Yet another Syria thread....
Personally, I wish that we could keep our noses out of the Mid-East completely and just let them work everything out by themselves. Unfortunately, it's way, WAY too late for that.
When someone gets in a fight with someone else, it is none of our business. But, when someone bullies someone else and starts fighting unfairly, someone needs to do something. When you're the biggest kid on the block and you look around and everyone is looking at you with that look on their face "DO something!", you start to wonder if you should step in. When they start saying "do something, or I will" then, you really start to wonder if you should step in.
When you have already told one of the fighters "you so and so, and you've crossed a line with me", well, most of the other kids see that as an ultimatum - even if you don't. And you've gotta keep up your rep with the other kids if you want things to keep from getting out of control.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there are 2 other kids staring at you across the fight, that have given their support for the kid you warned. DARING you to do too much.
So, this whole conflict is very complicated for the US. First of all, the President is limited on actions he can take unless he has Congressional approval. Secondly, although a lot of people like to compare this to Iraq - it's completely different. Thirdly, any action is very unpopular with the US people, according to recent polls (as if that makes any difference). Perhaps they are afraid of another Iraq War? That is pure speculation on my part.
Luckily, right now we have an "excuse" to delay action while we wait for the UN Inspectors to confirm what we already know. While we are waiting, we can allow our allies to beat the drum for action against Assad. Perhaps we can. once again, do a "lead from behind" strategy. Let the rest of the world take action, while "the big boys" (us) say "we'll back you up".
a couple of well placed cruise missile strikes, and there will be equal footing. Unfortunately, along with a couple well-placed cruise missile strikes, there will have to be several more cruise missile strikes that will probably kill lots of innocents.
Personally, I would rather see a single drone strike that took out Assad.
But that won't happen. That would be too simple.
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