SHOULD WE BOMB SYRIA?

SHOULD WE BOMB SYRIA?

 

A cranky opinion for

CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY

The following is the opinion of a cranky old man.  Opposing opinions are welcome, wrong but welcome, and please…no name calling.  That means you, you big stupid head!

Well Syria, now you have done it.  You used chemical weapons on your own people and now to teach you a lesson, we have to drop some bombs and some tomahawk missiles on your ass! 

Or do we?

I am clearly not an expert in world diplomacy, and especially not an expert on countries and cultures in the Middle East. 

I do know this; they hate the USA, they have always hated the USA and they will always hate the USA.  Give them money…they hate us.  Give them food…they hate us.  Send them technology…they hate us.

If we bomb Syria, if we help overturn the Assad regime, a new group of people that hate the USA will take over, and a new group of fanatics will murder and torture their own citizens, because they are uncivilized, backward thinking fanatics. 

Everyone in the Middle East? 

No, just the ones that are corrupt and evil and currently capable of rising to power.

Look, we tried to keep communists out of South Viet Nam because our leaders told us if we did not, then all of Asia would fall to the communists like a row of dominos.

Maybe our hearts were in the right place, maybe we thought we were saving the world from communism, but:

We lost 50,000 soldiers with 150,000 wounded.  North Viet Nam lost 1,000,000 lives, many were civilians.  The south suffered 150,000 deaths.  We sprayed Agent Orange to destroy vegetation; it also destroyed as many as 400,000 lives and caused as many as 500,000 birth defects.

The South fell, and yet it did not set off a string of dominoes.  I think maybe we screwed up.  I was young, I bought the domino theory.  I was wrong.

Iraq invaded Kuwait, we stepped in and beat Saddam Husain back…then we left.  That was probably the right thing to do.  Best as I can tell Kuwait still hates us.

We went into Afghanistan to root out Al Quida and the Taliban to send a message that you cannot invade our country with impunity.  Probably the right thing to do, but then we hung around too long.  We thought we could make things better for the people of Afghanistan.  Probably a mistake.  We are in the process of leaving.  Best I can tell they still hate us.

We went into Iraq again and got rid of a despicable tyrant.  We were told they had weapons of mass destruction.   We did not find any…kind of like the domino thing.  I was in favor of this invasion at the time.  I believed the intelligence about those weapons of mass destruction.  I think I was wrong.  Lots of our men were killed.  Lots of our men were wounded.  Best I can tell the people of Iraq still hate us.

We give aid to Egypt every year for the last zillion years.  Millions or billions of dollars every year.  That country seems to be a mess.  Best I can tell they still hate us.

Now we are faced with Syria.  The dictator of Syria is killing his own people.  He is evil.  We are told that it is imperative that he be stopped.  We warned him about using chemical weapons and he ignored us, now he must be punished.  Our intelligence tells us that he used these weapons and if we do not make him pay then other countries (Iran) will be embolden.

I don’t know.  Sounds to me like dominos and WMD’s.  I don’t know who to believe any more, but I am tired of losing brave young men with no apparent benefit to anyone.  Evil people just fill evil voids, and best I can tell the rest of the Middle East will still hate us.

I think we should just try doing nothing for once.   Let these evil people kill each other.  The innocents will be killed whether we bomb Assad or not, and if overthrown, chances are the people who overthrow him are still going to hate us.

We have one friend in the Middle East.  The only real Democracy.  The only country in the Middle East without any oil and yet it has the most successful economy in the region. 

Israel!

I say we draw the line at protecting the interests of Israel.  Support Israel; best I can tell they still like us.

 

The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.