A lot of half-smart objections have been raised about
our country’s possible military involvement in Syria. What are our goals, our
strategies and
our chances of success? Is it worth the expense in money and lives and what
about the risk of unintended consequences? They’re half-smart because they’re
not really objections. They’re valid questions that should be asked - and
answered - before our government takes action, but do not, by themselves, constitute
a policy. They’re not even opinions. They are the beginning of a process, not
the end result. They’re half-smart because the people making these objections think they’ve learned something from our wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, but if they’ve learned anything, it’s “Isolationism.”
Bashar
al-Assad, President of Syria, is using chemical weapons against civilians. He
is maiming and killing thousands of innocent people, hundreds of
them children and all of them fellow Syrians. He is committing crimes against
humanity and daring, not only the opposing forces within his country, but the
world to stop him.
Some people aren’t satisfied by the evidence against
him, they want to be convinced
before they do anything. If you can’t see that excuse coming a mile
away, you’re making it. Didn’t we learn anything in Iraq? Yes, that weapons of
mass destruction demand a response, but make sure they’re real.
How about in Afghanistan? We learned two things: never
invade a country that has “Graveyard of
Empires” on its license plates and if you’re searching for Osama Bin Laden
there, make sure he isn’t relaxing in Pakistan, watching “Gossip Girl” by
satellite. None of which applies to Bashar al-Assad using poison gas against his own people.
Isn’t the U.S. tired of military actions that could
lead to long, expensive, frustrating wars? Can we even afford one at this
point? Wouldn’t that money be better spent fighting the threat
of universal healthcare in this country? Yes, all true – and not for the first
time.
It was true before the Second World War as well.
Americans, a lot of them, were so horrified by the First World War that they
would do anything to avoid another. What’s more, it was the Great Depression, so their
economy was
a lot worse than ours. Even the threat of universal healthcare was greater -
part of a program called The New Deal. Yet our country joined the fight against Hitler and
few people today think that was bad idea.
Bashar al-Assad, like Hitler, should be stopped before
he commits more crimes
against humanity. Doing nothing is worse than half-smart. It’s half-human.
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