Operation Noble Anvil during President Clinton’s administration helped save millions from the break-up of Yugoslavia. Operation Absent Conscience during President Obama’s administration is permitting millions to die and suffer from the break-up of Syria.
In a letter Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the JCS, sent to Congress, he outlined the various options on the table the Obama Administration is considering with regard to Syria. On the list are a No Fly Zone, Buffer Zones, and an operation to secure the chemical weapons Gen. Dempsey believes will require a No-Fly Zone, in addition to US troops securing sites.
Since the involvement of US troops is President Obama’s real Red Line, the letter was an indirect message to Congress that this President is not about to relief the region from Chemical Weapons anytime soon. We would imagine this is a subject Senator McCain must have raised with the President during their 2-hours meeting last Thursday.
Furthermore, since the cost is also a matter the US taxpayers will object to, the letter mentioned that the cost of a No-Fly Zone would be around $1 Billion a month. No mention in the news story (One assumes the letter as well) whether Arab allies, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were consulted on footing the bill. Considering Iran and Hezbollah are directly involved in Syria today, we would think this is an easy question to raise by the Obama Administration.
Operation Noble Anvil was the air campaign President Clinton ordered against the Serbian Government of Milosevic to stop the genocide being committed in Kosovo. It lasted 78 days and cost NATO $5.048 Billion in total. The air campaign alone cost $1.775 Billion. That is an average of $684m a month, which makes the estimates of Gen. Dempsey unreasonable.
The Kosovo war started on Feb. 28, 1998 and lasted until June 11, 1999. The campaign launched by NATO started in March of 1999 and ended 78 days later on June 10, 1999.
The Syrian war started on March 15, 2011 and is still on going. The Absent Conscience Syrian campaign launched by Obama remains in the letter trading stage or avoiding Syria-all-together stage.
It took President Clinton one year to decide that only US interference could stop a genocide.
It has taken President Obama so far more than 2 years and 5 months and the world is still waiting for some tangible action.
During Kosovo, there were some 300,000 refugees.
In Syria today, the UN announced the Syrian refugee tragedy has reached the 1.8 million mark with about 4 million displaced Syrians.
During Kosovo, the New York Times reported that 7,000 to 9,000 civilian Albanians died at the hands of the Yugoslav army.
In Syria, we have reached 110,000 civilian and fighters combined with as many as 250,000 either jailed or disappeared.
Operation Noble Anvil lifted President Clinton to new height in his international standing at a time US Congress was investigating President Clinton.
Operation Absent Conscience is discrediting President Obama internationally at a time US Congress is investigating his administration.
So who is the smarter President? The one who uses policy to save himself or the one who uses ideology to sink himself?
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