When I'm making decisions about American national security and the potential for taking additional action in terms of responding to chemical weapons use, I've got to make sure I've got the facts.
Barak H. Obama, President of the United States
Well that would be a refreshing change. Especially when you consider the fanciful bullshit that was used to con us into charging head long across the Iraqi border.
There is no telling what exactly is on the president's mind when in comes to Syria, but there can be no doubt that any sort of direct American intervention, ie boots on the ground in Aleppo, is going to be one tough sell. We've been down that road before and huge portions of the public have no desire to make another trip.
In fact, thanks to the great Bush/Cheney Iraqi scam, there are going to be large numbers of Americans who will steadfastly refuse to believe there are any sort of chemical weapons in Syria at all. Even documented photographic evidence won't be enough this time around. The truth be told, Barak Obama could have SEAL Team 6 plop a stolen chemical warhead down in the middle of the white house rose garden and the average citizen would still say no to any sort of miltary involvement in Syria.
Yes, this war stuff is finally wearing us out. It seems like every time we turn around there is some new crisis that calls for us to sacrifice our sons, daughters, and grandchildren on the altar of a foreign policy that rarely makes sense to anyone and certainly doesn't earn us any international good will. It seems that the population has finally realized that while we can pick a fight easily enough, we have no clue when it comes to ending one.
That and we know it will end badly, no matter how many Syrians we kill in the process. Granted Bashar Assad is a rotten and deadly ass and the Iranians like him which makes him immediately suspect on a number of levels, but who will replace him? Mubarak was deposed, but the guys running Egypt now are a bit dicey at best. Things aren't exactly peachy keen in Baghdad either despite all our efforts. And, honestly, there isn't a sane bookie on this blue ball who will give you odds on Hamid Karzai's life expectancy once the last U.S. troops finally exit Afghanistan.
No, the more we try to make things better the worse they become. It always feels like we're some guy trying to get rid of bees with a baseball bat. It works just fine on the hive but it isn't worth a shit when the pissed off survivors come swarming out after you.
Ultimately to reach our perfect version of a middle east we'd have to permanently garrison the entire region and that really isn't an option even to the boys who run Haliburton and, hell, they like wars.
NBC News reports that as long as a year ago Obama asked the pentagon to prepare contingency plans for Syria. Lets hope some one had the guts to tell him the only good plan is to not have one. After all, we're stretched a bit thin here, Mr. President, especially if the pudgy little twerp in North Korea goes off his nut.
There have simply been too many flag draped coffins coming home these past dozen years. At some point the government has to recognize we can't police the entire globe. At some point the state department and all the other foreign policy wankers have to understand that most people don't want us to.
A lot of us have gotten that memo. Hopefully the president has too.
4-30-13
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. I do appreciate it, and figured I'd returned the favor. You've put a lot of effort into writing some thought-provoking posts here. Better than some of the op ed pieces in our local newspaper. Kudos, dear sir. I'm bumfuzzled that you don't have a boatload of comments.
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