-----Original Message-----
From: Ousman Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Aug 31, 2013 7:03 pm
Subject: Re: Obama considers military action against Syria

Haruna,

Unlike the gungho bravado displayed by some on this list, President Obama is indeed listening to the critics. Here is part of an NBC first read report:

Officials said Obama also was influenced by Thursday’s lively debate in the House of Commons, where Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote in Parliament to authorize participation in an allied strike against Syria. Cameron had been a staunch advocate of military action but was chastened in the wake of the vote. “It is clear to me that the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action,” Cameron said. “I get that, and the government will act accordingly.”

While Obama's advisers argued Friday night in private that the humiliating defeat for Cameron starkly illustrated the risks of asking for congressional input, the president responded that the vote in Parliament demonstrated exactly why he should seek a vote on this side of the Atlantic, senior officials told NBC News.

And, the president insisted, seeking legislative backing was the approach most consistent with his philosophy. While debate within the administration continued into late Friday, by Saturday morning the senior advisers acquiesced.....LINK to article

You don't have to worry to much about progressives like yourstruly. All we are asking for is an independent confirmation of evidence, a more clearly articulated end game. We reflexively dug in our heels when we sense politicians are in a rush. This time is no different. We abhor Bush's imperial presidency and are not about to let Obama lord over us without calling him out on it. Let the people's representatives debate the issue and we will live with the decision they come to. It is call democracy...try it sometime.

From: Haruna <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: [G_L] Obama considers military action against Syria

I know right Moribolong? Just don't go looking for a bridge. I got my eyes on yew. This too shall pass my friend.

Haruna.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ousman Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Aug 31, 2013 6:11 pm
Subject: Re: Obama considers military action against Syria

Kejau,

Are you calling for a full fledged military intervention in Syria or just send a message bombing campaign. The latter isn't going to get rid of Assad and the former is a non starter. What is a warrior to do?

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

From: kejau <[log in to unmask]>;
To: <[log in to unmask]>;
Subject: Re: [G_L] Obama considers military action against Syria
Sent: Sat, Aug 31, 2013 10:05:01 PM

Farang.

Apologies for the typing errors but not for my inability to forget about Egypt and the coup. That's another argument altogether though and should not distract us from the use of illegal weapon in three rebel controlled strongholds in Damascus.

Kejau

Sent from Samsung Mobile

-------- Original message --------
From: "Edrissa S. Sanyang" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [G_L] Obama considers military action against Syria

Kejau,

Please get over the Egyptian Issue. Regrettable over the loss but the constituency called 'Middle Egypt' do not want an Islamic Autocratic state. The Army cannot and will not stay more than their welcome. Peace.

Farang.

-----Original Message-----
From: kejau <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Aug 31, 2013 4:41 pm
Subject: Re: Obama considers military action against Syria

ILJD, Alieu et al.

Apologies for my late response. Many issues and concerns were raised, many of which contradictory, the main being what evidence available, right to intervene as well as why such late intervention and the consequences.

The evidence of who gased the civilians is self explanatory in my view as the area bombed was under rebel control and the manner and satellite evidence shows the government and chemical officers deployment, among other things.

The right and in fact the duty to intervene are international obligations, though governments like that of the UK may abdicated their international responsibility because of critics and their votes like you. It was in the same vein the US refused to join WW2 until Japan drag them in.

The contradiction that the US should have intervened earlier put forward by others is ridiculous as critics would have been more vehement in their criticism if the allies had taking that lead.

The absent of criticism from the allies on the Egyptian coup is regrettable and will not easily forgotten by peace loving people around the world but this action to keep the world peace.

Kejau.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

-------- Original message --------
From: Lamin Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [G_L] Obama considers military action against Syria

Interesting perspective Khaleel, and Ousman, astute as ever, has isolated your most disturbing assertion in an otherwise reasonable, if unpersuasive take. You claim that "At some point of time men and women with conviction will have to tune off the noise raised by those critics and sideliners and act on what is necessary. These acts sometimes won’t be popular or approved at first but at the end of the day that’s what separate the men from the boys". Spoken like a true member of the military! I call this the logic of raw power, the logic of guns, and the opposite makes the US the great country it is today.

Syria does not fit in that logic, and please permit me to identify some of the seminal moments in US history when the "men" and the "boys" were distinguished, indeed "separated": the Dred Scot Decision by the US Supreme Court that said a freed black slave could not claim American citizenship, and how that perverse decision was later nullified by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution. These amendments, especially the 14th, made it possible for the US-born offspring of Khaleel, and Demba Baldeh, to be recognized as American citizens even if the parents are illegal aliens; Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation freeing African slaves in America; the 1954 Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas decision overturning the perverse Plessy v Ferguson decision of 1896 in which the US Supreme Court pandered to the Southern segregationists and ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were permitted by the US Constitution; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the Kennedy/Johnson Administrations, ushered into law. These seminal moments, unpopular as they were, came about as a result of the persistence of those you denigrate as "critics and sideliners". They made America great, and made it possible for Khaleel, and Demba, from lawless Gambia, to excel in the world's leading domestic democracy.

Relying on the lo

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