Not to get all “back in my day” on you (we’ll leave that to Monroe Isadore), but we now live in a world where a presidential administration is using the same website where we go to see funny videos of cats playing keyboard to convince lawmakers to approve a military strike against a country. (President Keyboard Cat 2016?)
According to CNN, the Obama administration has been showing a “select group of senators in closed-door briefings” 13 YouTube videos “to make the case that a limited military attack on Syria is justified.” The clips, which CNN obtained, show a chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21. It’s not for the faint of heart.
The attack, allegedly carried out by Syrian forces under President Bashar al-Assad, has touched off the most critical foreign policy question since the uprising began in 2011: Is a military response merited?
Many of the videos were previously posted on YouTube, but this collection of footage is significant because the intelligence community has given it a stamp of authenticity.
The footage could be vital in the administration’s quest to convince Congress and the American public that the U.S. must launch punitive strikes against Syria, former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson said.
“That video will sensitize the American people that this isn’t just an intervention, that this is a military strike to stop that type of atrocity,” the former congressman told CNN. (Via)
The footage is below, but again, it’s hard to watch.
And to see the original videos, click here.
(Via) (via Getty Image)