We can’t trust White House Syria claims

The administration needs to learn from the past and tell the whole truth.

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are adamant that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians last month. They have thus far provided the public scant hard information to back up their claims. Even Obama ally Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) characterized the evidence in a Sunday Capitol Hill classified briefing as “circumstantial.”

Perhaps the Syrian government did commit this attack. But can we expect the U.S. government to be honest about an alleged atrocity which the president is invoking to sanctify his foreign policy?

If it takes as long to find out what the U.S. government knew regarding recent alleged Syrian attacks, we will not have the full story until 2082. And perhaps our descendants will not even learn the truth then unless there are members of Congress who bludgeon the facts out of the government’s archives.

Despite the government’s past deficit of candor, many Americans desperately want to believe the Commander in Chief. But the timing is awkward for Obama. Three months ago, a series of leaked documents on the National Security Agency illegal spying on Americans began hitting the newspapers. Obama sought to douse the controversy by publicly proclaiming that the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court is “transparent” – a bizarre characterization for a secret court which applies secret law and policies. He later ludicrously denied that the U.S. government has a “domestic spying program” (except for all those Americans’ emails and phone records the agency copied and warehoused).

Is Obama more honest on Syria than he has been about the NSA? Perhaps the administration would label the answer to that question a “state secret.” The Obama team has repeatedly invoked the “state secrets” doctrine in federal court to block exposure of its most controversial policies – such as the targeted assassination program that zeroes in on American citizens overseas. If the Obama administration feels entitled to withhold details on its killing of Americans, why should anyone expect full disclosure regarding a foreign regime’s alleged killing of its own citizens?

America cannot afford another “trust me” war based on secret evidence.

Lies subvert democracy by crippling citizens’ ability to rein in government. Citizens are left clueless about perils until it is too late for the nation to pull back. And regardless of Obama’s lofty invocations, there is no such thing as retroactive self-government.

Source: USAtoday.com

B.N