"Syria - It Takes More Courage to Say There Is Nothing Outsiders Can Do"

[Divernan]

The human misery in Syria is agonising to watch. But intervention-lite is a bad idea for all but the politicians' egos
by Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Thursday 29 August 2013 18.42 EDT

Something-must-be-done wars have a long and wretched history, notably in the Middle East. It was after Ronald Reagan saw television footage of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982 that he ordered his marines into Beirut. He later withdrew them, leaving 265 American dead and Lebanon with a further decade of ghastly civil conflict.

In 1986, the US tried to kill Libya's Colonel Gaddafi over a terrorist attack in Berlin, merely ensuring a further burst of Gaddafi-sponsored terrorism. In Kosovo in 1999, the Nato bombing of Belgrade did nothing to impede ethnic cleansing, indeed it probably expedited it. What tipped the Russians into forcing Serbia to back down was the threat of a western land invasion.

In 1993, President Clinton bombed Baghdad in retaliation for a claimed plot to kill former president George H Bush. This was followed five years later by the further bombing of Iraq in Operation Desert Fox, this time to deflect attention from the Monica Lewinsky affair. Its declared purpose of eliminating weapons of mass destruction was so botched as to require more bombing and the eventual invasion in 2003. Then as now, the zest for aggression seemed driven as much by the military-industrial complex as by legality or evidence.

Overstating the military and political potency of air power – mostly as a "sending of messages" – is as old as air war itself. Tactical bombing is occasionally effective where, as in Libya and initially in Afghanistan, it is in close support of ground forces. When, as now, it is intended as a soft option to ground action, it merely destroys.

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/29/syria-more-courage-to-say-nothing-can-do

[davidpdx]

1. CNN had a report that supposedly the US was asked to supply gas masks

and the medication to counteract the chemical weapons and did not. We aren't the only ones with those supplies, many of the neighboring countries have them. So I guess this is another thing we are getting blamed for.

[Faryn Balyncd]

2. And "intervention lite" has a way of evolving.

[robinlynne]

3. and airstrikes are hardly "lite"....

[liberal_at_heart]

4. I like that phrase "Something must be done wars". That right there is what sucks us in.

[Iliyah]

5. From what I have read here

WHO CARES. And you know what, why should I care. It is not here my home town/city/state/country.

Anyone remember Albania?

[kardonb]

7. gd

it is THEIR civil war , let them settle it . STAY OUT OF THE MIDDL EAST MESSES THEY CREATED THEMSELVES !!!

[Iliyah]

8. Christians went into areas like that

Nuns. Women and no I will NEVER IN MY LIFE TIME FORGET CHILDREN.

[JDPriestly]

12. I don't see how we can support either side in the fight in Syria.

If we could destroy the chemicals, that would be great. But they would just make more.

Assad is not someone we can support. Neither is Al Qaeda.

The other rebel groups may not be large enough to succeed in fighting Assad.

[Mr.Bill]

6. It's possible that if no one else gets involved, it may take some of the fight out of both

sides over there. At least part of what is going on in Syria is being done to draw others in.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. and we never learn. nt

[Amonester]

10. In this day and age of worldwide instant images travelling at lightspeed...

Empire Dominante has to show the opposing violent machos (frothing-at-the-mouth enemies who would like to dream having a shot at replacing it in the future, sorta) their latest 'deterrent' gear, in order for them to rewind their recorders in loops, repeats in slow-motion, re-repeats in ultra slow-motion, and freeze-frames.


Sad.

[Iliyah]

11. But the nuns are still there