Just Say No to Syria

13th Century Mongols at War - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
NOT ONLY NO, HELL NO

I’m in the very unusual position of being in direct opposition to John Kerry and President Obama’s hawkish stance on Syria. I’m also in the strange company of Rand Paul.. He wrote a position paper last week; I could’ve written parts of it myself. We have differences -- I think Paul might actually support a “boots-on-the-ground” occupation and that would be unthinkable to me. Rand Paul and I are in total agreement that a limited strike would serve no useful purpose and it would draw us into a quicksand pit.

Did we learn nothing from Iraq or Egypt? After 10 years, Iraq is having sectarian violence everywhere -- hundreds of deaths reported recently. In Egypt, the democratically elected Morsi tried to turn his country into a 12th century Muslim caliphate.. how’s that for unexpected returns from your “Arab Spring”? Furthermore, limited military involvement is like being a little bit pregnant; you’re in or you’re not. If you’re in, it has to be balls to the wall.

Obama is distraught over the use of chemical weapons in Syria (a fact which hasn’t been convincingly established by the way). To make chemical warfare the worst example of egregious warfare is arbitrary. When we toppled Saddam Hussein, we implicitly put wind in the sails of the militant Shiites, Saddam’s most organized enemies. Their behavior was horrific -- at one point they were using an electric drill to drill holes in the heads of their still-living captives.

SEPARATION OF MOSQUE AND STATE?

The Middle East has no concept of religious freedom, or even true democracy. The choices you have will be between the 7th and 9th circles of Hell in any Middle Eastern country. The people on either side are strident, cruel and nasty. They’re blindly devoted to primitive religious writ and cannot be reached with reason. Not one American life should be sacrificed over these terminally lost people. Really, not even any American equipment or capital should be wasted on this.

To term our role as “world police” is both hypocritical and ridiculous. Our main concern in that part of the world has ever and always been about oil and military access via air space or water. Some might add the entrenchment of Israel to that list, but Israel isn’t compelling its primitive neighbors into self-destructive craziness. They do not figure prominently in this equation.

In America, a dim view is held about organized crime. If La Famiglia shoots itself up we deplore the violence but we are relieved that they mostly direct it toward each other. That's how we need to look at the Middle East. If Baathists and jihadists must tear into each other, so be it. Ready, aim, fire -- just keep it to yourselves.

CAUTIONARY ADDENDUM

The West embraces religious freedom, but we should stay vigilant about religions who seek to replace western law with Sharia, or encourage terrorism to advance their causes. The scourge over there should remain over there, and gain no admittance over here.

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