SLAM Congress’ Phone Lines:
Keep US Troops OUT of Syria
By Dan Sanchez
November 04, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "AntiMedia"
- In 2013, the Obama administration was gearing up to launch
an air war on the government of Syria. Antiwar.com and other outlets
responded by leading a campaign of Americans contacting Congress to
say, “Hell no!”The campaign’s overwhelming
impact was reported
by WND.com: “Americans are slamming at
least 24 members of Congress with thousands of phone calls and
emails, urging lawmakers not to approve a military strike on
Syria — by a margin of as much as 499 to 1.
A national debate is raging on Twitter. Tweets
and statements from members of Congress — both Democrat and
Republican — show tremendously strong opposition to President
Obama’s call for an air strike on Syria:
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.,
tweeted, ‘Calls and emails from my constituents is 100 to 1 AGAINST
getting involved in Syria. The American people are speaking.’
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said 99
percent of the calls his office oppose an attack.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said, ‘Constituents who have
contacted my office by phone or mail oppose action in Syria 523–4 so
far.’
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted, ‘My phones are blowing
up, and an overwhelming amount of constituents oppose U.S. military
intervention in Syria.’
Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., tweeted, ‘Syria constituent calls
489–2 against.’
Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.V., said of ‘about 1,000 calls to my
office, maybe 5 are for.’
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said
calls and emails to his offices are 600 to 9 against striking Syria.
Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., tweeted, ‘I received 225 emails
via www.griffin.house.gov
website over the weekend regarding Syria, and out of the 225 only 3
support U.S. military action against Syria.’
Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, said he is getting swamped with
phone calls and on-the-street comments from constituents telling him
to oppose a strike on Syria.
Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, ‘I’m told the phone calls are 9
out of 10 against a strike in Syria, from my constituents in
Kentucky.’
Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas: ‘I have received hundreds of calls
and letters from constituents expressing strong opposition.’
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tweeted, ‘My office has been
inundated with constituent phone calls and emails about Syria.
Virtually unanimous opposition to military intervention.’
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, tweeted, ‘So far about 500
emails regarding Syria. 499 say NO and 1 say YES go to war” and
“Hundreds of calls to our Provo and Washington, D.C., office. So far
not a single call in favor of bombing Syria.’
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted, ‘The phones in my office
are ringing off the hook and mail is flowing in. Almost all of the
people are opposed to intervention in Syria.’
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, tells WND his office is hearing the
same overwhelming opposition to intervention.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said,
‘I don’t know a member of Congress whose e-mails and phone calls are
in favor of [bombing Syria.]’
Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., said
96 percent of his emails and phone calls are from constituents who
want to express their opposition to military action. He said,
‘Overwhelmingly, we are hearing pushback from our citizens against
military intervention in Syria.’
Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said
he’s heard no support from his constituents for striking Syria: ‘I
have not had a single person, not a single person, in over 92
Facebook posts just a little while ago in a question we posed,
having a single constituent or a South Carolinian saying let’s go to
war in Syria.’
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said
‘a very high percentage’ of the constituents contacting his office
have been against U.S. involvement in Syria. He estimated that 90
percent of more than 1,000 calls and emails from Americans have
been urging him not to support intervention.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said,
‘I can tell you that in my office, the phones are bopping off the
hook there. And almost unanimously people are opposed to what the
president is talking about.’
Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., told the House Foreign Affairs
Committee hearing he and his constituents say ‘not just no, but heck
no!’ to Syria intervention.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., has received more
than 653 e-mails, phone calls and social-media. Only 11 of the
comments favored strikes.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., admitted her constituents’
calls were ‘overwhelmingly
negative’ over a possible Syria intervention, but she added,
‘They don’t know what I know.’
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted, ‘I’ve been hearing a lot
from members of our armed forces. The message I consistently hear:
Please vote no on military action against Syria.’”
And it worked! Congress
demurred and Obama backed down. While the administration did
start an air war against ISIS in Syria, and while it has continued
to pursue regime change in the country by sponsoring the
extremist-led insurgency, it has not launched an air war on the
Assad regime.
Just as in Libya, such an air war would have
overthrown the government. And just as in Libya and Iraq, such an
overthrow would have sent the country plummeting even deeper into
chaos. Much of the country was already overrun with groups like
Syrian al-Qaeda and ISIS. Had the secular Syrian regime been
overthrown, black flags would have flown over the rest of the
country, too.
Now the administration has responded to Russia’s
entry into the Syrian war in support of Assad by announcing the
deployment of special forces soldiers into the war to “advise and
assist” anti-Assad rebels. Such a move would precipitously increase
the chance of an unplanned direct clash between American and Russian
forces. Imagine the fallout if some of these American commandos
found their way into the blast radius of a Russian bomb. Indeed,
“fallout” may not be a merely figurative description of the ultimate
consequences. Such an incident could escalate into a nuclear world
war.
Such a deployment would also be the foot in the
door for future troop increases justified on the basis of “force
protection.”
So Antiwar.com is sounding
the call to action again. And it is up to us to respond. Tell
Washington they must not and cannot send American sons into the
Syrian cauldron. And while you’re at it, tell them to stop feeding
that cauldron’s flames with money
and guns for Islamist insurgents.
This is another pivotal moment. A time to join
together and speak out against war. A chance to stop a catastrophic
policy before it gets off the ground. We did it before. We can do it
again. Call
or email your Congressional “representative” as soon as possible
and demand: “No U.S. troops in Syria!”
Dan Sanchez currently resides in Auburn,
Alabama. You can find his work on
DanSanchez.me
This article (SLAM
Congress’ Phone Lines: Support the Troops by Keeping Them OUT of
Syria) is free and open source. You have permission to
republish this article under a
Creative Commons license with attribution to
Dan Sanchez and theAntiMedia.org.