The Road to Damascus

It didn't take us long to find someplace else to fight did it? Indeed, it is becoming increasingly apparent the American military is headed directly into the heart of Syria and a civil war which has already killed 100,000 people and forced somewhere around 1.7 million others to become refugees.

As Yogi Berra once said, "It is deja vu all over again." Last week, reports that government forces had used chemical weapons in its struggle against rebel held areas of suburban Damascus poured in from every media format. Although this isn't the first time its been rumored that Bashar al-Assad's forces have used them, the proof now seems irrefutable and the "red line" President Obama had previously spoken about seems irrevocably crossed.

All the harbingers of a new American led conflict are there. Both republicans and democrats in the congress are saying they not only support action against Assad, but think it is doable without us becoming bogged down in a new Afghanistan, or Iraq. The Brits and French are urging international intervention, as are the Turks. Why none of them have done so themselves speaks worlds about the state of their military and resolve. We are, in the final analysis, their pit bull. As if to confirm that notion an administration spokesperson called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "one of the worst tyrants of this era." In other words we growled dangerously.

Of course if you're an average sort in America, every time Washington and what is known as, The International Community starts talking this way you know what is coming isn't going to be pretty. Some of our kids are going to die.

Yes, alarm bells should be going off everywhere when Tennessee republican Bob Corker goes on The Today Show and says, "I think we can get it right without us getting mired in a conflict. I think it should be surgical. It should be proportional. It should be in response to what's happened with the chemicals, but the fact is I don't want us to get involved in such a way that we change the dynamic on the ground." 

Oh please, Senator--if history has taught us anything it is we don't do anything militarily without getting mired in a conflict. We can damn well start a brawl, we just can't seem to figure out how to end one.

In the mean time Assad himself is screeching  his military hasn't, under any circumstances, used chemical weapons and any U.S. intervention would fail. Who can blame him for talking so hyper and boldly? He knows there is a scaffold out there right now with his name on it. The Russians, who seem to like Assad for some reason, are pointing out we made the same charges about Saddam Hussein right before we invaded Iraq. Of course that war was about oil and penis length, but they do have a point.

All that is certain is we haven't the slightest clue who or what would replace the current regime if it falls. That and our last successful attempt at creating a democracy which actually works was 60 plus years ago in South Korea. Unfortunately we still have to keep around 30,000 troops there to maintain it.

The truth is we learned the hard way isolationism isn't the answer, but what we haven't figured out yet is that war doesn't need to be it's only alternative.

How long, oh Lord, how long?

Next stop Damascus. Don't forget to bring the sun block.


sic vita est

8-26-13