This Week with George Stephanopoulos – August 25, 2013

Hosts: Martha Raddatz & Jon Karl

Guests:

Col. Steve Ganyard

Amr Moussa – Frm. Egyptian Foreign Minister

Matt Bradley – Wall St. Journal

Ashraf Khalil - Time

Abigail Hauslohner – Washington Post

Dan Balz

Donna Brazile

George Will

Cokie Roberts

Raddatz: holy cow Syria may have used

chemical weapons so the U.S. may go

to war in the middle east again

Karl: Assad may have gassed children and

the White House is trying to get Russia

to agree to bomb the Syrian government

Raddatz: how do you bomb a country like Syria?

Ganyard: a tomahawk missile which is an

accurate flying torpedo with wings on it

Raddatz: is Syria defended?

Ganyard: yes so we will fire our

missiles from far away

Raddatz: but how do you bomb a

chemical weapon?

Ganyard: you can't – if you do it will spread

the chemical everywhere and make it worse

Raddatz: that seems like a problem

Ganyard: instead you bomb airplanes,

airports, and Syria coffeemakers

Raddatz: will that work?

Ganyard: it might scare Assad or

might just make him madder

[ break ]

Raddatz: should the U.S. bomb Syria?

Moussa: only if the U.N. Security Council approves

Raddatz: you'd leave it up to Putin?

Moussa: well no one wants another

war around here

Raddatz: but Assad is using chemical

weapons against little kids

Moussa: well that's not very nice I concede

but let's not rush into anything

Raddatz: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Bradley: this is already an international

war and if the U.S. gets involved it could

get much much worse

Khalil: Egypt is the sun around
which the middle east revolves

Raddatz: wow

Khalil: the Arab Spring was supposed to

modernize the whole region and now that's fucked

Hauslohner: Cairo police opened fire

on protesters – it was frightening

Raddatz: and yet people support the military

Bradley: the military is the heart and

soul of the nation – the people people adore them

– they're the Ferris Bueller of the country

Hauslohner: it was a coup but a

popular one – it's a mass movement

in support of authoritarianism

Khalil: the people welcomed military

control and broke the country

[ break ]

Karl: we have to attack Syria don't we?

Will: not necessarily

Karl: but we have to!

Brazile: or we could carefully determine

the facts and form a large coalition

Karl: oh pooh

Brazile: the people of that region don't

want us to control that whole region

Roberts: oh yes they do

Brazile: oh really

Roberts: if America does not attack Syria

it will be a breeding ground for terrorists

Karl: Assad seems to be finally scared

Balz: something has to be done!!

Karl: right!

Balz: unfortunately our bombs will have

no effect but we should do it anyway

Roberts: exactly – ineffective actions are

still a great idea because we have to do something

Brazile: great – another damn war

Balz: Obama ran against unilateral

war in the middle east – could he act

without the U.N.?

Roberts: I WANT WAR GODDAMMIT

Karl: Putin may even agree to kill people with us

Balz: screw the U.N. - bomb right now I say

Karl: military action will be useless but

we must bomb just for the sake of it

Will: Jonathan the military is not in the

businesses of useless gestures

Karl: but Obama has to bomb Syria

to retain U.S. credibility!

Roberts: exactly!