should withdraw US financial and logistical support for the rebellion and call on others to do the same. This will not address Syria’s authoritarianism or resolve America’s issues with Iran, but it would stop or at least greatly reduce the large-scale killing and destruction in Syria itself.

This will allow the UN peace process to resume, this time with the US and Russia working together to restrain violence, keep Al Qaeda at bay (a shared interest), and find a longer-term pragmatic solution to Syria’s deep domestic divisions.

We need to REMOVE HEAT from this are, not add it!

It is time for the US to help stop the killing in Syria. That means abandoning the fantasy that it can or should determine who rules in the Middle East.

Please vote NO on the resolution to attack Syria.

Sincerely,

Ray Lutz
National Coordinator, Citizens Oversight

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Title Open Letter to Rep. Susan Davis: Vote No on Syrian War!
Publisher Citizens Oversight
Author Ray Lutz
Pub Date 2013-09-04
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Note War In Syria
Keywords War Profiteering
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Topic revision: r2 - 06 Sep 2013, RaymondLutz
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