Fireworks

If it has not happened yet, it will very soon.

By the time you read this piece, Barack Obama’s pre-taped address to the American people should have aired. In that address, the US President will make the case for limited military intervention in Syria in the wake of strong evidence the Assad regime deployed poison gas against its own people.

The use of poison gas, banned by international convention since the end of the First World War, terrifies the Syrian people more than all the atrocities we have seen in the dragged out civil war in that forsaken nation. International agencies looking after the two million refugees outside Syria’s borders now say one Syrian becomes a refugee every 15 seconds. At that rate, most Syrians will be refugees very soon.

As Obama prepared his address to the American people, presumably including the findings of the UN mission checking out the use of chemical warfare in Damascus, his Secretary of State John Kerry is scouring all of Europe for support. Britain’s parliament voted against participation in a military strike against the Assad regime. The French, on the other hand, strongly endorse US-led military action that will probably see the participation of some French forces.

The strike force of what, in all likelihood, will be a largely cruise missile assault, is in place. The US has deployed five destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea outside the range of Syrian defenses by with targets in Syrian soil well within range of their smart bombs. Additionally, a carrier battle group led by the USS Nimitz escorted by a cruiser and three destroyers is in the Red Sea.

Bombers could fly in from bases in Turkey, Spain and Germany to support the assault. Persons knowledgeable about the US strategy say the assault in planned with a 72-hour span involving about 50 targets in Syria. We are not sure what assets the French and other European countries are prepared to commit to beef up the US effort.

Given the resources available for this operation, we could see a repeat of the great fireworks display, the strategy referred to as “shock and awe,” used against Saddam Hussein’s forces in Syria. However, the strike against Assad is not expected to include a ground operation. It will rely entirely on smart bombs, weapons that could be precisely targeted using modern digital technology.

The goal of this operation, Washington promises, is merely to degrade the Assad government’s capability to use weapons of mass destruction against its own people. Several senior military analysts say the expected air strike, massive as it might be, will not substantially change the battle situation on the ground. That means that after the air operation, the civil war could drag on for a very long time.

There are enough voices opposing this military operation. The most influential of those voices is Pope Francis’, who last week called for prayers and vigils in an effort to dissuade Washington from continuing with the strike.

There are, as well, voices from the US military as well, from those who fear that an assault on Assad will imply and alliance with radical Islamist groups battling the regime. Some of those groups are believed affiliated with the Al Qaeda.

The dissenting voices notwithstanding, there is a certain inevitability to this operation. Obama earlier drew a red line on the sand, warning Assad against using poison gas on civilians. Assad challenged that red line. The US cannot let him get away with that.

The fallout from this anticipated strike will be global in scale. Oil prices are expected to spike as war anxieties rise. We are not sure how Iran, Russia and China will react.

There are humanitarian imperatives however. Obama, the reluctant warrior, bows to those imperatives.

Unauthorized

This could be the template defense for the lengthening list of legislators dragged into the pork barrel standard.

Lawyers for Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella of Camarines Sur called the attention of the internal audit group of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the unauthorized release of a portion of his PDAF to Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation, Inc. (KPMFI). The legislator denied any knowledge of the project and claims he had not signed any endorsement for that release.

KPMFI is among the non-government organizations linked to the infamous Janet Lim Napoles.

From information gathered, it turns out that on April 27, 2011 the DBM released SARO No. BMB-G-11-7000000377 in the amount of P5 million attributed to the PDAF of Fuentebella. The legislator claims he was never notified of the release of this particular SARO. That seems supported by the fact that for almost two years Fuentebella did not send instructions for the use of the funds.

The fund covered by this particular SARO is supposed to be used to help develop high-value crops in Fuentebella’s district. In the absence of any instruction from the congressman, the DA went ahead and released 15% of the amount to the Napoles-linked NGO, ostensibly for “mobilization” costs.

If, as he claims, Fuentebella did not issue instructions for the release of the funds, the implication is some people at the DA spot idle SAROs and collaborate with Napoles-linked NGOs to work out releases of funds. That suggests the syndicate is entrenched in the implementing agencies.

The pork barrel scandal beginning with the fake NGOs linked to Napoles just continues to spread by the day. Clearly, the entrenched syndicates in the implementing agencies need to be uncovered.

For his part, Fuentebella has written to DA demanding that the entire P5 million covered by the mentioned SARO be returned to the National Treasury.