© 2013  by Raymond Alexander Kukkee   [caption id="attachment_2010" align="aligncenter" width="620"]             Darkening Skies               photo by phaewilk (morguefile)[/caption]

      "Clearly something must be done.  Why not try common sense?

Darkening Skies

The world is waiting with abated breath for the next indicator, any indicator at all that might reveal whether  President Barack Obama and the United States of America  will up the ante in the Syrian crisis, ratchet up the tension more with additional warships, more rocket testing, or if he will  just arbitrarily  light a  fuse,  and bomb the crap out of Syria's President Bashar al Assad and his palace out of existence and  complete the destruction of Syria regardless of proposals or solutions offered.

President Assad, for the record, emphatically denies any use of chemical warfare upon his own people and blatantly  warns "any and all retaliation" if  the USA bombs Syrian targets.  How lovely.  "Let's all save face". Let's allow the mindless to create reality that results in real people dying. More people, that would be.  With an estimated 100,000 people having already died in the Syrian destruction.   "The US should expect every action". Right.

How encouraging. A red line and another red line, taunts and promises, sticks, stones, broken bones,  and how many red lines shall we cross?  Kind of reminds you of little 10-year-old brats at recess, doesn't it, daring other little brats to cross lines scuffled with sneakers in the sand of a playground.  This, however, is decidedly not play.  It is international posturing and war-mongering, not marbles....  Let's keep that in mind.

Will the ugly dogs of war  be once more unleashed, or will the world collectively  force encourage our 'so-called-leaders'  to  use some genuine intelligence in this crisis, and call for common sense?  That would be refreshing, and  a united, positive call for action based on international law and diplomacy in this specific crisis would undoubtedly  save  thousands --but even more worrisome, perhaps even millions of lives. Potentially, WW III  can happen.  "If it can happen it invariably does"  comes to mind.

Dealing with The Syrian Crisis is no longer merely  a "Game of Credibility"

There's a lot at stake. Let's all grow up now, children,  Barack, Bashar, and Vladimir,  and recognize WW III is a possibility if stubborn leaders allow their "egos" and "saving face"  and "credibility"  issues to be more important than humanity itself.  Make no mistake about it.  We don't much care whether individual politicians and leaders "lose credibility" or are embarrassed by their mistakes and ineptitude or not  if thousands, or  millions of people will be killed in the process,  do you?   

"Did Bashar do it? Of course..well, er, Not...er...maybe..er.. 

Whether or not Bad Boy Bashar  (B.B.B.) personally approved the use of chemical weapons  is debatable;  we, the ordinary people of the world have absolutely no way of confirming which pack of lies is "more true" than the next, isn't that  a conundrum?   Having trundled  the USA into  Iraq based upon a pack of lies isn't exactly the most encouraging precedent, is it, Mr. President?  The fact is, "credibility"  of the USA and it's war machine has been a problem for quite some time, so what else is new?  Worrying about 'credibility' ?   Such offerings of "unproven proof"  are  inexcusably poor reasons to bomb a desperately poor country and perhaps start WW III today--at any stretch of the imagination.

The Boy who Called Wolf  is Choking

The "boy who called wolf" comes to mind;  now, mind you, that foolish little boy didn't have pictures of victims of chemical warfare choking on foaming saliva in their death throes  sent out in social media either, --- ugly, very ugly images indeed have been offered as "truth".  If it is truth,  it is ugly and unacceptable.  The boy didn't have unprecedented collection of data on everyone on earth either, did he....so  fine.  We agree. It is not the end of the story, but no, even IN this modern age, with the abundance of political liars, the big war industry and their  questionable agenda,  we have no way to validate those ugly and distressing pictures, so ....you guessed it, no, it is not fine--or is it?  You decide.  We don't pretend to know.

One thing is for certain; now world opinion is clearly divided and at an impasse as the US congress, politicians, public and all  point point unsure, nervous  fingers and deny President Obama a clear message. ....but what else could the President really expect?  The wolf really IS at the door.   Perhaps the boy who called wolf really  is choking. This time.

Clearly concrete action must be taken.  Why not try common sense?

Russia Demands action but not logic

Russia's Vladimir Putin is now calling for Syria to surrender their chemical weapons to international supervision . Isn't that lovely?  Why does Syria need chemical weapons at all?  Afraid of who, Iran?  Iraq?  Tiny Jordan?  It's giant ally Russia?  Why is Vladimir Putin not demanding from his "Syrian allies" -- the surrender of  Bashar al Assad, instead,  complete with any and all of his generals, henchmen, and perpetrators or opposition involved in this heinous crime against humanity?

Sorry, Vladimir, with all due respect,  but since your unbelievable veto stopped the UN approval of cooperative military intervention,  we must ask why  your great "power" is not being used --as an ally of Syria-- to simply arrest the criminals in Syria?  Why have you, as a major Syrian ally, not made any attempt to  haul them  off to an international court, and have them  tried for their inconceivably ugly actions against their own people--regardless who they are?

If Bashar al Assad and his people are  innocent of these allegations as he shouts loudly,   why has he not arrested and turned over the REAL perpetrators to international justice?   We ask our readers to think for themselves. Contradictions become apparent immediately.

Does Bashar naively "not know" who is responsible?   As the well-informed and powerful President of Syria, if he does not know who is responsible for use of Syria's weapons of mass destruction--which he is personally responsible for,  he's incompetent.  Is Bashar merely a puppet head of state?

The fact is, If  B.B.B  (Bad Boy Bashar)  does know who is responsible, he is either a) responsible himself,  an arrogant,  mindless, brutal  leader without ethics,   and/or  b)  --he is conspiring  with the guilty to protect the perpetrators  "guilty with his approval or not".   you cannot have it both ways, so which is it? Regardless, Bashar is responsible.

So, which will it be, Common Sense or WW III?

We suggest to all world "leaders" combined,  if there's ever been a time to use "common sense" and use it collectively and sincerely,   it would be now. Does anyone really believe that more chemical warfare, death and mutually-assured destruction is the final solution?

We suspect everyone wishes to be part of the greatest revolution in civilization ever;   forget  collective egos, 'credibility', and power mongering. We all wish to do what is RIGHT for a change; we want to  contribute to some common sense to solve the Syrian Crisis. --and how about now, not "later' at everyone's convenience?

Here at Incoming Bytes we hypothesize it would be inherently brilliant --and in fact, it would be genuine progress in civilization itself -- to gainfully use the power of  big political machines world-wide --and the wealth of the globe united, to precipitate a unique, diplomatic international demand for the arrest of all persons responsible for the use of chemical weapons----whoever they may be--and bring them to international justice at a representative world court.

Sadly, we do not hold our breath, for if mistakes of the past are any lesson, they appear to remain unlearned. We can, however, hope for a universal  call for common sense even if it does not materialize  for another century and  the dust settles from WW III.

Surprisingly, Russia  suddenly  proposed the  placing of  Syria's chemical weapons cache  under international supervision for eventual destruction.     Why so suddenly? To buy time?  To deceive?  Collusion?   To avoid getting found out, accounting for chemical weapons already used? Any and all of the above?   What do you think?

We laud any solution and  movement in the right direction.

Better late than never.

Is that Incoming I hear?