I took the time to listen to the full “here is our evidence” press statement by Kerry (full transcript here).  This was a very discouraging experience.  The bottom line is this: it appears quasi certain that the Americans will attack Syria essentially because “we are America” and because “its just gotta be Assad who did it”.  Imperial hubris at its most pathological and compulsive.

It is also rather clear that the Americans will go for the “sissy option” which they refer to as “shooting across the bow“.  Do these clowns not know that when you shoot across the bow you don’t hit anything?!

The other amazing thing today was the amount of caveats Kerry put around this upcoming attack. Speaking about the decision Obama is supposedly about to take Kerry said:

It will not involve any boots on the ground.It will not be open-ended. And it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well underway. 

 Really?

This tells me that the American are about to do what is called “declare victory and leave”.  They will destroy a number of (now empty) buildings, kill a few Syrians, and then declare that Assad as been taught a good lesson and that he will not use is chemical weapons again.  And since he never used chemical weapons to begin with, it will appear that he “learned the lesson”.  And then the Americans will be pretty much done because after that they will have very few options left.  This is why Kerry added:

And ultimately, ultimately, we are committed – we remain committed, we believe it’s the primary objective – is to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this through negotiation, because we know there is no ultimate military solution. It has to be political. It has to happen at the negotiating table, and we are deeply committed to getting there.

Yeah, in other words – we don’t have what it takes to take on the Syrian military.

Good!

Lastly, and this is both disgusting and pathetic, is that the Americans appear to be totally out of touch with the rest of the planet, including the normally arch-faithful United Kingdom.  This really is a crucial sign of decline that the US policy in the Middle-East got so crazy, so confused, so out of touch with reality that even the Brits are refusing to go along.  And instead of pausing and asking themselves how they ever got here, the Americans want to go ahead at it pretty much alone (I know – Hollande and Fabius are so totally in the hands of the French Ziolobby that they want a “piece of the action”; and the Turks are still harboring delusions of regional relevance.  But it is quite clear that the vast majority of NATO/EU countries want nothing to do with this folly).

Since the attack appears to be inevitable and imminent, we can at least find some solace in the fact that it will be largely symbolic and that the US will be alone in this – both of which are very strong signs of imperial decline.

The Saker