STAY OUT OF SYRIA

Reports out of Washington, London, and Paris, indicate that the Western World is preparing to act with force against Syria over its alleged use of poison gas on civilians.
And, in calling it "alleged", it should be remembered that although there seems to be a preponderance of evidence that a chemical event did indeed happen, the details are by no means clear, the actual circumstances have not yet been determined, and, above all, historic precedent shows that spurious facts have been used to justify military intervention in the past.

Tonkin Gulf. Saddam's WMDs. Coups d'état in several countries.
Oh heck, let's also throw in the invasion of the Philippines over a century ago which caused the death of one fifth of the population of the place.


Another thing to keep in mind is that we have no business being there. The Syrian people are of little interest to us, have a well-known antipathy towards the United States, and will likely not appreciate our meddling in the long term. Or likely even in the short term.
Do we really need to get into another interminable involvement with a bunch of pustules who hate our guts?
Especially when we have a history of supplying warring Arabs with the means to kill each other........
When Iraq and Iran used gas on the front line, we and the Europeans provided it.
Our opposition to mass murder is questionable.

In the last five decades, Arabs have killed over six million Arabs.
This is very much the natural order of business.
We've been fine with that till now.


Far better to let our supposed allies -- Western Europe -- get their hands dirty. For one thing, their reputation in that region is better than ours at present, and it's high time they get into an international mess that yields mega-eggface instead of us. They still have not forgiven us for Balkan One and Balkan Two -- many of them haven't forgiven us for WWI and WWII either, and continue to slam the United States for using nukes -- and there is bitter resentment over our leadership in Afghanistan as well as innumerable other affairs.
Libya, Tunis, and Egypt are good examples of the horrible mess that results from local talent mixed with United States attempts at problem-solving, Afghanistan and Pakistan hate everything about us with psychotic fury and have become dangerous permanent liabilities.
Europe itself despises and distrusts America.
Last, but not least, our Iraq adventure suggests we would do well to step back, keep a low profile, and let the moral paragons step in and do what they have repeatedly told us they can do better.



In short: The Syrian people are no concern of ours, not as far as 'real-politik' is concerned. Moral imperatives are a grey zone ("quagmire") that will get us criticized no matter what we do. And involvement in the Arab zone is a complete waste of time.


The Middle East hates us worse than the Europeans; both of those groups thoroughly deserve each other, and should spend some time together.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================