The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted this afternoon to authorize the administration to use military force against Syria. The vote was 10-7, with Democratic Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Murphy of Connecticut voting ‘no,’ and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) voting ‘present.’ A total of five Republicans voted ‘no,’ too, but not John McCain.
This is not an easy vote, by any means, and I respect people who come down on either side. If the president can use the leverage of authorization to bring the U.N. Security Council along for a disarmament mission, it will be a brilliant move. But if it leads to an actual limited punitive military strike, it will be a stepping stone to a quagmire for this country. Without private assurances that I could trust, I would have sided with Sens. Udall, Murphy, and Markey today.
I guess we can start calling Sen. Ed Markey (D-Raytheon).
Yes:
Menendez
Boxer
Cardin
Shaheen
Coons
Durbin
Kaine
Corker
McCain
Flake
No:
Udall
Murphy
Risch
Rubio
Paul
Johnson
Barrasso
What a zoo that GOP No vote bunch is. A mad scramble of elephants.
Looks like this is going to not be a conscience vote but a force the President to corral all the Democrats vote.
Why are you surprised? He voted for the Iraq War. I said again and again on this damn blog, “Why are progressives rallying around Markey in the primary when it’s fucking Massachusetts?”
Nope, they rallied. Predictable as hell.
Is “present” better than “yes”? lol
Yes.
Did I look surprised?
Sorry, on phone. Should have been, “Are you surprised?”
Was Lynch any better, over all? I don’t think so. Hell, even Warren isn’t perfect.
And Steve Lynch would have voted “No”?
I didn’t imply to rally around either. Why was there no effort to recruit someone who did vote no?
We will not learn the lessons of our past this time around I suspect. Though I am reminded of a McNamara quote from Fog of War:
The only smart thing I ever heard of McNamara saying.
At this point, the cynic in me says that the only nation left with comparable values is Israel.
What? You respect both sides? Are you even allowed to be on the internet after admitting that???
For last two days there’s been very low volume, but noise nonetheless, from both Putin and from Iran that they are listening to the discourse and are backing off their stringent denialism that any attacks even happened.
Obama’s been a lucky politician. May Iran’s new quasi leader enter the ring with an open fist.
May Assad regain control of his brother, if that report is true that he was the one that ordered the strike.
As per usual, the Jane site is doing remarkable technical analysis, giving more of a CSI approach.
Is there a paywall on Jane’s? If not, could you link to the analysis?
Jane’s one of the oldest global intelligence gathering analysis outfits, try the Magazine section or Defense.
It should be noted the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are still heavily in support of Syria from what I’ve read. Assad’s fall would really hurt their standing at home as well.
I don’t think you can respect Markey for voting present.