So what do we hope to accomplish in Syria?

[Humanist_Activist]

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this, if we want to stop Assad from gassing his own people, we would have to destroy his stockpile of chemical weapons and the factories that produce them. Is this even practical, or safe? Or will the U.S. end up killing a lot more civilians through accidentally releasing these chemicals into the atmosphere?

If we can't destroy them safely, then what alternative is there? Toppling his regime, and letting one or several of the battling rebel groups access to those weapons? What guarantee do we have that they won't target civilians with those weapons?

What is the end game here? Also, can we accomplish anything without having our own troops on the ground?

[jsr]

1. No good can come of it

It's as constructive as vandals throwing rocks at moving traffic. Just stay out.

[Humanist_Activist]

4. I agree, ultimately, but what frustrates me is the dishonesty...

look, all sides are bad, and people on this board are basically saying we lob a few missiles and we are done, bull fucking shit. If we were really interested in preventing civilian deaths, we would have a full scale invasion and occupation, siding with NO ONE in the civil war. It would be transparent and imperialistic, and wrong in many ways, but will also, oddly enough, probably lead to the least amount of civilian casualties, while increasing the chances of U.S. soldier casualties.

Again, is this a good outcome? I don't think so.

[kenny blankenship]

2. The final rehabilitation of George W. Bush?

Nixon had to wait til he was practically dead.

[DJ13]

3. An elevation of gas prices just as the summer driving season ends?

[The Straight Story]

5. Armies of Kurdish women are taking on Syria's Islamists -- and winning

RAS AL-AYN, Syria -- "Quick, run, run," shouts Kurdish commander Roshna Akeed, as she orders two young female fighters to move toward a brick wall that represents the front line between Kurdish forces and al Qaeda-linked militants in this northern Syrian town.

Six male Kurdish fighters are already guarding this part of the front. They have removed some of the bricks from the five foot-high wall, and their guns peak through small holes toward the enemy, which is positioned in a hamlet roughly one-third of a mile away.

At the moment when the two female fighters arrive, the shooting erupts. One girl sporting a pony tail runs to the right, sticks her Kalashnikov through a hole in the wall and opens fire. Her male colleagues are also firing now. One man shoots through a hole in the wall while sitting on a white plastic chair. On the back of the chair is written in Arabic: "I love you until death."

As if Syria does not have enough war already, fighting recently broke out in the northeast of the country between Kurdish forces and radical Islamists -- both of whom are no friends of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. In Ras al-Ayn, all the country's problems come together: The town not only sits on the front lines of fighting between Kurds and Arabs, it is also located right on the edge of the Syrian-Turkish border. The Kurdish fighters in Syria are separated from Turkey's border troops -- traditionally the implacable enemies of any form of Kurdish separatism -- by only a 5-centimeter-thick iron gate.

...

"We Kurds are neutral," Aras continues. "We aren't with the regime, and we aren't with the rebels. The regime and the opposition are fighting a sectarian war, which can last decades. We don't want to have anything to do with it. We speak of the Kurdish Spring, not the Arabic Spring."

...

Al Qaeda-linked groups have started kidnapping Kurds in the area. Two of Aras's uncles have been taken after Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate, attacked their family home. During our visit, Aras's mother sat expectantly on the floor in the living room next to a green phone, waiting for the latest information about them. Only five miles down the road, heavy fighting continues between Kurds and Islamists for control over the Syria-Iraq border town of Yarubiya.


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/28/the_civil_war_within_syria_s_civil_war_kurdish_fighters

A possible decades lasting war and chemical weapons have already been used and no reason to think they will not continue to be used by assad when he gets backed into a corner as more and more oppose him.

We don't want to tip the balance of power in the favor of al qaeda, but we don't want more and more slaughtered by chemical warfare either. Now there are 3 factions fighting, there are obviously chemical weapons stored around the country, and if left alone it will become an international nightmare.

[Katashi_itto]

6. So what do we hope to accomplish in Syria? Obviously MIC needs next quarter Profit to be several %

points higher. Otherwise no other reason.