It is increasingly clear that the Syrian government did indeed use chemical weapons against it own people. This is a crime against humanity that cries out for justice.
The only remaining question is whether it is up to us to bring it.
Leaving the use of chemical weapons aside, Syria engages in longstanding civil war pitting really bad against worse. There are no good guys in this war, only bad. To pick a side is to help the bad guys win. This is something we should not do. Every fight is not our fight.
One year ago the President, through a combination of hubris, machismo, and naivete declared the use of chemical weapons as a ‘red line’ that would force the U.S. into this conflict. So now as I write our navy approaches Syria and there is talk of bombing.
I fear that the President’s comic book foreign policy is going to drag us into a war in the middle east in which there are no winners, only losers with potential consequences way beyond the body count of this horrific chemical weapons attack.
One would think that if the last two years have taught the administration anything, it would be that they cannot tell friend from foe in the middle east. This is principally due to the fact that they actually think there are friends there. We have no friends among the Muslim nations, only degrees of enemy.
When the Arab spring began, we saw this kind of naivete. A few of us warned of the dire consequences of taking sides and trusting, only to be drowned out is a chorus of “the sun will come out tomorrow”
Again I warn. Don’t take sides in a civil war of bad vs worse.
