Last night, Jon Stewart finally returned back to the Daily Show after a few months filming a movie in the Middle East. This required a period of adjustment, however. After that was taken care of, Jon caught up with what he had missed, which was basically the horrors coming out of Syria.
Came back to a dark, dark place!
Now if memory serves, 100,000 Syrians have already died during the conflict with President Bashir al-Assad. Already with no military intervention from the West. So why now? Daily Show flashback clip, August 2012!
BARACK OBAMA (8/20/2012): We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.
Ah! See? The red line! You can't use chemicals to kill your own people! You have to do it organically. America and the world want to make sure Assad only uses locally sourced free long range land ordinance.
Now, back in the early '80s, we knew Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran, were likely to use them again, and not only did we not attack them, we supported Iraq in doing that, and of course we still reserve the right to use bunker busters, cluster bombs, and the Mark 77, which is not, NOT filled with napalm — technically.
So given the fact that we have no idea who would have control over these chemical weapons in a failed Syria, remind us again why we have to do this?
DAVID GERGEN (8/29/2013): The danger is the more reluctant you are, and the more deliberative you are, the danger is you could start looking weak.
LARRY SABATO (8/31/2013): If they sense that strength is not there, that weakness has replaced it, then they go their own way.
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TX (8/28/2013): Bullies and tyrants don't respect weakness.
Oh right, we have to bomb Syria because we're in 7th grade. (audience laughter and applause) And the red line that they crossed is actually dick-measuring ribbon. (audience laughter and applause)
Why does holding back look like weakness? Isn't it maturity? It's like when a guy's picking on Clark Kent, and he doesn't do anything, even though he knows he could throw that guy into the Sun. I'll tell you what would be real weakness. Clark Kent laying waste to a town cuz someone called him a pussy.
You know what else is weakness? Asking the advice of a parade of idiots who got the same issue completely wrong in Iraq. Or as those people are known on cable — experts.
AMB. PAUL BREMER (8/30/2013): He's got to act in Syria. I hope, frankly, he acts in a much more vigorous and robust sense.
DONALD RUMSFELD (8/28/2013): The idea of demystifying what you're going to do for the enemy is mindless. I can't imagine what they're thinking.
BILL KRISTOL (9/1/2013): I wish we had intervened, and he could have intervened a year ago, two years ago.
Everybody, the idiot parade is in town! (puts on marching band hat and sings)
♫
Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!
♫
(wild audience cheering)
I just wrote that song today.
All right. Assad has crossed the line of what we feel is the appropriate way to kill people. So we have to send a powerful message to the world. Chemical weapons will not be tolerated.
BARACK OBAMA (8/31/2013): We will not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope.
You're saying the only way to keep America's penis from looking small, is to take a somewhat ineffective action, purposefully designed to accomplish very little. We'll call it Operation Just the Tip. (wild audience laughter and applause)
By the way, Operation Just the Tip, one of Milton Bradley's least popular games.
"You put in the shaft! Pretty sneaky, sis." We'll be right back.
Video below the fold.
Jon then talked with
Andrew Harper, head of the UN Refugee Agency in Jordan, about the crisis of the sheer number of Syrian refugees. The interview, of course, went long. Here's the unedited interview in 2 parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Meanwhile, Stephen briefly touched upon Syria as well, before doing another Better Know a District segment about MI-05, talking with Rep. Dan Kildee (D).
He then talked with Archbishop
Timothy Dolan, who got
two segments.