Syria: Stay Out of It

Now that Syria has reportedly used chemical weapons against its people, President Obama's "red line" has supposedly been crossed and the war drums are beating again. So now we are going to send our troops to another Muslim country to save the people and win their everlasting gratitude? No thanks.

First of all, this is not our war. It is true that horrific things are happening to the civilian population. If the UN wants to send in a multi-national force-without us- that's up to them. The examples of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Libya have shown that we get no thanks for saving Muslims. All we get is our embassies attacked, our flags burned, and our people, both troops and diplomats, killed. In the end, radical Islamists take over and spit in our faces anyway.

In Syria, it was easy to sympathize with courageous civilians who protested and faced the governmemt guns. It has now spread into a civil war with several bad factions involved. When you have the forces of Bashar Assad, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran all shooting at each other from all four directions, I say let the good times roll.

So  now I have become a peacenik. I say get out of Afghanistan, out of Iraq, out of Pakistan and that whole part of the world. It is not worth one more American life.

However, if you are going to support President Obama if and when he sends the troops into Syria, then you have to give George W Bush a pass for invading Iraq over those weapons of mass destruction- you know, the ones that never existed but which Saddam Hussein used against Iran and his own Kurdish population. Whatever else was accomplished, an evil dictator and his two evil sons were deposed and no longer among the living. Only time and history will ultimately judge if it was a successful venture. In Afghanistan, we are preparing to withdraw in 2014 when we will leave a country we found living in the 7th century still living in the 7th century.

In my view, no matter what the human or geo-political considerations may be, we will again see our troops killed, more demonstrations against "American imperialism" across the region, more accusations of war crimes or insulting Islam, and more anti-American hatred. For what?

Let somebody else do it.