President Obama does not want to do anything in Syria. You can see it as plain as day. For that I applaud him. It isn't our war. I know, there are the humanitarian considerations, but the time to help the civilians has long since passed. What we're doing is looking at committing an act of war in a region where no one likes us nor are likely to - ever. They don't even like each other, quite evident in the way they're behaving amongst themselves.
Our President has gotten caught up in his rhetoric before. His 'red line' statement caught his staffers off guard. But wouldn't we all, meaning the region and ourselves and our allies, be better off if he apologized for a bad choice of words and explained why it's prudent to do nothing? I hate to see him get forced into making a bad decision to make him seem like a man of his word. The plans that are leaking out are unlikely to accomplish that in any case. He looks feckless no matter which direction he goes but he could save untold lives.
We would all live to see another day. The Russians could gloat but they're doing that anyway. China doesn't care particularly. They just thrive on being spoilers. So those two eliminate UN approval which isn't worth anything anyway. More importantly Israel would survive one more time because Syria has already said retaliation would be taken out on them.
True, the Iranians would go back to their bomb building and Syria would continue massacring it's people. The thing is we can't sort out any of it for them. Sure we'd like to see stability in that region of the world and yes we have legitimate interests there but lobbing those few missiles would be like a fly landing on their arm. They'd flick it off and go on with their battle among themselves. We shouldn't forget the conflicts continuing in Egypt and Afghanistan and the increase of violence once again in Iraq. Not only is the fight among secularists and radical Muslims like the Taliban and al Qaeda, but also the Sunnis against the Shiites. It's just not our fight.
I might be more inclined to ease my stance if Muslims living outside the region were having something to say in opposition to how their brothers are carrying on but all I hear is silence. It's deafening.
Mr. President, stand your ground. On this one I think the entire country is with you. It's one more war we cannot win. You'll have other opportunities to act in a timely manner rather than dragging your feet until it's too late. Please, consider doing that. It's what that word that's so foreign to you, leadership, is all about.
2 comments:
I agree (dont faint). We would all like to see stability in that area of the world, but they just don't seem to want it for themselves. That's why everything we have done so far has served to de-stabilize every country we've interfered in.
This is one of those times when I couldn't agree with you more, Mari. He put his foot in his mouth when he drew the line in the sand. Of course they challenged that just to see what he would do.
He should do nothing. Nothing we could do would change a thing.
Besides congress is to declare war and he's another president stepping up to get into a mess all by himself. Let them take the responsibility. We ordinary people have had all the fruitless wars we can stand.
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