Who Wins If America Bombs Syria?

[OneAngryDemocrat]

Who wins if our leaders once again take our nation off to war?

Three distinct groups make up the rebel opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: First and foremost, there's the Free Syrian Army, a self-declared non-sectarian group of early army defectors. Sectarian or not, nothing stopped brigade leader Abu Sakkar from cutting out the heart of one of Bashar's soldiers and ritualistically eating part of it on video.

Secondly, there's The Syrian Liberation Front and the Syrian Islamic Front. Both of these two groups espouse an Islamist ideology and receive backing from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Lastly, there is Jabhat al-Nusra, to whom thousands of Free Syrian army fighters have apparently defected. Most recently, the group has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

Supporting the rebels, it would seem, would almost certainly lead to a despotic theocracy in an area overflowing with despotic theocracies if they were to succeed in overthrowing Syria's dictator.

Then there is the target of the rebels' righteous anger - Syria's dictator, President Bashar al-Assad: Bashar brutally suppressed peaceful protests in early 2011 which called for political reforms and an end to the state of emergency which has been in place since 1963.

This action in turn sparked Syria's current civil war, which has cost over 100,000 lives, according to a UN report. Last week, reports of between 500-1300 deaths due to sarin gas were attributed to forces loyal to the Al-Assad regime.

Clearly, Bashar is not someone Americans should look to for stability in the area.

To be sure, the ongoing humanitarian crisis should be addressed by the global community, but it is our belief that there is no compelling American interest in intervening militarily in the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The only winners in this war will be the world's arms manufacturers and Syria's local grave diggers.

If Syria's neighbors see fit to intervene, let them make that decision in consultation with their own consciences.

But in a concerted effort, local residents of both Illinois' 16th and 17th Congressional Districts - representing both Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals - urge our elected officials to oppose any political position which would jeopardize American neutrality in the ongoing Syrian conflict.

We hear the drumbeat for war - but it is a song we know all too well and reject.


John Galbo, NILB,
Kari Humphrey, Green Party,
Brian Ziemer, Green Party,
Bill Weiss, OCCUPY Rockford,
David J Soll, coordinator for PDA Northern IL,
Carol Ahrens, PDA Northern IL,
Elizabeth Lindquistst, PDA Northern Illinois,
Rick Kurtz, Concerned Citizen,
Rob Roquet, RSOL,
Richard Gallatii, Concerned Citizen,
Tiffany Wiegartz, Concerned Citizen,
Brandon Wiegartz, Concerned Citizen,
Jessica Muelner, Concerned Citizen,
Sandra Elizabeth Lindquist, RSOL,
Janice Glyn-Gallagher, RSOL,
Rob Roquet, RSOL,
Diane Ekern, RSOL,
Karen Herwig Clarke, RSOL,
Joanne Penniston, RSOL,
Paul Engelbrecht, RSOL,
Robin Langenfeld, RSOL,
Rise M. Powers, RSOL,
Mike Schlossman, RSOL,
Brett Guenzler, independent conservative voter,
Allan Showers Local 150 IUOE,
Del Wasso, RSOL, AFSCME Local 817
Peter Thomas, Rockford Tea Party,
Tom Cravatta, Rockford Tea Party,
Tim Alderson, Rockford Tea Party,
Derek Walton, Rockford Tea Party,
Eric Sweet, Rockford Tea Party,
Judi Gouker, Rockford Tea Party,
Fred Gouker, Rockford Tea Party,
Gary Mousel, Rockford Tea Party,
Judy Castrey, Rockford Tea Party,
Joshua merritt, Rockford Tea Party,
Diane Lynn Kennicker, Rockford Tea Party,
Darin Bergland, Rockford Tea Party,
Mary Dagostino, Rockford Tea Party,
Bob Mlsna, Rockford Tea Party,
Paul Yttrie, Rockford Tea Party,
Jerry Olson, Rockford Tea Party,
Mark Edwards, Rockford Tea Party,
David Hale, Coordinator, Rockford Tea Party

[cali]

1. This. Every damned word. k&r. thanks.

[Little Star]

2. "We hear the drumbeat for war - but it is a song we know all too well and reject." Exactly!

[OneAngryDemocrat]

17. :)

[SomethingFishy]

3. Lockheed, Boeing, General Dynamics, Dow Chemical...

MIC.

[AsahinaKimi]

9. Haliburton?

They still probably have a contract with the US Government, I guess.

[gopiscrap]

4. fucking war mongering red necks win

along with big business and the fucking military industrial complex.

[winter is coming]

5. Defense contractors. A new war would be a "get out of sequester free" card. n/t

[avaistheone1]

14. I imagine a new war would be delightful for intelligence contractors too.

The Booz Allen Hamiltons of the world can rejoice.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Iran.....

they won our Iraqi war.

[leveymg]

12. Yes, it certainly further entrenches the position of the hard-liners all around.

The Israeli Right congratulates itself on another step toward unchallenged regional hegemony, the hardliners can now claim with extra authority that the west is simply out to destroy them and not to be reasoned with, and the American center of opinion gets moved further right toward intervention, unless there is some sort of catastrophe, like unforeseen US casualties and/or a deception campaign gets revealed, as it did in Iraq.

[Flora]

7. That's it.

I'm going to gather all my white Christmas lights and spell out NO WAR on my roof!! I'm in a flight path for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and it will be seen!!!

[OneAngryDemocrat]

8. :)

[leveymg]

10. I'll buy another personal Airbus 380 and a Boeing 747, just to celebrate

Thank you, America.


On second thought, make that two Boeings with this order.



(Response to question: Who wins if America bombs Syria?)

[AllyCat]

11. The MIC. Good to see this from my hometown.

Didn't know they had it in them.

[Douglas Carpenter]

13. knr

[Initech]

15. The correct answer is none of the above. The Military Industrial Complex wins.

They get the fat $700 billion needed to bomb the shit out of, er, fight the "war". That's all that matters to them, they couldn't give less of a shit about Assad or the people of Syria.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. The corporate welfare system and all it's recipients. n/t

[TransitJohn]

18. George W. Bush's* legacy wins. Obama will be legitimizing it. eom

n/t

[dairydog91]

19. Raytheon and Al Qaeda.

Raytheon manufactures Tomahawk cruise missiles, at something like $1.5 million a pop.

Al Qaeda benefits because it is currently fighting against Assad.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

20. Bingo!

[bobclark86]

21. Yeah, can you do us a favor?

Either stop quoting Tea Baggers, or at least remove the reference? 10 out of 10 for style, minus several million for, you know, the Tea Baggers.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

24. What Quote Would That Be?

?

[jsr]

22. Raytheon’s stock is at 52-week high

[KurtNYC]

23. The Republicans.

[markiv]

25. anjyone who likes 5 dollar gasoline nt

[darkangel218]

26. Who's to say it wont go beyond that?

Its more than $8 a gallon in Europe already.

[markiv]

28. i didnt nt

[markpkessinger]

27. Brilliantly stated. Thank you! n/t

[HooptieWagon]

29. Assad, MIC, and NeoCons.

Assad wins because he survives an attack from the US. He still has CWs, and a quasi excuse to use them. If he didn't use them in this case, he can claim moral high ground and point to US blunder as an illegal act of war.

MIC wins because every missle fired, every bomb dropped, helps their bottom line.

NeoCons win b/c they can claim their "permanent war" policy is now bi-partisan.

Losers:
Syrian civilians, who are casualties of an escalated war.
Americans, who see their tax dollars disappearing into yet another unwinnable quagmire.
US foreign policy, further discredited.
US military, stretched even further by foreign entanglements.

[Coyotl]

30. The price of oil is ALREADY up and the winners are already cashing in.

Who loses when the price of oil crashes the stock market?

[markiv]

31. In this week of rememberance, how many young people

couldnt name a single non family member of the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam?

Or either of the gulf wars or afganistan?

'go over there and die for a great cause kid, meanwhile we'll forget you before you're even cold'

[markiv]

32. Cold war with Russia is back on, if we go in

and we're lucky if it's just cold

dream come true for the military industrial complex