Why Aren’t We Stomping Syria’s Guts Out?

Obama couldn’t wait to bomb Libya using the flimsy excuse of “protecting civilians”. Well, Bashar al-Assad has killed at least as many civilians as Moammar Gadhafi ever did and today Assad backed mobs attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus, arguably an act of war. Why aren’t we bombing Syria and demanding that Assad leave the country? What’s Obama waiting for, another Iranian hostage situation?

Demonstrators storm U.S. embassy in Damascus

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule after pro-government demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Monday in what U.S. officials described as an orchestrated attack.

Regime supporters hurled rocks, smashed windows and tore down the American flag at the embassy, triggering the strongest U.S. condemnation yet of the Syrian government. Clinton suggested that the United States is contemplating the prospect of a post-Assad future in Syria nearly four months into a brutal government crackdown on pro-democracy activists inspired by the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

See also:
U.S. accuses Syria of unleashing mob attacks on U.S., French embassies
Syrian protesters attack U.S., French embassies
Syrian protesters attack U.S. Embassy in Damascus
Syrian protesters attack US, French embassies
US Embassy In Syria Attacked
Assad’s Embassy Raid
Deeply disappointed by the attack on American soil?
Clinton condemns US and French embassy attacks in Syria
U.S. Official: Syria’s Failure To Protect U.S. Embassy Is ‘Outrageous’
Assad Has ‘Lost Legitimacy,’ Clinton Says After Embassy Attacked
U.S. says Assad “not indispensable” to Syria

Is this what passes for consistent foreign policy in the Obama administration? The leaders of both Libya and Syria have killed thousands of civilians. Syria is infinitely more of a threat to U.S. national security than Libya is. Yet we’re bombing the [expletive deleted] out of Libya and trying to kill Gadhafi or drive him out of Libya at the same time we’re politely, diplomatically “condemning” Syria and giving Assad a total free pass. WTF?

/if we have a legitimate reason to be doing what we’re doing in Libya, we have even more of a legitimate reason to be doing even more of it in Syria and, by corollary, if we’re going to do nothing concrete about Syria’s brutal crackdown on civilians, we have absolutely no business whatsoever bombing Libya and we should get the hell out immediately, we’ve already done enough human and infrastructure damage there without any tangible results

An Election Worthy Of Tammany Hall

This weekend’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan would make Boss Tweed blush. You can try and put lipstick on the pig, but it’s quite obvious that the election results are overwhelmingly fraudulent and illegitimate.

Election Complaints Overwhelm Afghan Voter Commission

Afghanistan’s U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission says it has received nearly 3,000 formal complaints about Saturday’s parliamentary elections, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the vote.

The commission says it received more than 1,300 of those complaints since election day, while the rest came before the vote. Tuesday was the official deadline for Afghans to file complaints.

Shortly after the polls closed Saturday, the ECC said it received allegations of fraud and misconduct that included late-opening polling centers, ballot shortages and voter registration fraud.

Ahmad Nader Nadery is the head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, which was one of the monitors of the vote.

“Frauds did happen in different forms. We have seen ballot stuffing, proxy votes, underage voting and also multiple voting,” said Nadery. “The most serious one is the ballot stuffing, our observers have observed in around 280 centers, in 28 provinces where the ballot stuffing did occur.”

Some election observers also voiced concerns that local warlords intimidated or coerced voters in some instances.

Afghan election commission reports new evidence of serious fraud

Internal reports from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission on Tuesday provide new evidence of serious fraud in Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, including turnouts that exceeded 100 percent in many southeastern districts under the control of the Taliban or other militants.

One district in Paktika province recorded 626 percent voter turnout, according to reports obtained by McClatchy Newspapers.

The new indications of fraud appear to strengthen allegations of widespread intimidation, vote rigging and violence that independent Afghan poll monitors began making almost immediately after the polls closed on Saturday and cast new doubts on the commission’s assertion that it knew of no instances in which commission staff members stuffed ballots.

See also:
Voter fraud claims abound after Afghan elections
Observers cite ‘serious concerns about quality’ of Afghan elections
After Afghan Vote, Complaints of Fraud Surface
Afghan election watchdog amasses evidence of fraud
Fraud, violence tarnished Afghan vote, watchdog group says
Karzai Hails Afghan Election as ‘Serious’ Flaws Found
Karzai praises Afghan balloting, but monitors say election was rigged
Low bar
Are Afghanistan elections hurting democracy?
Afghan Elections: Corruption Could Again Thwart Democracy
Bodies of 3 Afghan election workers found

Welcome to “”democracy”, Afghan style, smells like “nation building” gone wrong and behaving badly.

/and our brave troops are right in the middle of this fiasco, fighting and dying for something or other, does anyone really know anymore?