War

Prediction of the next steps to war includes Obama bypassing the House to strike Syria.

"Unless Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) makes good on his threat to filibuster, the anti-interventionist House will never get to cast a meaningful vote on the Syria strike. This is precisely what happened in the run up to the Kosovo war. Obama will simply ignore the House, just like Bill Clinton did. Of course, unforeseen variations of this scenario may come into play – e.g. a suddenly discovered Syrian "plot" to hit US assets in the region, or even in the US – but the end result is the same: the House will be bypassed."

Obama will devise a new pretext to attack regardless of any vote.

"There is something going on here, a new distance between Washington and America that the Syria debate has forced into focus. The Syria debate isn’t, really, a struggle between libertarians and neoconservatives, or left and right, or Democrats and Republicans. That’s not its shape. It looks more like a fight between the country and Washington, between the broad American public and Washington’s central governing assumptions." 

The same is true regarding NSA spying.

I like Russia's proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control. The warmongers won't. I doubt this is a real option, but it takes away Obama's rational for war.

US claims victory while expressing skepticism at the proposal.

"But he made clear the White House would not fall “into this game where the Syrians say, ‘Oh sure, we want a long-term plan to deal with the chemical weapons — which by the way, we deny that we even have’ — and then find ways to buy time and avoid the central issue.’’"
"“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Russians came forward with this idea today,’’ Gordon said. “Only it seems the threat of military force and the threat of strong U.S. action has gotten the degree of focus on this issue that has long been necessary,’’ pointing out that Russia has blocked international efforts in the past to deal with Assad’s efforts to violently put down a Syrian rebellion against his regime."

At least Russia has given Obama a way to save face.

Senate delays Syria vote because Obama doesn't have the votes to declare war.

More Americans are against war with Syria this week than last week. Our rulers' media campaign is backfiring.

Obama's case for attacking Syria was not based on US intelligence consensus as Obama led people to believe.

"Former intelligence officials told IPS that that the paper does not represent a genuine intelligence community assessment but rather one reflecting a predominantly Obama administration influence."

Imagine that.

The charade of using humanitarianism as a reason to kill people.