A letter from Congress about Syria

I wrote to my Representative in Congress telling him NOT to support an attack on Syria. Here is the response I received:

August 28, 2013

Dear Saint Howard:

Thank you for contacting me about recent developments in Syria. I appreciate you sharing your views on this important issue.

The popular-uprising-turned-armed-rebellion in Syria is in its third year, and seems poised to continue, with the government and an array of militias locked in a bloody struggle of attrition. The Obama Administration has signaled a pending expansion of U.S. civilian and military assistance to the opposition in the wake of the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that President Bashar al Asad's forces used chemical weapons recent attacks. U.S. officials and many analysts have asserted that President Asad and his supporters will be forced from power, but few offer specific, credible timetables for a resolution to the crisis. Further escalation in fighting or swift regime change could jeopardize the security of chemical and conventional weapons stockpiles, threaten minority groups, or lead to wider regional conflict.

After two years of unrest and violence, the central question for policy makers remains how best to bring the conflict in Syria to a close before the crisis consigns the region to one of several destructive and destabilizing scenarios. The human toll of the fighting, and the resulting political, ethnic, and sectarian polarization, all but guarantee that political, security, humanitarian, and economic challenges will outlast Asad and keep Syria on the U.S. agenda for years to come.  You can be sure I will keep your strong views in mind as I monitor developments in Syria and surrounding regions. 

Thank you for taking the time to contact me.  I appreciate having the opportunity to represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives. Please feel free to visit my website (www.house.gov/carter) or contact me with any future concerns.

[signed]

Sincerely,

John Carter

Member of Congress

JC/mh

Dear John:

I thought "Assad" was the correct spelling of the name of the President of Syria.

This is not a popular uprising; it is an attack on a sovereign nation sponsored in its entirety by the US and Israel.

What "intelligence community" concluded that there was a chemical weapons attack? The same one which said that Saddam Hussein had WMD? On what EVIDENCE do they base their conclusion? The videos?

On what authority will Obama ad-Dajjal attack Syria? If done unilaterally (i.e., without specific Congressional and UN approval), such an attack would violate both US and international law.

You better keep my views in mind, because your claims are a crock of shit.

By the way John, you are not my representative. Bill Flores is. But considering the way Texas gerrymandered its districts to screw the voters, it's difficult to tell who represents whom.